MJ may have heard the chatter from the afterlife, because the King of Pop came back with a vengeance.
Billie Jean” has reportedly climbed back to No. 1 on Spotify’s global chart.
The 1983 classic has surged past Drake and his new song “Make Them Cry,” the first song on his already-hit album ICEMAN. Drake’s latest release reportedly suffered the steepest one-day streaming decline for any rap song released in 2026, shedding roughly 8 million streams, reports say
Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean” is a massive, traditional hit on Spotify and across all platforms. The song has over 2.7 billion streams on the platform as of May 2026. It is singularly his most-streamed song on the platform. Originally released in 1982 on the album Thriller, also the highest selling album ever, it is available in various editions.
The stark contrast says everything about the current state of music culture.
One record is more than 40 years old and still pulling listeners from every generation imaginable. The other arrived with blockbuster expectations tied to Drake’s heavily discussed ICEMAN rollout.
“Billie Jean” has never really disappeared from public consciousness.
The resurgence of the song also arrives during renewed interest from the current MJ biopic Michael. “Billie Jean” appears almost immune to time.
Even with the stumble, Drake remains one of the dominant commercial forces in music. Habibti, Maid of Honour, and ICEMAN are going to take all the charts by storm. His fans, the bots and others are going to run the streams all the way up. Still, getting overtaken by a song released during the Reagan administration is a bit of a burn.
For older music fans, this feels like a statement. They are older and so is Drake, but it seems like that album cover with the MJ glove has people feeling a way. I am people. Michael Jackson’s catalog still moves like it belongs to the present day. Beautiful, timeless music.
Oh one more thing…
The initial streams review process was completed manually, resulting in streams from two different album tracks being combined. Drake continues to hold the record for most-streamed artist and album in a single day in 2026. We apologize for the error and have implemented updated…
— Spotify (@Spotify) May 16, 2026