Lorde’s ‘Ribs’ Finally Debuts on Hot 100, 12 Years After Release

Lorde fans have been laughing ’til their ribs got soft for the last 12 years, and now they’re laughing all the way to the Billboard Hot 100.

“Ribs,” the long-beloved track from Lorde’s 2013 debut album Pure Heroine, debuts at No. 99 on the Hot 100 dated May 10, largely driven by 5 million official U.S. streams for the tracking week ending May 2 — a 51% gain over the previous week, according to Luminate.

Previously, the moody quasi-dance song — which was never released or promoted as an official single — had peaked at No. 26 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated Oct. 26, 2013, following the album’s release, but it had never before appeared on the Hot 100. (“Ribs” also re-enters at a new peak of No. 16 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs this week.)

The song rides a new wave of streaming momentum following Lorde’s planned pop-up appearance at New York’s Washington Square Park on April 23, designed to promote her new song “What Was That” (which also debuts on the Hot 100 this week, at No. 36). The appearance was canceled and the crowd dispersed by police mandate before Lorde showed up, but the fans assembled still managed to have a singalong moment to “Ribs” first, which drew a ton of attention on social media. (Lorde did later show up to Washington Square to play the new song, with scenes from her appearance making it into the song’s official music video, released just a couple days later.)

Despite never being a major chart hit previously, “Ribs” has long stood as one of Lorde’s both most acclaimed and best-streamed tracks. In 2017, Billboard‘s editorial staff named the song the 12th-best deep cut by a pop star this century, and in 2023, we also ranked it as the 17th-best pop song to never hit the Hot 100 (though we’ll probably have to replace it on the latter list now). In 2020, the nostalgic song achieved TikTok virality due in large part to millennials feeling wistful while stuck at home during the pandemic, and in the weeks before the recent bump, the song was still regularly pulling official on-demand U.S. stream counts in the low two millions, according to Luminate — weekly numbers superior to even “Royals,” Lorde’s seven-week Hot 100 No. 1 smash from the same album.

Lorde’s upcoming album Virgin is due to arrive June 27th on Republic/Universal New Zealand. “What Was That” marks her first top 40 hit on the Hot 100 since Melodrama single “Green Light” hit No. 19 in 2017.