Michael Jackson and Madonna Both Reenter the Hot 100 as Old Hits and New Collaborations Collide

Michael Jackson and Madonna are back on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, a neat bit of chart history powered by two very different kinds of momentum: the success of the new biopic Michael and Madonna’s fresh collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love.” It’s the sort of overlap that turns the chart into a small museum of pop memory, except the receipts are streaming numbers and new releases.

Jackson’s return is the louder of the two. As Michael keeps rock with moviegoers after opening April 24, four of his classics have reentered the Hot 100 dated May 16. “Billie Jean” leads the charge, jumping from No. 38 to No. 17. Behind it are “Human Nature” at No. 29, “Beat It” at No. 32 and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” at No. 42.

The songs are all familiar milestones from Jackson’s peak, but the numbers attached to this run are rooted in the present. According to Luminate, “Billie Jean” drew 12.7 million chart-eligible U.S. streams for May 1-7, up 35 percent. “Human Nature” logged 9.8 million, up 57 percent. “Beat It” pulled 9.5 million, up 37 percent, while “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” reached 8.5 million, up 35 percent. That kind of spike says less about nostalgia in the abstract than about a biopic doing what biopics still do best: sending audiences back to the source material.

Madonna’s reentry is smaller, but no less telling. “Bring Your Love,” released April 30, arrives at No. 74 and brings in 4.1 million streams, 6.6 million in airplay audience impressions and 3,000 sold. The track pairs her with Sabrina Carpenter, whose own pop moment makes the collab feel less like a legacy move than a cross-generational chart play with enough reach to land Madonna back on the list.

This is also a rare statistical coincidence with a lot of history behind it. The last time Jackson and Madonna occupied the Hot 100 together was more than 22 years ago, on the Jan. 3, 2004 chart. That week, Madonna sat at No. 83 with “Me Against the Music,” her collaboration with Britney Spears, while Jackson was at No. 100 with “One More Chance.”

But their overlap goes back much further than that, and the chart has long had room for both. They first shared the Hot 100 on Oct. 29, 1983, when Madonna debuted with “Holiday” at No. 88. Jackson was already present with two tracks: “Say Say Say,” with Paul McCartney, at No. 11, and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” at No. 23. Measured from that first joint appearance to now, the two artists have been on the chart simultaneously for 42 years, six months and two weeks.

There were other moments when their combined presence felt especially heavy. For two months in 1985, Madonna and USA for Africa were both inside the Hot 100’s top 10. In three of those weeks, Madonna had two songs in the tier, alongside “We Are the World,” which Jackson co-wrote and on which he famously took the lead vocally. For four weeks, Madonna’s “Crazy for You” and “We Are the World” occupied the top two spots, with “Crazy for You” pushing the charity single off No. 1.

Then came October 1987, when the top end of the chart looked almost absurdly loaded: Jackson’s “Bad” was No. 1 and Madonna’s “Causing a Commotion” sat at No. 2. In Billboard’s Chart Beat print column that week, Paul Grein noted that Jackson had tied Madonna for the most No. 1s of the 1980s up to that point, six apiece. By the end of the decade, Jackson moved ahead with nine No. 1s. Madonna, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston finished tied for second with seven each.

Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield