Chart Beat

Joji Scores First Billboard Hot 100 Hit With 'Slow Dancing in the Dark'

3/27/2019

The track also holds in the Hot R&B Songs top 10.

R&B trip-hop singer Joji (full name: George Miller) scores his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated March 30), as his single "Slow Dancing in the Dark" debuts at No. 96.

The track appears on his debut LP Ballads 1, which launched at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200 dated Nov. 10, 2018.

"Dancing" has been building since it debuted on the Hot R&B Songs and Hot R&B R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts on Sept. 29; this week, it matches its No. 7 peak on the former and reaches a new No. 39 high on the latter.

The single, which Joji produced with Chairlift's Patrick Wimberly, debuts on the Hot 100 with 10 million U.S. streams (up 7 percent) and 1,000 downloads sold (up 12 percent) in the tracking week, according to Nielsen Music. Aiding its profile: TikTok users incorporating the song in the viral Microwave Challenge, in which people film themselves slowly spinning on the floor, as if on an invisible plate, ideally timing their rotation's end to the song's "ding" sound effect.

The song's official video has logged over 52 million global views on YouTube since its Sept. 12 premiere.

Joji previously reached Hot R&B Songs with "Yeah Right," the first single from Ballads 1 (No. 21, November). His debut EP In Tongues hit No. 28 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 58 on the Billboard 200 in November 2017.

Plus, his comedy album Pink Season, under the moniker Pink Guy, reached No. 70 on the Billboard 200 in January 2017. Notably, his comedy videos on YouTube interpolated Baauer's "Harlem Shake," which helped popularize the track in 2013 and helped it spend five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

By Xander Zellner

3/27/2019

Joji Scores First Billboard Hot 100 Hit With 'Slow Dancing in the Dark'

The track also holds in the Hot R&B Songs top 10.

The Daily