Olivia Rodrigo just pushed two distinct tracks to new highs on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart. It’s a rare flex in an industry where labels usually dump all their promotional budget into a single focus track.
“Drop Dead” officially climbed from No. 5 to a new peak at No. 4 this week. Meanwhile, “Stupid Song” jumped four spots to break into the top 30, settling at No. 29. That gives the 23-year-old pop star two simultaneous climbers across standard radio rotations.
Both tracks are pulling heavy airplay off her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which dropped in mid-June. The project debuted with 485,000 equivalent album units. That’s a 60% jump over the first-week numbers for both Sour and GUTS. During release week, Rodrigo managed to debut all 13 album tracks inside the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100.
But Hot 100 success doesn’t always translate directly to sustained radio play. That’s what makes this week’s Pop Airplay movement interesting. “Drop Dead” now stands as her fifth-highest-charting hit on the Pop Airplay ranking. It only trails her No. 1 hits “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U,” alongside “Deja Vu” and “Vampire,” which both stalled at No. 2, according to the latest chart data.
Taylor Swift Blockade and the Shift to Pop Radio
Despite the high streaming numbers, Rodrigo faced a hard ceiling on the Hot 100 last month. Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” and Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” maintained a lock on the top two spots. When you can’t break a streaming blockade at the very top, traditional radio becomes the long-term play.
The label is feeding two singles up the Pop Airplay chart simultaneously. This keeps the album in daily rotation well past its initial hype cycle.
It’s an old-school music tactic. And it clearly still works.