Which New York Songs Are Getting the Biggest Bumps From the Knicks’ Championship Win?
Categoria: Musica
This week's Trending Up looks at the songs gaining the most from New York's basketball win and the World Cup kickoff, as well as the catalog of the tragically late Oliver Tree.
Por Billboard | 17/06/2026
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: The New York Knicks’ first championship victory in 53 years (and the first World Cup kickoff in four years) sends sports fans to stream their favorite related anthems, while streaming audiences celebrate the late Oliver Tree and an *NSYNC classic gets a viral choreography boost. Go New York Go: Knicks Championship Sends Streams Skyrocketing for Local Classics The New York Knicks’ first NBA championship in 53 years sparked citywide celebrations that turned into big gains for multiple New York-related songs over the weekend. Leading the way in volume: Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” accumulated 1.4 million on-demand chart-eligible streams in the United States on June 13 (the day of the game-five win) and 14 (the day after, also including any late-night streaming as the game ended shortly before midnight), a 30% boost from 1.1 million the prior two days (June 11-12), according to preliminary reports from Luminate. Other major leaps included gains for Frank Sinatra’s “Theme From New York, New York” (672,000 June 13-14, up 62% from 415,000 June 11-12), Ja Rule’s “New York” featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss (515,000, up 68% from 308,000), Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” (190,000, up 71% from 111,000), Cam’ron’s Jay-Z- and Juelz Santana-featuring “Welcome to New York City” (98,000 up 62% from 60,000) and Jesse Itzler’s “Go Ny Go” (56,000, up 70% from 33,000). Worth noting as well: comparing each song’s June 14 streams to its listens on April 18, the day the 2026 NBA playoffs began. “Empire State of Mind” pulled 374,000 streams that day, giving the song a 128% to its 852,000 on June 14 alone. The other five tracks experienced similar gains during that span, as low as 126% and as high as a five-digit-percentage-point increase of 18,465%. – KEVIN RUTHERFORD Oliver Tree’s Catalog Skyrockets in Streams After Singer-Songwriter’s Death The shocking news came out over the weekend (June 14) that alt-pop hitmaker Oliver Tree was one of six dead in a mid-air crash between two helicopters above the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The singer-songwriter-producer, born Oliver Tree Nickell, had been traveling through South America as part of his World’s First World Tour — which had kicked off on May 30 in Mexico and was supposed to take Tree through 70 total performances spanning all seven continents. The music world was stunned by Tree’s tragic passing, with many artists expressing their grief over social media — including ex-girlfriend and fellow alt-pop