Jennie's 'Dracula' hits No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100, tying K-pop female solo record

Tame Impala collaboration enters Hot 100 for 58th week

Song spends 24 weeks total in top 10; reaches No. 1 on Pop Airplay

Highest Hot 100 peak for a real K-pop female solo artist

Blackpink's Jennie has reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest position "Dracula" has achieved since its release more than a year ago. The song, recorded with Australian psychedelic rock project Tame Impala, ties the best Hot 100 peak ever set by a K-pop female solo artist — a mark Blackpink's Rosé established in February last year with "APT.," her collaboration with Bruno Mars. It marks the first time two members of the same girl group have each reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 through separate collaborations.

According to Billboard's latest chart dated Saturday, "Dracula" climbed two spots from the previous week to No. 3, setting a new personal best in its 58th week on the Hot 100. Country singer Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" held at No. 1 that same week, while Michael Jackson's "Thriller" surged to No. 2.

The achievement makes Jennie the highest-charting real K-pop female solo artist on the Hot 100. A fictional girl group called HUNTR/X, from the Netflix animated series KPop Demon Hunters, reached No. 1 in August last year with "Golden" — but among actual K-pop female artists, the No. 3 peaks of "APT." and "Dracula" stand as the all-time high.

Behind them sit Blackpink's "Ice Cream" with Selena Gomez at No. 13 in 2020, Fifty Fifty's "Cupid" at No. 17 in 2023, and "Gabriela" by Katseye — the girl group formed through a joint venture between Hybe and US label Geffen Records — at No. 21 in January this year. The first Hot 100 entry by a Korean act came in 2009, when the Wonder Girls debuted at No. 76 with the English version of "Nobody."

Nine months of momentum, 24 weeks in the top 10

"Dracula" was originally a solo track by Kevin Parker, the creative force behind Tame Impala, released in October last year on his fifth studio album "Deadbeat." It entered the Hot 100 at No. 55, giving Tame Impala its first-ever chart entry. The turning point came with a remix released Feb. 6 this year: Jennie's name replaced "Kevin" in the original lyrics, and a new verse sung by Jennie was added. The remix spread rapidly across short-form platforms and became the engine of the song's climb.

Jennie performing in Japan. [Online community]

Billboard added Jennie as an official credit beginning with the April 4 chart. "Dracula" then broke into the top 10 on the May 16 chart, a first for both Jennie and Tame Impala, and climbed as high as No. 5 on the July 18 chart. Notably, the song's rise has not relied on streaming alone: it also reached No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart in July, which tracks mainstream US radio spins — a market where K-pop has historically struggled to gain traction. The song has now spent a cumulative 24 weeks in the Hot 100 top 10.

For Jennie personally, "Dracula" is her seventh Hot 100 entry. Her previous best was No. 51 with "One of the Girls," a 2023 collaboration with The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp, while "like JENNIE" from her debut solo album "Ruby" peaked at No. 83. One song has transformed what had been a modest Hot 100 track record into something far more impressive.

Halloween lifts the vampire song to new heights

The seasonal boost also played a role. The chart dated Saturday covers the tracking period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 5, capturing the full Halloween week. "Dracula," which tells the story of a vampire fleeing sunlight, had been flagged as a Halloween anthem since its release. US music outlet Stereogum compared it to "Thriller" and predicted it would anchor Halloween playlists for decades to come. Streaming data backs that up: according to Rolling Stone Brazil, plays of "Dracula" over the Halloween weekend jumped 44 percent from the previous weekend.

The Halloween effect left its mark across the chart. "Thriller" jumped 18 spots to No. 2, surpassing its original peak of No. 4 from 1984 — a record that had stood for 42 years. A remix of the late Andrew Gold's "Spooky, Scary Skeletons," originally released in 1996, made its Hot 100 debut at No. 35. Billboard published an analysis piece asking whether Halloween is becoming the new Christmas for the Hot 100.

A year ago, "Dracula" told a very different story over the same holiday. When the song was still Tame Impala's solo original, it sat at No. 30 on the Hot 100 during Halloween week. With Jennie's voice added, the same song climbed 27 places during its second Halloween on the chart.

shee@heraldcorp.com