Kill Bill: SZA Single Makes Billboard R&B History

SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’ Just Made Billboard R&B History

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - MARCH 19: Singer SZA performs on stage during her 'The SOS North American Tour' at Rogers Arena on March 19, 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Andrew Chin/Getty Images)

Last Updated: April 12, 2023

The star singer and songwriter has now surpassed Mary J. Blige for most weeks at No. 1 by a woman artist with her hit song “Kill Bill.”

SZA’s “Kill Bill” has now achieved a feat no female R&B and Hip Hop record has ever conquered in Billboard history. According to the tracking giant, The Quentin Tarantino vengeance-driven song has ascended the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a lead female artist.

Towering the list for sixteen weeks, the single has eclipsed Mary J. Blige’s hit track “Be Without You,” which cemented the record at 15 weeks for the coveted spot in 2006.

The commercial success of the song, like many releases in the ever-changing music economy, is largely attributed to how TikTok’s user-personalized “For You” page is well-oiled pipeline to streaming. On the platform, roughly 236,800 videos flaunt SZA crooning over her ex-partner as the audio.

As for the hit’s viability on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart, multiple factors are at play: streaming, sales activity, and radio airplay data from more than 200 territories in the world.

Rankings, determined from the data compiled by Luminate, face a weighted formula involving official-only streams from subscription and ad-supported sectors of audio and video music services. Download sales specifically from global music retailers are also included, yet direct-to-consumer platforms are excluded from the calculations.

The respective tracking week, March 31 to April 6, for the song’s summit reports 23.4 million official U.S. streams. According to Billboard, its recent spike in downloads (a 158% increase) is in response to iTune’s 69-cent discounted pricing. As for the airwaves, 93 million was logged in total airplay audience.

In January, the singer secured her first number one single with “Kill Bill” as it topped Billboard’s Global 200 chart. In retrospect, the song’s ambitious boom was already teeming.