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: Magnus Ferrell scores a breakout hit, Latto and Doja Cat get some added momentum from a much-discussed music video — and yes, one more World Cup-related song.
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Major Podcast Looks Help Boost Magnus Ferrell’s Breakthrough Single ‘Asleep Talking‘
It seems that a new successor to the lineage of Robin Thicke/Justin Timberlake-esque blue-eyed soul has emerged — and he happens to be the son of Emmy-winning comedy icon Will Ferrell.
Magnus Ferrell released “Asleep Talking” — a soulful midtempo number that recalls the laid-back groove of jazz-infused classics like Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do for Love” — in the spring (April 24), but a recent wave of social media love via key podcast mentions have helped the track gain new momentum this summer. On July 1, the senior Ferrell stopped by Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s IMO podcast, where he proudly played a snippet of his son’s buzzy track.
By July 23, “Asleep Talking” earned a favorable mention from The Morning Shift Show, which boasts over 1.6 million followers on TikTok alone. In the interim, Magnus Ferrell has been cranking out social media content promoting the song — including clips of him reacting to NBC News picking up the connection between him and his father — while launching his Blue Note Los Angeles residency on July 21.
According to Luminate, “Asleep” earned just 67,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of July 18-21. Over the next four days (July 22-25), “Asleep” vaulted a whopping 892% to over 670,000 official on-demand streams.
With its No. 24 debut on the Aug. 1-dated Digital Song Sales chart, “Asleep” helps Magnus officially join his father as a Billboard-charting artist. Back in 2020, “Husavik,” Will Ferrell’s song from his Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, peaked at No. 16 on the same ranking. — KYLE DENIS
Glamorous Music Video Lifts Latto & Doja Cat’s ‘Okayyy’
Last week (July 21), Latto and Doja Cat dropped their sexy “Okayyy” music video — and it’s already having an impact on the song’s streaming success.
Taken from Latto’s new Big Mama LP, “Okayyy” earned over 823,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in the five-day period preceding the music video (July 16-20), according to Lumiante. In the five-day period following the video’s release (July 21-25), that number leapt 308% to over 3.36 million streams. On YouTube, the “Okayyy” music video has surpassed 4.7 million views in just over a week, and the official TikTok sound plays in over 237,000 posts. Drawing praise for their complementary fashion and glam — and sound critique for how the video’s almost-exclusive use of dark-skinned black men as mute background props plays into colorist tropes — the “Okayyy” video has been virtually inescapable across social media.
Latto hasn’t landed a Billboard Hot 100 entry from Big Mama since last summer’s “Somebody” (No. 94), but “Okayyy” could change that should the song maintain its post-music video momentum. Notably, on Oct. 1, Latto will join Doja’s Tour Ma Vie World Tour as the special guest for the trek’s North American leg. — K.D.
Don Miguel’s 2020 Banger Takes Off Again After Yamal World Cup Celebration
“Yamal is the official owner of this song,” reads one comment on the YouTube page for Don Miguel’s “Y Qué Fue?” That may be going a little far — the Dominican dembow artist’s 2020 single had already racked up hundreds of millions of plays on both YouTube and Spotify before Spain took home the gold trophy at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But the song has certainly gone to a new level in the past week and a half, following the country’s 21-year-old superstar using the song as the soundtrack to his introduction at the team’s championship celebration at the Plaza de Cibeles last Monday (July 20).
“Y Qué Fue?” (in English: “And what happened?”) went newly viral after Lamine Yamal’s entrance to the hard-hitting dance song, complete with a little dance shuffle that helped it catch on social media. (Don Miguelo also shared video of the intro on Instagram.) Consequently, the song has exploded on streaming, racking up nearly 1.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the tracking week ending July 23, according to Luminate — a 159% gain over the prior week. It even debuted on both the Global 200 (No. 148) and the Hot Latin Songs chart (No. 15) dated Aug. 1, six years after its initial release.
Will the streaming bumps from this World Cup ever stop? Not if the winning country has anything to say about it. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
