Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” struts its way to No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts, dated Sept. 16.
It also marks the second song from the Barbie: The Album soundtrack to top a radio airplay tally.
On Pop Airplay, Lipa lands her fifth No. 1, following “Levitating,” which led for three weeks beginning in June 2021; “Break My Heart” (one week, August 2020); “Don’t Start Now” (three weeks, starting in February 2020); and “New Rules” (four weeks, February 2018).
On Adult Pop Airplay, Lipa leads with her fourth title, following “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” with Elton John (one week, March 2022); “Levitating” (seven weeks, beginning in June 2021); and “Don’t Start Now” (three weeks, starting in April 2020).
The Pop Airplay chart reflects songs’ weekly plays, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on around 150 U.S. mainstream top 40 radio stations. Adult Pop Airplay spotlights airplay on around 80 adult top 40 stations.
Meanwhile, “Dance the Night” is the second song from Barbie to hit No. 1 on a radio ranking; Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie Word,” with Aqua, rules Rhythmic Airplay for a fourth week.
Additionally, the movie and soundtrack’s “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish ranks at new highs of No. 20 on Alternative Airplay and No. 24 on Pop Airplay.
“The fact that [Barbie director and co-writer] Greta [Gerwig] saw this film almost as a musical, and was so involved with the soundtrack, was an absolutely critical factor in how and why the music [has] worked so well,” Kevin Weaver, Atlantic Records West Coast president and Barbie soundtrack co-producer, recently told Billboard. (Atlantic and Warner Records are co-promoting “Dance the Night” to radio.)
Since its release (through Aug. 31), “Dance the Night” has drawn 667 million in all-format radio audience and 127 million official on-demand streams and sold 56,000 downloads in the U.S., according to Luminate.
Barbie, meanwhile, leads all 2023 movie releases with a domestic haul north of $600 million and more than $1.38 billion worldwide, among other achievements.
