Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's new duet, "Rain on Me," has debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The song hit streaming services on Friday (May 22) with the track's official video premiering that afternoon. From May 22 through the week that ended on May 28, "Rain on Me" raked in 72,000 downloads sold. It also pulled in 31.4 million U.S. streams in the week which aided in the track becoming the No. 1 song in the country.
"Rain on Me" is the second single from Lady Gaga's Chromatica that was released May 29. According to Hits Daily Double, it's projected to debut as the No. 1 album in the country with 265,000 to 285,000 total units. The singer's first single, "Stupid Love," debuted and peaked at the No. 5 slot in March. "Rain on Me" gives Gaga her fifth No. 1 song while Ariana Grande recorded her fourth chart-topping single.
Prior to the song's release, Gaga talked to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the collaboration that was years in the making.
"It was just awesome to watch her. You haven’t seen the video yet, but she was so open to trying things that she hasn’t done before," Lady Gaga said. "It was this beautiful, I think very healing process for me, not necessarily having a female artist that mentored me as I came up."
Gaga went on to talk about the track, explaining that it is a metaphor for sadness and the escape from that emotion.
"This is about an analogy of tears being the rain. And you know what it’s also a metaphor for, is the amount of drinking that I was doing to numb myself," she said. "I’d rather be dry. I’d rather not be drinking, but I haven’t died yet. I’m still alive. Rain on me. OK, I’m going to keep on drinking. This song has many layers."
