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Chart Beat

Ed Sheeran Is First Artist to Debut at Nos. 1 & 2 on Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks Chart

By Xander Zellner
1/12/2017
By Xander Zellner
1/12/2017
Ed Sheeran performs at Rumsey Playfield on May 29, 2015 in New York City.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Ed Sheeran performs at Rumsey Playfield on May 29, 2015 in New York City.

Ed Sheeran has had himself quite the week. His two newest tracks, "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill," explode with Nos. 1 and 2 debuts, respectively, on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart (dated Jan. 21), making him the first artist to launch two songs in the top two spots simultaneously.

Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks (which began in June 2014) is a weekly ranking of the most shared and/or mentioned songs on Twitter in the U.S., ranked by the volume of shares over a seven-day period (Monday to Sunday). The newest chart's tracking week ended Jan. 8.

"Shape" and "Castle" make their lofty debuts after Sheeran had teased the tracks leading up to their dual premieres Jan. 6. The pop singer-songwriter first announced the songs on New Year's Day, when he posted a video of himself holding a sign reading, "New Music Coming Friday!!" on his social accounts. The first 30 seconds of "Shape" was also teased in a Snapchat filter the day before it arrived in full.

Artist Mentioned

Ed Sheeran

Sheeran also sees sizable growth on Twitter thanks to his new music. He drew 634,000 Twitter reactions in the tracking week, a 29,000 percent jump, according to Next Big Sound. His Twitter followers also vaulted 600 percent to 16.8 million. The activity also helps him re-enter the Social 50 chart at No. 5, a new high.

"Shape" and "Castle" are from Sheeran's third studio album, ÷ (pronounced "Divide"), due March 3.

(Notably, while Sheeran is the first to debut two songs at Nos. 1 and 2, artists have simultaneously held the top two spots of Top Tracks in the past, most recently on the Jan. 7-dated chart, on which Shawn Mendes re-entered on top with "Ruin" and debuted at No. 2 with "Bad Reputation.")

While Sheeran doubles up at Nos. 1 and 2 on Top Tracks, Ariana Grande ranks at Nos. 3 and 4, with "Everyday," a re-entry featuring Future, and "Touch It," the latter of which debuts after she tweeted Jan. 5 about an orchestral version of the song featured in a Final Fantasy video game announcement on YouTube. "Touch It" is the eighth song from Grande's third studio album Dangerous Woman to appear on Top Tracks. (The album sports 11 songs.)

As for "Everyday," Grande tweeted Jan. 3 that the song will be her next single serviced to pop and rhythmic radio.

Meanwhile, Jeremih and Chance the Rapper score a No. 10 debut on Top Tracks with "I Shoulda Left You," featuring Lud Foe. The two lead rappers (and Chicago natives) premiered the song Dec. 22 as part of Merry Christmas Lil' Mama, a surprise holiday mixtape released on SoundCloud (and billed as by Jeremih & Chance).

The nine-song mixtape is Chance the Rapper's first release since Coloring Book, which debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in June, and Jeremih's first since Late Nights in Europe, which he released independently in July.

The two artists had previously collaborated on "Summer Friends," a track from Chance's Coloring Book, featuring Jeremih and Francis and the Lights.

By Xander Zellner
1/12/2017

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