Hot 100 First-Timers: Lizzy McAlpine Reaches New Heights With ‘Ceilings’

Xander Zellner
·2 min read
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Lizzy McAlpine achieves her first career entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated March 4) as her breakthrough single, “Ceilings,” debuts at No. 75.

The song, released on Harbour/AWAL, debuts largely from 6 million U.S. streams (up 34%) in the Feb. 17-23 tracking week, according to Luminate. It concurrently rises 6-5 on Hot Alternative Songs, 8-7 on Hot Rock Songs and 9-8 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (all of which use the same multimetric methodology as the Hot 100).

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“Ceilings” also becomes McAlpine’s first top 10 on the Official UK Singles chart, where it soars 21-9.

TikTok has been a major factor in the song’s growing profile, as a sped-up version has been used in more than 115,000 clips on the platform to date. (TikTok does not contribute to Billboard’s charts.)

The Philadelphia native, 23, is a newcomer to Billboard’s charts. “Ceilings” is McAlpine’s first title to appear on a songs ranking, while parent set Five Seconds Flat sparked her first overall chart appearance, when it debuted and peaked at No. 5 on Heatseekers Albums in April 2022. It later reached No. 10 on Vinyl Albums and No. 33 on Top Album Sales. This week, it debuts at No. 6 on Americana/Folk Albums. The LP features notable guest appearances from Jacob Collier and Finneas.

McAlpine’s 2022 collaboration with Collier and John Mayer, “Never Gonna Be Alone,” garnered the folk-pop singer her first Grammy nomination, for best arrangement, instruments and vocals.

McAlpine recently told Billboard that she’s already at work on her next album, without explicitly revealing its sonic direction.

“I feel like [2020’s Give Me a Minute] was close to what I think that I actually sound like. And then [Five Seconds Flat], I was trying to go as far away from that as possible, just to differentiate myself and not get stuck in the genre. This [next] album won’t sound like the first album, but it’s definitely closer to what I think I actually sound like as an artist. It feels like the most authentic music I’ve ever written.”

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