Lorde’s Yellow Flicker Beat makes Billboard chart history
New Zealand artist Lorde has made Billboard chart history with her latest single Yellow Flicker Beat achieving the highest entrance on the Alternative Songs chart in 19 years.
The lead track from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 soundtrack, which she curated, matches an entry in March 1995 from Juliana Hatfield with her single Universal Heart-Beat. Before that, in February 1995, PJ Harvey achieved a higher rank when her track Down By the Water debuted at #15.
Yellow Flicker Beat also debuted on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs chart at #19 and its Rock Airplay chart at #15, based on 5.2 million in first-week audience (Nielsen BDS). The audio for the track has been streamed almost 3.7 million times on YouTube.
According to Billboard’s records, Lorde’s breakout track Royals spent seven weeks at #2 on its Alternative Songs chart last year and its follow-up Team hit #2 in February.
Locally, Yellow Flicker Beat was released last week, debuting at #52 on the ARIA Singles chart; it was also the second most added song to radio last week.
This week Lorde was nominated in the Best International Artist category for her debut LP Pure Heroine. She’s up against releases from Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Coldplay and Pharell among others.