Over a Year Since Release, Giveon’s ‘Anniversary’ Tops Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Chart

The singer's breakout solo hit is the week's most played song on R&B/hip-hop radio, capping a journey more than a year in the making.

Radio rewards continue to accrue for Giveon’s “Heartbreak Anniversary,” which becomes the R&B singer’s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart as it advances from No. 3 to lead the list dated July 17. The track gained 21% in plays in the week ending July 11 – the largest increase among the chart’s 30 songs – to make it the week’s most played song on U.S. monitored R&B/hip-hop radio stations.

“Anniversary,” promoted to radio through Not So Fast / Epic Records, rises to No. 1 in its 14th week on the list and displaces Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” after the latter’s one week on top.

The surge in “Anniversary” plays give the tune a corresponding lift on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which measures the most heard songs at the radio format through audience impression metrics. There, “Anniversary” improves 5-2 after it registered 18.4 million in format audience in the week ending July 11, a 24% upgrade from the prior week. As with its standing on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, the track also claims the biggest percentage increase among all the chart’s titles.

With its rise to No. 2, “Anniversary” mounts its campaign as the fifth challenger to the incumbent chart champ, “Leave the Door Open,” which has dominated for 13 consecutive weeks. In that time, the song has forced four other tracks to stall in the runner-up spot: Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Pick Up Your Feelings,” Lil Tjay’s “Calling My Phone,” featuring 6lack and Moneybagg Yo’s “Time Today.”

The rise caps a sleeper-hit-style rise for “Heartbreak Anniversary,” originally released on Feb. 20, 2020. The track made initial waves on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, where it ranked the anchor slot of No. 30 for two weeks in June-July 2020, but remained quiet until the song began to take off with consumers on streaming platforms earlier this year and prompting debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 in February and the Streaming Songs chart the following year. After the streaming surge, the song received an official music video and a renewed push to radio stations.

Beyond its R&B/hip-hop radio status, “Anniversary” dips 4-6 on Rhythmic Airplay after having peaked at No. 3 two weeks ago. It makes inroads, however, on Pop Airplay, with a 22-21 move amid an 11% boost in plays in the week. High airplay from all three sectors – R&B/hip-hop, rhythmic and pop – combine and help the song reach a new peak of No. 12 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it progresses 16-12 and nets a 1% gain in audience to 37.3 million.