Michael Jackson and Madonna Are Back on the Hot 100 Together, Powered by a Biopic Surge and a Sabrina Carpenter Duet

Michael Jackson and Madonna are sharing the Billboard Hot 100 again, a rare overlap that feels especially loaded when it happens this deep into their careers. Jackson is back on the chart with four classics getting a lift from the new biopic Michael, while Madonna returns via her new collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love.”

As Michael continues to rock with moviegoers after premiering April 24, “Billie Jean” leads the Jackson revival, jumping from No. 38 to No. 17 on the Hot 100 dated May 16. Right behind it are three more reentries: “Human Nature” at No. 29, “Beat It” at No. 32 and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” at No. 42. The chart history is already doing its own thing here. “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” both ruled at No. 1 in 1983, for seven and three weeks respectively. “Human Nature” peaked at No. 7 that same year, while “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” spent a week at No. 1 in 1979, becoming Jackson’s second solo chart-topper out of 13.

The surge is all streaming. In the May 1 to May 7 tracking week, those four songs pulled 12.7 million, 9.8 million, 9.5 million and 8.5 million chart-eligible U.S. streams, each one rising sharply week over week, according to Luminate. It is the kind of boost that makes old songs feel newly urgent again.

Madonna’s side of the equation is smaller, but no less notable. “Bring Your Love,” released April 30, debuts at No. 74 with 4.1 million streams, 6.6 million in airplay audience impressions and 3,000 sold. For a pair as mythologized as Jackson and Madonna, even one week in the same chart neighborhood tends to carry some extra cultural static.

So when was the last time they were both on the Hot 100 at once? More than 22 years ago. On the Jan. 3, 2004 chart, Madonna sat at No. 83 with “Me Against the Music,” her high-profile collaboration with Britney Spears, while Jackson held down No. 100 with “One More Chance.” A little end-of-chart symmetry, but symmetry all the same.

That kind of overlap goes way back. They first appeared together on the Hot 100 on Oct. 29, 1983, when Madonna made her chart debut with “Holiday” at No. 88. Jackson had two entries that week: “Say Say Say,” his duet with Paul McCartney, at No. 11, and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” at No. 23. From that point forward, the two have spent 42 years, six months and two weeks sharing chart real estate.

There were bigger collisions too. In 1985, Madonna and USA for Africa were both in the Hot 100 top 10 for two months. For three of those weeks, Madonna had two songs in the tier, alongside “We Are the World,” the Jackson co-write on which he famously handled the lead vocal spotlight. For four of those frames, Madonna’s “Crazy for You” and “We Are the World” occupied the top two spots, with “Crazy for You” pushing the charity single out of No. 1.

And then there was October 1987, when the Hot 100 looked almost absurdly star-studded at the very top: Jackson’s “Bad” at No. 1 and Madonna’s “Causing a Commotion” at No. 2. In Billboard’s Chart Beat print column that week, Paul Grein noted that Jackson had tied Madonna for the most No. 1 singles of the 1980s up to that point, with six apiece. By the end of the decade, Jackson pulled ahead with nine No. 1s, while Madonna, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston were tied for second with seven.

Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield