Lady Gaga’s ‘Bloody Mary’ Is Finally A Hot 100 Hit
Lady Gaga's latest viral smash has finally found its way to the Hot 100 more than a decade after it was initially released.
After several weeks of narrowly missing out on landing on Billboard’s most important and competitive chart, Lady Gaga’s latest viral smash has finally found its way to the Hot 100 more than a decade after it was initially released.
Gaga’s song “Bloody Mary” debuts on the Hot 100 – Billboard’s weekly ranking of the most-consumed songs in the U.S. – at No. 68, scoring the highest start of this week.
“Bloody Mary” spent about a month on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, which essentially acts as a 25-spot extension of the main ranking. For several weeks, the tune missed out on the main tally by just a few spaces, but its lofty start this time around more than makes up for the wait.
“Bloody Mary” was first released back in May 2011 when Gaga’s full-length Born This Way dropped. The tune was simply an album cut at the time, and it held that status for many years.
The singer-songwriter promoted Born This Way heavily, and all five singles that were spun off during its initial run–”Born This Way,” “Judas,” “Edge of Glory,” “You and I,” and “Marry The Night” – became solid charting hits. At the time, fans adored “Bloody Mary,” but it was never given the full promotional treatment, and Gaga moved on from the project after spinning off five singles.
The unlikely resurgence of “Bloody Mary” began a few months ago when the TV series Wednesday premiered on Netflix. The show features a scene in which star Jenna Ortega performs an eye-catching and rather silly dance to a song called “Goo Goo Muck” by the band The Cramps.
Immediately, that track began trending and racking up streams and sales, but it wasn’t long before the tides changed and moved in Gaga’s favor.
A user on TikTok borrowed the footage of Ortega dancing from the show and changed the audio from the punk band to a sped-up version of “Bloody Mary.” That upload went viral almost instantly, and in the weeks since, countless fans have recorded their own version of the dance or created some other video using “Bloody Mary.”
All that attention has spurred a surge in streams and sales and even radio play for the cut, which has propelled it onto the Hot 100.
Gaga herself noticed this opportunity and jumped at it, as this type of occurrence is not exactly common in the music industry, but it is certainly unprecedented. The singer recorded her own dance to her own song and uploaded it to TikTok and thanked fans for loving the tune. That helped bring even more attention to the track, and it eventually led to her label finally deciding to release “Bloody Mary” as a proper single.
For a few weeks now, “Bloody Mary” has been present on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, which ranks the songs that reach the largest audience at pop radio in the U.S. Each time the list refreshes, Gaga’s new focus rises, and this time around it improves to a new high point of No. 32.
It seems likely that “Bloody Mary” will continue to climb the charts in the coming weeks, as it has gone from viral sensation to a proper hit. At this point, anything seems possible for the electro banger that was first gifted to the world more than 11 years ago but which is only receiving its due now.
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