Dua Lipa’s ‘Houdini’ and ‘Training Season’ Dominate Global Radio in 2024

Dua Lipa is the most-played artist of 2024 so far on radio stations worldwide. Her songs “Houdini” and “Training Season” have become two of the biggest hits of the year. This data comes from Apple Music’s Shazam radio charts, which track thousands of stations globally. Despite having fewer Billboard chart-toppers compared to her previous album, Lipa’s recent work remains a favorite on radio.

Lipa’s “Houdini,” released in November as the lead single from her latest album, “Radical Optimism,” has received the most radio spins worldwide from January 1 to June 24, 2024. Notably, she is the only artist to have multiple songs in the top 10, with “Training Season” ranking as the sixth most-played song.

However, despite this global radio success, her singles had more modest showings on the Billboard Hot 100. “Houdini” peaked at No. 11, and “Training Season” reached No. 27. Both songs fared better internationally, becoming top 10 hits in several markets.

The next three most-played songs on global radio this year are breakout hits for young artists. Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” Tate McRae’s “greedy,” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” each became the biggest hits of their careers. Beyoncé rounds out the top five with “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM,” her first single from the album “Cowboy Carter,” which she released on Super Bowl Sunday.

Here are the top 10 songs on global radio between January 1 and June 24:

1. Dua Lipa – “Houdini”
2. Teddy Swims – “Lose Control”
3. Tate McRae – “greedy”
4. Benson Boone – “Beautiful Things”
5. Beyoncé – “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”
6. Dua Lipa – “Training Season”
7. Taylor Swift – “Cruel Summer”
8. Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”
9. Kygo & Ava Max – “Whatever”
10. Jack Harlow – “Lovin On Me”

The top five artists on global radio for the same period are:

1. Dua Lipa
2. David Guetta
3. Taylor Swift
4. Ed Sheeran
5. The Weeknd

One surprising detail is that some of Lipa’s major competitors released their singles and albums later in the first half of the year. This timing allowed Lipa to dominate the radio charts. Taylor Swift, for instance, released “The Tortured Poets Department” just two weeks before “Radical Optimism” but didn’t release any singles ahead of the album launch. Her lead single “Fortnight,” released on April 19, had less time to gain radio traction than “Houdini,” which has been playing since the start of the year. Other songs from artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, and Morgan Wallen are also starting to gain momentum on radio.

Lipa’s “Radical Optimism” received a more muted response compared to her 2020 album, “Future Nostalgia.” The earlier album produced several hit singles, including “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating,” which both reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Levitating” is now certified diamond, and “Don’t Start Now” is four-times platinum. Three other songs from “Future Nostalgia” are also platinum-certified.

“Radical Optimism” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, which was higher than the No. 3 peak of “Future Nostalgia.” However, it spent just one week in the top 10 and currently sits at No. 92 in its seventh week. “Future Nostalgia” enjoyed a much longer stint, staying in the top 10 for over a year. Critically, “Future Nostalgia” was more acclaimed, winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and earning a Metacritic score of 88 out of 100, while “Radical Optimism” scored 73.

Despite its moderate success in the U.S., “Radical Optimism” did better abroad. In her native UK, all three singles from the album, “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion,” reached the top 10. The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK albums chart, marking Lipa’s first album to do so. It moved 46,300 units in its first week, the best debut for a British female artist since Adele’s “30” in 2021.

Shazam is an app that identifies songs by matching the audio against its database. The company publishes weekly charts of the most Shazamed songs globally. In May, Shazam launched a radio spins chart that uses its music recognition technology to identify the most-played songs across more than 40,000 stations from over 200 countries. Apple has owned Shazam, which also operates the popular streaming service Apple Music, since 2018.

Source: Forbes, Apple Music, Shazam