Tyrese ends a nine-year absence from the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as “Wildflower” rules the list dated Nov. 9. The single rises from the runner-up slot and becomes the most played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the tracking week of Oct. 25 – 31, according to Luminate. “Wildflower “jumped 17% in plays during the tracking week, winning the song the weekly Greatest Gainer award as the title with the largest increase in plays.
“Wildflower,” released on Voltron Recordz/Create, takes the throne from Chris Brown’s “Sensational,” featuring Davido and Lojay, which spent an eighth, nonconsecutive week at No. 1 last week.
The new champ gives Tyrese his fourth No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay. He first reigned in 2003 with the four-week leader “How You Gonna Act Like That” and followed with “Stay,” an 11-week No. 1 in 2011-12 and with the 16-week domination of “Shame,” in 2015-16.
Released in August, “Wildflower” is a reworking of a 1973 track by The New Birth, with Tyrese adding an interlude in tribute to his mother, who died in 2022. The New Birth’s original rendition peaked at No. 17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and at No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Elsewhere, “Wildflower” pushes 16-14 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. The single surged 18% in format audience to reach 6.5 million audience impressions for the tracking week. Thanks to the two-spot jump, “Wildflower” is Tyrese’s best showing on the chart since “Shame” peaked at No. 13 in 2015.
The radio gains for “Wildflower,” in turn, improve the song’s fortunes on the multimetric Hot R&B Songs chart, which combines radio airplay with streaming and sales data for its rankings. There, “Wildflower” debuts at No. 22 and secures Tyrese’s second appearance on the 12-year-old chart, after “Shame” (No. 10).
