How The Devil Wears Prada 2 Sent Gaga, Dua Lipa and Madonna Back Up the Charts

When the new Devil Wears Prada opened nationwide on May 1, the theater lobby chatter felt like a group chat finally waking up. The sequel did what studios dream about: big weekend numbers and a soundtrack that people actually went looking for after the credits rolled. Box office was loud—about $77 million domestic, $233 million worldwide—so it was almost inevitable that songs tied to its fashion-fueled moments would see listeners follow the runway out of the cinema and into their playlists.

Look Around, Everywhere You Turn

Lady Gaga, who appears briefly in a cameo, is the soundtrack’s headline act this time. She contributed three originals and the already-released collaboration with Doechii, “Runway,” saw streaming spike dramatically: roughly 2.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams over the May 1-3 weekend, up 189 percent from the prior weekend’s 756,000, according to Luminate. The single has that staged, catwalk swagger people will queue up for after seeing the film — it’s immediate and picture-friendly.

Other lifts were less theatrical but telling. Dua Lipa’s new track “End of an Era,” used over the movie’s opening, jumped 207 percent to about 138,000 streams that same weekend. Madonna’s “Vogue” enjoyed a 30 percent bump to roughly 493,000 streams. And nostalgia played its part: KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See,” a defining sonic memory from the first movie, climbed 27 percent to 357,000 streams. The original film made a few songs into long-term cultural touchstones; this week proves the sequel will do the same in shorter, sharper bursts.

Old Tape, New Reach: Mac Miller’s Cinderella

Ten years after its release, Mac Miller and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Cinderella” has reappeared in the conversation and has been pushed into the Hot Rap Songs top 10 for the first time. The engine here is TikTok: the official “Cinderella” sound has been used in more than 2.2 million clips, often as a confession — “I was/am so Cinderella by Mac Miller” — a format that turns the song into a shorthand for being deeply infatuated.

The math is clear. Over one month the song’s streams jumped from about 2.43 million in late March to nearly 6 million by the week of April 24-30, a four-week surge of roughly 146 percent. The Divine Feminine landed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 when it dropped, but its singles didn’t break the Hot 100 at the time. Now, with renewed social attention and younger listeners discovering Miller’s softer corners, appearances on charts feel less frozen in history and more like the next wave of discovery.

Virality, Then Validation: Karlee Girl’s Right Back

Karlee Girl’s rise is a textbook example of how platform jokes turn into real momentum. She first uploaded “Right Back” in February. By April, a series of sarcastic X posts praising the song as if it were an undiscovered classic started the rumor mill. The timeline is fun to watch: Doechii posted a TikTok of herself singing along on April 19; Karlee shared an acoustic clip April 22 celebrating one million streams; on April 27, KATSEYE’s Sophia and Yoonchae posted a dance to the track. All of those moments pulled curious listeners into full streams.

The numbers jump off the page. In early April the track was doing about 39,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in a week. The following week it rose 370 percent to 185,000. Mid-April, after the Doechii clip, it shot to 747,000, a 302 percent increase. The week that included the KATSEYE dance push saw it reach 1.14 million streams, another 53 percent climb. Over four months the song’s streaming activity surged roughly 2,795 percent. Dream Academy, which has been linked to KATSEYE and ADÉLA, may have a new breakout on its hands.

There’s a through-line across these stories: film placement, social formats and nostalgia operate in different keys but similar mechanics. A cameo in a blockbuster, a neatly placed lyric, or a meme-ready chorus can turn a stream into a discovery. Fans notice. They tweet, dance, clip and then, often, go back and listen again. Sometimes those listens turn into chart moments; sometimes they simply alter the cultural soundtrack of a weekend.

And in the dark of the theater, with the credits rolling and people already talking about outfit details and favorite lines, music moves fast. It’s a reminder: soundtrack moments still matter, and in 2026 they come with receipts.