Michael Jackson’s song Chicago has debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, entering at No. 30 on the chart dated June 6, amid the box-office success of the late pop star’s biopic Michael.
According to data tracker Luminate, the track earned 10.7 million official chart-eligible streams in the United States during the May 22-28 tracking week, marking a 30 per cent increase from the previous week.
Billboard allows older songs to enter the Hot 100 if they rank within the top 50 and demonstrate significant gains.
Chicago has accumulated 388 million streams to date. Weekly streams have steadily climbed in recent weeks, rising from 3.8 million on the May 9-dated chart to 5.4 million on May 16, 6.9 million on May 23, 8.3 million on May 30 and 10.7 million in the latest tracking period.
The May 9 total represented an 83 per cent increase from the previous week, following the April 24 premiere of Michael.
Originally released on Jackson’s posthumous 2014 album Xscape, Chicago was issued nearly five years after the singer’s death. The album previously produced two Hot 100 entries: Love Never Felt So Good, featuring Justin Timberlake, which peaked at No. 9, and Slave to the Rhythm, which reached No. 45.
Produced by Timbaland and JRoc and written by Cory Rooney, Chicago becomes Jackson’s 52nd solo Hot 100 entry. His first appearance on the chart came with Got To Be There in 1971.
The song marks Jackson’s first Hot 100 entry since Drake’s Don’t Matter to Me, featuring Jackson, debuted and peaked at No. 9 in July 2018. That track became Jackson’s 30th top-10 hit as a solo artist, including 13 chart-toppers.
As a member of the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons, the ‘King of Pop’ also earned 11 Hot 100 top-10 hits between 1969 and 1984, including four No. 1 singles.
With Chicago entering the chart in the 2020s, Jackson becomes the first artist to debut new Hot 100 entries in every decade since the 1970s. His decade-by-decade totals stand at 11 entries in the 1970s, 20 in the 1980s, 12 in the 1990s, four in the 2000s, four in the 2010s and one in the 2020s.
Jackson previously made chart history when Thriller, originally a No. 4 Hot 100 hit in 1984, returned to No. 10 on the Nov. 15, 2025-dated chart following seasonal Halloween gains.
The achievement made him the first artist to place a song in the Hot 100 top 10 across six different decades.
While several of Jackson’s best-known recordings have surged in popularity during the theatrical run of Michael, Chicago has emerged as an unexpected success despite not being featured in the film and having not been a major hit upon its original release.
On the May 23-dated Hot 100, Jackson achieved a personal best with six songs charting simultaneously: Billie Jean, Human Nature, Beat It, Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough, Dirty Diana and Rock With You. All six had previously reached the top 10, while five topped the chart during their original release runs.
On the latest Hot 100, Chicago ranks as Jackson’s second-highest-charting song, behind Billie Jean at No. 19. Human Nature follows at No. 31, while Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough sits at No. 43.