Justin Bieber Cruises ‘Yukon’ to First Radio No. 1 in Three Years

Justin Bieber’s musical return yields his first No. 1 on a Billboard radio chart in three years, as “Yukon” crowns the Rhythmic Airplay list dated Sept. 13. The song, from the superstar’s Swag album, was the most-played song on panel-contributing rhythm radio stations in the tracking week of Aug. 29-Sept. 4, according to Luminate.

Bieber last claimed a new radio No. 1 in 2022, when “Ghost” entered the summit of the Pop Airplay chart that February and Adult Pop Airplay the following month.

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“Yukon,” released and promoted through JRC/ILH/Def Jam/REPUBLIC, surges from No. 5 despite remaining essentially even in plays for the tracking window. The song’s position jump traces to declines for all four songs that ranked above it last week. Drake’s “What Did I Miss?,” last week’s champ, slides to No. 3 (down 11% in plays), as Chris Brown’s “Holy Blindfold” retreats 2-5 (down 13%) and Leon Thomas’ “Mutt” backtracks 3-4 (down 9%). BigXthaPlug’s “All the Way,” featuring Bailey Zimmerman, improves 4-2 in ranking, but is likewise down in plays, by 4%.

Thus, as “Yukon” emerges from the pack in first place, Bieber collects his sixth Rhythmic Airplay No. 1. Here’s a review of the chart toppers:

Song Title, Artist (if other than Justin Bieber), Weeks at No. 1, Date Reached No. 1
“As Long as You Love Me,” feat. Big Sean; three, Oct. 20, 2012
“Sorry,” two, Jan. 23, 2016
“I’m the One,” DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne; four, Jan. 1, 2017
“No Brainer,” DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper & Quavo; one, Oct. 6, 2018
“Peaches,” feat. Daniel Caesar & GIVĒON; six, May 8, 2021
“Yukon,” one (to date), Sept. 13, 2015

Elsewhere, “Yukon” breaks into the top 20 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart with a 23-19 jump, sparked by a 2% increase in plays at the format during the tracking week. It similarly improves 22-21 on the audience-based R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, where it reached 3.7 million audience impressions, a 3% gain from its prior week’s count.

Growth in the rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop sectors push “Yukon” 47-41 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it added 4% in audience, to 13.5 million across all formats for the week.

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