Normani scores her first appearance on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart as “Wild Side,” featuring Cardi B, debuts at No. 4 on the chart dated July 31. The single, released July 16 via Keep Cool and RCA Records, starts as the genre’s best-selling song of the week and second in the streaming race.
For featured act Cardi B, “Wild Side” secures the rapper’s 14th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and second of 2021, after the four-week champ “Up” in February-March.
Elsewhere, the collaboration begins at No. 3 on the Hot R&B Songs chart.
“Wild Side” opens with 17,000 downloads sold in the U.S. in the week ending July 22, according to MRC Data. The figure sparks a No. 1 entrance on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart, where it becomes Normani’s first leader and third career showing. Cardi B gets her eighth No. 1, tying Kanye West for the eighth-best sum among all artists. Drake leads all contestants with 22 champs.
In the streaming sector, “Wild Side” posts 15.5 million U.S. streams in its debut week, prompting a No. 2 start on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart. It also marks Normani’s maiden entry there, while Cardi B lands her sixth consecutive top 10 on the list, following a featured turn on DJ Khaled’s “Wish Wish” (No. 7, 2019), “Press” (No. 8, 2019), “Rodeo,” with Lil Nas X (No. 10), “WAP,” featuring Megan Thee Stallion (11 weeks at No. 1, 2020) and “Up” (two weeks at No. 1, 2021).
Radio airplay, meanwhile, warms up on the pop, rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop radio formats. “Wild Side” breaks onto the Pop Airplay list at No. 37 for Normani’s fourth career appearance, after “Love Lies,” with Khalid (two weeks at No. 1, 2018), “Dancing With a Stranger,” with Sam Smith (No. 2, 2019) and “Motivation” (No. 15, 2019). On Rhythmic Airplay, the single enters at No. 33, while it hovers just below the cutoff for Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.
“Wild Side,” though, has roots in a modern R&B classic. The track interpolates Aaliyah’s “One in a Million,” which ruled the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list for eight weeks in 1996-97, the late singer’s longest-running No. 1 of her career.
Across songs of all genres, “Wild Side” begins as the week’s fifth-best-selling title and arrives at No. 7 on Streaming Songs. The metrics help the song debut at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the lattermost chart, the start gives Normani her highest debut among four solo tracks. As a member of Fifth Harmony, she also accrued eight Hot 100 hits between 2013 and 2017.
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