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: The New York Knicks’ first championship victory in 53 years (and the first World Cup kickoff in four years) sends sports fans to stream their favorite related anthems, while streaming audiences celebrate the late Oliver Tree and an *NSYNC classic gets a viral choreography boost.
Go New York Go: Knicks Championship Sends Streams Skyrocketing for Local Classics
The New York Knicks’ first NBA championship in 53 years sparked citywide celebrations that turned into big gains for multiple New York-related songs over the weekend.
Leading the way in volume: Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” accumulated 1.4 million on-demand chart-eligible streams in the United States on June 13 (the day of the game-five win) and 14 (the day after, also including any late-night streaming as the game ended shortly before midnight), a 30% boost from 1.1 million the prior two days (June 11-12), according to preliminary reports from Luminate.
Other major leaps included gains for Frank Sinatra’s “Theme From New York, New York” (672,000 June 13-14, up 62% from 415,000 June 11-12), Ja Rule’s “New York” featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss (515,000, up 68% from 308,000), Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” (190,000, up 71% from 111,000), Cam’ron’s Jay-Z- and Juelz Santana-featuring “Welcome to New York City” (98,000 up 62% from 60,000) and Jesse Itzler’s “Go Ny Go” (56,000, up 70% from 33,000).
Worth noting as well: comparing each song’s June 14 streams to its listens on April 18, the day the 2026 NBA playoffs began. “Empire State of Mind” pulled 374,000 streams that day, giving the song a 128% to its 852,000 on June 14 alone. The other five tracks experienced similar gains during that span, as low as 126% and as high as a five-digit-percentage-point increase of 18,465%. – KEVIN RUTHERFORD
Oliver Tree’s Catalog Skyrockets in Streams After Singer-Songwriter’s Death
The shocking news came out over the weekend (June 14) that alt-pop hitmaker Oliver Tree was one of six dead in a mid-air crash between two helicopters above the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The singer-songwriter-producer, born Oliver Tree Nickell, had been traveling through South America as part of his World’s First World Tour — which had kicked off on May 30 in Mexico and was supposed to take Tree through 70 total performances spanning all seven continents.
The music world was stunned by Tree’s tragic passing, with many artists expressing their grief over social media — including ex-girlfriend and fellow alt-pop star Melanie Martinez, who called him “a true artist in every way.” Tree’s fans were also understandably overtaken by the loss, taking to streaming services to mourn the 32-year-old’s passing.
The day of his June 14 death, Tree amassed 5.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate — a number which jumped another 135%, to 12.8 million streams, the following day. Between the two days, he accumulated nearly 18.3 million streams, a staggering 1,744% spike from the equivalent two-day period a week before (June 7-8). The leading tracks were his pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits, 2021’s “Life Goes On” (up 1,919% to 3.2 million streams) and 2022’s “Miss You” with Robin Schulz (up 1,756% to 2.3 million), as well as his 2018 breakout single “Alien Boy” (up 1,963% to 1.7 million). – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
World Cup Anthems Soar Following Tournament Kickoff
Unless you’re in New York or Carolina still basking in the Knicks’ or Hurricanes’ respective NBA and NHL championship victories, you’re probably somewhere currently experiencing some degree of World Cup fever. The global FIFA tournament kicked off on Thursday (June 11), with games taking place across Canada, Mexico and the United States for both the past week and the next month-plus to come.
Before that, though, a number of artists performed as part of the tournament’s official countdown concerts, taking place across World Cup sites on Wednesday (June 10). Many of the artists involved played World Cup-affiliated songs, with the songs experiencing major gains as a result.
Shakira & Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai,” the official song of the tournament, saw some of the biggest hikes after the duo closed the Mexico opening ceremonies with the anthem, racking up over 3.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams over the three days following the concert (June 11-13) — a 74% spike from the equivalent period the week before (June 4-6), according to Luminate. Lisa, Anitta and Rema also saw a 43% gain (to 365,000 streams) for their song “Goals” over the same period, following their joint performance at the U.S. opening ceremonies.
Meanwhile, a handful of older World Cup songs were not performed at the event, but are still earning streaming spikes due to being undying tournament anthems. A pair of 2010 classics, Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” and K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” both experienced big jumps, with the former up 101% to 2.2 million streams and the latter up 124% to 630,000 over the same timespan. And Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez just can’t stop trending up this past month, with their 2014 collab “We Are One (Ola Ola)” rising 251% to 1.1 million streams.
And despite not being an official World Cup song — or really having anything to do with futból at all — Katy Perry’s 143 deep cut “Wonder” saw some of the greatest gains of the weekend. After Perry performed alongside 10-year-old Norwegian singer Tius Luka to close the U.S. opening ceremonies, the song climbed a whopping 4,009% over the same period, from just 4,000 streams to over 169,000 streams. – AU
The Brotherhood Dance Crew Revives *NSYNC’s “I Want You Back” With Viral Choreography
The Brotherhood dance crew strikes again!
Led by choreographer Scott Forsyth and hailing from Canada, the frequently viral dance team score another TikTok dance trend with moves lifted from its first-place-winning performance at the International Dance League’s 2026 Vancouver Series (May 23).
The crew delivered a pitch-perfect, boy band-inspired set built around *NSYNC’s “I Want You Back,” and the infectious choreography has spurred users to revisit the 1997 hit song on streaming. According to Luminate, “I Want You Back” earned 379,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of The Brotherhood’s IDL victory (May 22-28). Once clips from their set began to make the rounds on TikTok the following week (May 29-June 4), that figure jumped 44% to over 546,000 official streams. A week later (June 5-11), “Want” leapt a further 25%, collecting over 687,000 official streams, good for a two-week increase of 81%.
While The Brotherhood’s official TikTok account houses a clip of the winning performance with just under one million views, Forsyth (@/scott4syth) boasts two rehearsal “Want You Back” clips with over 1.2 million views each. The official “I Want You Back” TikTok sound now plays in nearly 50,000 clips, with a large portion of them finding everyday users attempting the choreography. Notably, The Brotherhood helped Lecrae & 1K Phew’s “Move” land in this column thanks to their 2025 IDL Vancouver performance.
With the official *NSYNC TikTok account proclaiming, “You guys win” in the comment section of The Brotherhoood’s post, expect the “I Want You Back” momentum to continue building across socials. — KYLE DENIS
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