Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Ace Frehley’s death sends fans to his solo and KISS catalogs, Karol G’s sexy soundtrack becomes a new viral hit and an unkillable ’90s karaoke staple still has it goin’ on.
Spaceman Rides Again: KISS, Solo Ace Frehley Catalogs Way Up in Streams & Sales
The rock world was shaken by the sad news last Thursday (Oct. 16) that Ace Frehley, lead guitarist and occasional singer for rock legends KISS, had died at age 74 — following a brain bleed, which came as a result of a fall in his home studio, and led to him being put on (and ultimately taken off) life support. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, also known as “The Spaceman” or “Space Ace,” was considered one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, and one of the great six-string showmen of all time.
Following his death, there was an outpouring of grief and love for Frehley, and a surge of renewed streaming interest. In the three days after Frehley’s passing (Oct. 17-19), the KISS back catalog racked up nearly 6.8 official on-demand U.S. streams — a gain of 187% from the three-day period before it (Oct. 13-15), according to Luminate — while also selling nearly 4,500 digital songs, a 1,664% rise from the previous period.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest of those song gains came courtesy of the 1978 Billboard Hot 100 No. 13 hit “New York Groove.” (Though credited on the chart to Frehley solo, the song is credited to the full KISS in Luminate — as its self-titled parent album was technically a band release, with all four of the group’s members famously releasing solo efforts under the KISS umbrella on the same day.) “Groove” amassed 318,000 streams and sold over 700 copies over that period, gains of 530% and 4,217%, respectively.
And while apart from “Groove,” Frehley never had a tremendously prolific solo chart profile, fans also headed back to his solo stuff after his passing. The guitar great’s solo catalog collected 586,000 streams and nearly 800 songs sold over that period, gains of 2,940% and 5,140%, respectively. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Karol G’s Steamy ‘Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show’ Performance Boosts ‘Ivonny Bonita’
Karol G got her wings at the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and so did “Ivonny Bonita,” a song from her Tropicoqueta album.
The Latin superstar performed the opening track from her latest LP, released in June, at the Oct. 15 show, and her sultry performance quickly gained traction across social media. The song had already been a popular sound on TikTok amongst the edit community, but the VSFS performance kicked its streaming increases into high gear. Across the first four days of last tracking week (Oct. 10-13), preceding the fashion show, “Ivonny Bonita” earned over 366,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Across the first four days of this tracking week (Oct. 17-20) following the fashion show, the track jumped over 204% in streaming activity to 1.11 million official streams. The official YouTube upload of Karol’s performance has earned over 1.1 million hits in four days.
Notably, Karol G is also the leading female nominee at the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards (10), which will air live via Telemundo on Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. ET from Miami, Fla., coinciding with Latin Music Week. — KYLE DENIS
4 Non Blondes: 33 Years and Still Going ‘Up’
As anyone who’s spent enough time around a jukebox or karaoke machine knows, there are few ’90s hits more undying than 4 Non Blondes‘ 1992 alt-rock power ballad “What’s Up?” The song, a No. 14 Hot 100 hit in 1993, has delighted and tormented pop and rock fans in nearly equal measure for over 30 years now — and in 2025, the song seems to somehow have just as much cultural currency as ever.
In September, “What’s Up?” was heavily interpolated by guest singer Lizzo for the hook and quasi-bridge to Cardi B’s Am I the Drama? song “What’s Goin On” — the title, of course, that people have been incorrectly (albeit understandably) calling the original for the entire time it’s been popular. Then, in recent weeks, the song has exploded on TikTok as part of a mashup with Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap,” going so viral that SNL cast member Marcello Hernandez and recent host and musical guest Sabrina Carpenter even filmed a short promotional video to it before last Saturday’s episode.
All this has resulted in the song — which already regularly pulls over two million official on-demand U.S. streams a week — rising even further in recent weeks. Last tracking week (Oct. 10-16), it garnered 2.6 million streams, a gain of 11% from the week before. And this tracking week, it’s gotten off to an even hotter start, racking up 901,000 streams across its first two days (Oct. 17-18), up 20% from the same period last week. – AU
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