Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending up newsletter, where we dig deeper into the songs, artists, curiosities, and trends that have captured the music industry’s attention. Some came out of nowhere, others took months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

This week: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ new duet continues to grow, Taylor Swift’s second Tortured poets single finds a spot on the radio and Gigi Perez could be the next singer-songwriter on the verge of breaking through to the general public.

“Die With a Smile” Wants to Stay in the Top 10 of the Hot 100

A duet between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars was bound to generate a lot of interest upon release, and “Die With a Smile,” the anthemic pop-rock collaboration that dropped Friday (August 16), is hoping to capitalize on that star power for a splashy debut in the upper echelons of the Hot 100. And while that may have seemed like a longshot based on the duet’s first-day numbers, it’s grown over the course of its first week — and now a chart-topping debut may be within reach.

After drawing 2.78 million U.S. on-demand audio streams on its opening day, according to Luminate, “Smile” hovered around that daily streaming record heading into the weekend. However, the song saw a notable streaming surge on Monday (August 19), with 3.52 million streams — a 34% increase from the previous day. And the song just keeps on climbing — by Wednesday’s release, the track had reached the top of both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Apple Music real-time charts. (The song has also fared extremely well in digital song sales, selling over 14,000 copies in its first four days of release, having spent much of its time atop the iTunes chart.)

Perhaps more pop fans embraced the song as the workweek began, or it’s possible TikTok users got their teeth into the hooks. Either way, “Smile” could still score a top 10 on Mars and Gaga’s long list early next week. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

How big can Taylor Swift’s hit ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ become?

On Tuesday night (August 20), Taylor Swift wrapped up a five-date tour at Britain’s Wembley Stadium, and the European leg of the Eras tour, by unveiling a new music video for “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” featuring behind-the-scenes clips from the mega-selling tour. The anthem about shining in the spotlight amid personal turmoil can be heard on The Tormented Poets Departmentwhich this week marks its 15th frame at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

And unlike “Fortnight,” the album’s lead single featuring Post Malone, which debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, “Broken Heart” has slowly been climbing the charts again, becoming a multi-platform hit.

Read more about Taylor Swift’s growing success with “Broken Heart” here.

“Sailor Song” Sets Course To Virality For Singer/Songwriter Gigi Perez

New Jersey-born, Florida-raised Gigi Perez achieved some streaming success earlier in the 2020s with the ballad “Sometimes (Backwood),” which has amassed nine figures in streams on Spotify. But the singer-songwriter, whose sound is reminiscent of ‘00s alt-folk favorites like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, appears to be headed for new levels of virality with her TikTok-approved new love song, “Sailor Song.”

The long-teased track has received critical acclaim and even some comparisons to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” for its passionate delivery and lyrics of queer love and longing — while also drawing some backlash from religious TikTokers who took issue with the song’s “I don’t believe in God/ But I believe that you’re my savior” chorus lyric. Perez responded to the controversy, and users calling for her to change or remove the lyric, with a TikTok of her own on Monday (Aug. 19), explaining in a caption that changing the lyric was “never up for discussion… My songwriting is not a democracy and that goes for any artist’s work.”

The discourse surrounding “Sailor Song” has only contributed to its overall consumption, however. Though it debuted with 3.9 million official U.S. on-demand streams in the tracking week ending Aug. 1, according to Luminate — already a huge number for a new song from an artist without an extensive chart history — that number has jumped to 4.6 million two weeks later, a 23% gain. The song also climbs from No. 18 to No. 12 on Hot Rock Songs this week, one of the chart’s biggest climbs. – ANDREW ONDERBERGER