Southeast Asian Boyband SB19 Dethrones BTS On Billboard's Hot Trending Songs Chart

SB19, a multi-awarded Southeast Asian boyband, edged out Korean superstars BTS this week as it was placed No. 1 on Billboard's newly launched Hot Trending Songs chart powered by Twitter.

On Billboard's Hot Trending Songs dated Dec. 11, SB19 and its latest single, "Bazinga," climbed to the top spot, which is seven notches higher than its ranking last week. The track is followed by BTS' "Butter" and "Permission to Dance," which occupy the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Meanwhile, the No. 4 spot is currently occupied by South Korea's fastest-rising K-pop musical act, Stray Kids, for its new track titled, "Christmas EveL."

SB19 is the Philippines' biggest Pinoy pop (P-pop) boyband, which was also the first Southeast Asian act to be nominated at the Billboard Music Awards. The group competed against BTS, Blackpink, Seventeen and Ariana Grande for the Top Social Artist award.

SB19 is a five-piece act comprising Stell, Josh, Pablo, Ken and Justin. The group was formed in 2016 by ShowBT, a Korean entertainment company that branched out in the Philippines.

The boyband was first featured on Billboard's Next Big Sound chart in November 2020. In the same year, the group became the Most Requested Artist of the Year on MTV US Friday Livestream. It also became part of Spotify's RADAR program, which connects artists to fans across the world. Moreover, SB19 placed No. 6 on Billboard's Top Social 50 artists in December 2020.

SB19 is known for producing songs with modern sounds and anthemic lyrics that resonate well with the current generation. Its fresh English track, "Bazinga," talks about cancel culture and the negativity the group encountered at the beginning of its career. The song premiered in October and is close to reaching 3 million views this month.

According to Billboard, the track dominates the Hot Trending Songs chart with 1.5 million Twitter mentions or 67% of the tweets within the tracking week that ran from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2.

Sponsored by Capital One, Billboard's Hot Trending Songs chart tracks global music-related trends and conversations on the microblogging platform. Billboard releases a 20-position version of the chart weekly covering activities from Friday up to Thursday of each week.