ArianaGrande ‘s ‘Hate That I Made You Love Me ‘ has climbed back into the top of the Billboard Hot 100 after tumbling from No. 8 to No. 2 in a week that saw the release of her new album Petal. The move highlights the staying power of the opening track and the revitalising effect of its new clip. It first entered in late May, and didn’t take long to dominate. It entered at No. 1 on the Hot 100, giving the singer her tenth chart-topper and eighth No. 1 debut in her career.
Written and co-produced by her frequent songwriting and producing partners Max Martin and Ilya, the song boasts a subtle production and an emotional weight that struck a chord with audiences from the start. Its high first week streams, airplay and sales helped it debut atop both the Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200. The original video for the song, directed by Christian Breslauer and starring actor Justin Long quickly after release, provided a cinematic image for the song with narrative tension that fans returned to repeatedly. As Petal hit in late July, the single’s excitement combined with fans’ attention on the video kept boosting “Hate That I Made You Love Me” up the charts. In the week immediately after the album’s release, the single jumped six places to No. 2, while the single “Petal” debuted at No. 4.
All twelve songs from the album simultaneously appeared in the top 40 of the Hot 100, a first for an artist in the modern history of the list. That sort of full-album presence is in itself uncommon; it demonstrates the strength of her audience’s attachment.Grande has been cultivating her signature mix of vocally-tricky perfection, glass-half-empty intimacy, glossy production for more than ten years nowand with Petalbrevity she carries on; its Billboard Hot 100 charting proves the uncanny circle of influence that her visual artistry’s yields can still contain.52Streams increase, radio stays stable, the clip remains an occasional A-side appointment for viewers rediscovering the object-of-song in all it conveys.
The No. 2 peak this time around only just leans against another week at No. 1, kept from the summit by a competing track that reigned.
Though, this is a moment of much importance. It’s has only been achieved by a handful of artists in the history of the chart, when a single was propelled into the top two months after its initial chart run, and have concurrently accounted for the rest of the top 40 with fresh releases. Grande is now in the company of a limited amount of female artists in Hot 100 history to have more than one hundred entries in the Hot 100 to date, and such names include Swift, Minaj, and Knowles. What jumps out is how consistent she is with the bond she is able to have with her audience.
The video didn’t have to get a mass re-release or get pushed out with a ton of new promotion to help bring about the spike. Its existing form coupled with the curiosity that follows a high profile album release was enough to bring about the song again. That kind of endurance is impressive in an age where short attention spans seem to be the norm.
