Olivia Rodrigo reaches the top spot on Billboard’s Alternative Digital Song Sales chart for the first time with “The Cure” after several near-misses. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 25: Olivia Rodrigo attends the Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix’s “Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour”at NYA EAST on October 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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Olivia Rodrigo’s music has been classified by Billboard under different genre labels at different points in her career. Even though her first two albums, Sour and Guts, are sonically very similar, her first project apparently leaned more pop, while many of the songs featured on Guts appeared in lofty positions on rock, and especially alternative tallies. It is on one of the latter rosters where Rodrigo scores not just another bestseller, but her first champion with her latest single.
Olivia Rodrigo Debuts “The Cure” at No. 1
Rodrigo debuts “The Cure” at No. 1 on this week’s Alternative Digital Song Sales chart. The Billboard-compiled ranking looks only at the top-selling tunes classified specifically as alternative – a vague term – on platforms like iTunes. While she’s come close to the summit before, “The Cure” marks the first leader for Rodrigo.
Olivia Rodrigo Scores Her First Alternative Sales Leader
In only a few years, Rodrigo has sent 11 hits to the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart, and nearly all of them have landed inside the top 10. It must be mentioned that these days, the roster only includes 10 spaces, so any time a track debuts, it immediately becomes a top 10 smash, though that was not always the case. Only “Brutal” and “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” missed the mark, as they topped out at Nos. 15 and 25, respectively.
Before this week, the highest Rodrigo had climbed on the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart was No. 2, a position she settled into more than once. “Bad Idea Right?” stopped short of running the show in August 2023, while “Obsessed” lifted to No. 2 the following April.
Notably, “Drop Dead,” the first single from her upcoming album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which preceded “The Cure” by several weeks, did not make it to the Alternative Digital Song Sales roster. Like several previous tracks from the singer-songwriter, it did not fit under that descriptor, and instead was likely counted solely as a pop tune.
“The Cure” Rules Four Billboard Charts
“The Cure” leads not only the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart, but also three additional and closely-related lists. Rodrigo earns her third No. 1 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Alternative Songs and Alternative Streaming Songs tallies this week, and “The Cure” joins past champions “Brutal” and “Bad Idea Right?”
Olivia Rodrigo Sends “The Cure” to Nine Rankings
“The Cure” appears for the first time on nine Billboard charts, and it is a top 10 – actually a top five – success on all of them. Rodrigo nearly leads the Billboard Global 200 with her latest single, but she stops just short of commanding the most competitive songs roster in the world. Drake’s “Janice STFU” holds in the top spot where it started last frame.
“The Cure” launches at No. 3 on the Digital Song Sales chart and No. 4 on the Streaming Songs rundown. The second official promotional cut taken from You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which is expected in mid-June, enters both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. at No. 5.
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