Ariana Grande has achieved one of those rare feats that is not so common in pop, or less than we would like: that the second single from an album surpasses the first in success.
‘We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)’ is officially the most successful single from ‘Eternal Sunshine’, Ariana Grande’s latest album, ahead of the lead single, ‘Yes, And?’. ‘We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)’, a global success since its release, has already surpassed 370 million views on Spotify, and has overtaken ‘Yes, And?’ by 10 million. even though ‘yes, and?’ It was published two months earlier. Also, ‘yes, and?’ It was promoted with several remixes – one of them with Mariah Carey – and with the required “sped up” and derivative versions. ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ does not have remixes of any kind, it has not even been released as a “single” on Spotify, it has simply been added to the relevant playlists, its video clip has been released, and has started running.
In the United States, both ‘yes, and?’ and ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ have both made debuts at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. However, while ‘yes, and?’ It is already completely off the chart, unlike, for example, Dua Lipa’s ‘Houdini’, which was released even before 2024; ‘We can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ has remained at number 8… until the arrival of Hurricane Taylor Swift, which has taken the top 14 positions on the list. An exceptional situation from which ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ will surely overcome. In the United Kingdom, ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ holds on at number 11 on its official chart. ‘Si y?’ It continues to decline and, saluting from position 95, will leave the table in a few days.
Broadening the view on a global scale, the scenario is the same: ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ remains at 9 on Spotify globally, while ‘yes, and?’ greets already practically exhausted from 162. Curiously, the ‘intro’ of his album is currently doing better numbers than the lead single, since ‘intro (end of the world)’ occupies position 60 in the aforementioned chart. This data is indicative that people are still listening to ‘eternal sunshine’ two months after its release, and in fact 8 of Ariana’s 10 most popular songs on Spotify right now belong to ‘eternal sunshine’.
Dramatically, in Spain the scenario is the opposite: no Ariana Grande song currently appears on the Promusicae list, although ‘eternal sunshine’ does hold out in the top 20 of the most popular albums (‘yes, and’ just came out of the list of most played songs).
Although the feat of surpassing the success of the first with a second or even a third single is not so atypical for Ariana. In fact, it has been common in her career. She passed him with ‘Break Free’, the second single from ‘My Everything’ (2014); with ‘Into You’, the second single from ‘Dangerous Woman’ (2016); and with ‘7 rings’, the second single from ‘thank u, next’ (2019). Improbably, some of these second singles were even overtaken by the third on certain occasions: ‘Side to Side’ with Nicki Minaj was ultimately ‘Dangerous Woman’s’ biggest hit and ‘One Last Time’ was ‘Dangerous Woman’s’ biggest hit. My Everything’ after its relaunch.
Given this scenario, it is worth wondering how long it will take Ariana to release a third official single from ‘eternal sunshine’ and, above all, which one she will opt for: the choice of ‘the boy is mine’, viral since its premiere, seems safe, well, although ‘intro (end of the world’) also surpasses it in listens, after all it is not a “song” per se.
