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By Thania Garcia
Fergie’s 2007 pop hit “Glamorous” is seeing a mini streaming increase of 70% following Jack Harlow’s sample of the track in his hit single “First Class” — which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this month — according to data by Luminate (formerly MRC Data, formerly Nielsen Music, formerly SoundScan, etc.).
Harlow’s strategic teasing of the track on TikTok helped to make the song an immediate success. Using thirteen-second clips of the single for a multitude of videos, Harlow — who is no slouch at social media — made “First Class” a trending sound on the app ahead of its full release.
In the weeks prior to Harlow’s release, “Glamourous” had a total of 3,225,900 on-demand total streams. On the day and weeks following Harlow’s release, “Glamorous” tallied 5,474,100 on-demand total streams, accounting for a bump of 70%. The increased interest in the 2000s track also extended to digital song sales for “Glamorous,” boosting from 400 (two weeks before release) to 900 (two weeks after release) — a 125% difference.

The single accounted for an impressive 54 million streams following its release on April 8 and Harlow also picked up his first solo lead No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Despite making little impact on radio, “First Class” was a major milestone for Harlow, proving just how much a hot 2000s sample can ring big in 2022.
Although samples and interpolations can come at a cost (giving up some or all of the publishing credits and royalties), Harlow continues a recent trend: Big Latto’s 2021 single “Big Energy,” also managed to acquire the same level of virality on TikTok, making use of the familiar chords of Mariah Carey’s 1995 smash hit “Fantasy.”
The Business of Entertainment

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