Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

This week: Director Danny Boyle’s go-to band sees its streams go way up after his latest blockbuster sequel, PinkPantheress has a new breakout hit from her acclaimed 2025 mixtape, both “Whim Whamiee” hitmakers score separate viral hits of their own and more.

Gone Viral: ‘28 Years Later’ Film Release Spreads Young Fathers’ Music on Streaming

Scottish indie band Young Fathers has been releasing vital, genre-blurring art rock for well over a decade now, drawing huge critical acclaim – particularly in the U.K. – and even scoring a top 10 album on the country’s Official Charts, with 2023’s No. 7-peaking Heavy Heavy. One of the band’s biggest longtime fans has been fellow Scotsman Danny Boyle, the award-winning film director who featured multiple Young Fathers songs in 2017’s T2 Trainspotting, long-awaited sequel to his 1996 masterpiece Trainspotting. 

Now, Boyle has done Young Fathers one better for his latest highly anticipated follow-up: The band composed and performed the score for the dystopian horror flick, which opened to strong reviews and impressive box office returns this Friday (June 20). Fans flocked from the theaters to relive the band’s grimy, disquieting score on streaming services, resulting in 394,000 total official on-demand U.S. streams for Young Fathers the first four days of this tracking week (June 20-23) – up 1,210% from the same period the week before, according to Luminate. Most of that bump came from the score itself, of course, but the rest of Young Fathers’ catalog was also up – not counting the 28 Years Later music, the band was up 55% to 47,000 streams for that period. 

And Young Fathers isn’t the only experimental rock band to benefit from the 28 Years Later bump – post-rock standard-bearer Godspeed! You Black Emperor saw gains for its 1997 epic “East Hastings,” also featured in the film, which rose 167% to over 11,000 streams for the period. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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Her Name is Pink(Pantheress), And She’s Really Glad to Meet Another Viral Moment

PinkPantheress is no stranger to a TikTok trend translating into a streaming boom; that’s part of how the British pop star’s breakthrough single, “Boy’s a Liar,” spawned an Ice Spice-featuring remix and streaked into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. One month after her excellent mixtape Fancy That was released, its opening track, “Illegal,” is helping PinkPantheress once again make waves on TikTok, and could result in another crossover hit.

Over the past week, TikTok users have taken the opening lines of the song — “My name is Pink, and I’m really glad to meet you / You’re recommended to me by some people / Hey, ooh, is this illegal? / Hey, ooh, it feels illegal” — and started a trend in which they lip-synch to the camera while shaking the hand of someone offscreen. As a result, “Illegal” earned 1.8 million official U.S. on-demand streams from June 20-23 — a 61% jump from the same four-day period one week earlier (1.11 million streams from June 13-16), according to Luminate. If “Illegal” keeps growing, PinkPantheress will score her second Hot 100 hit as a lead artist, after “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” made it all the way to No. 3 on the chart two years ago. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

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Pluto & YKNiece Score Individual Follow-Up Hits As ‘Whim Whamiee’ Continues Its Ascent 

As “Whim Whamiee” continues to float around the Hot 100’s midsection (it’s at No. 63 in the June 28-dated chart, after previously reaching No. 51), 2025 breakout stars Pluto and YKNiece have individual follow-up hits ready to go. Pluto’s “Pull Your Skirt Up” garnered some traction as a pre-release single from newly released Both Ways project, but a new dance trend from food influencer and social media personality Keith Lee has really helped the track pick up steam. 

On June 13, Lee posted a TikTok from his wife’s account (@ron.geezy) featuring him casually dancing along to the following lyrics from “Pull Your Skirt Up”: “And we ain’t beefin’ ’bout no n—a, we want them racks/ Hide your man or we gon’ f—k him on his deck/ Pants tight, drop down, he’s a goner/ Fake rich on the ‘Gram, we don’t want him.” The clip has since amassed over 19 million views and 3.1 million likes, spurring a dance trend that’s corralled Internet celebs like Love Island USA Season 6 winners Serena Page and Kordell Beckham. The official “Pull Yo Skirt Up” TikTok sound currently plays in over 134,300 posts. 

According to Luminate, “Skirt Up” logged over 880,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of May 30-June 5. By the following week (June 6-12), that number jumped by 35% to over 1.19 million streams. By June 13-19, which accounts for the first week of Lee’s video, streams again rose over 62% to over 1.93 million streams. 

YKNiece’s rising hit is a collaboration with BunnaB, whose “Bunna Summa” appeared in this column a few weeks ago. Titled “Innit” (after the viral “I’m talmbout innit” ad-lib from “Whim Whamiee”), the song dropped on May 22, earning over 610,000 streams during the period of May 16-22. About three weeks later (June 13-19), once the eating food/diving in it emote took over TikTok, “Innit” leapt 62% to just over 992,000 streams. On TikTok, the official “Innit” sound boasts over 34,5000 posts.  

Looks like “Whim Whamiee” is just the beginning for the two ATL rising stars. – KYLE DENIS

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Tinashe Teams Up with Disco Lines to Revive Year-Old ‘Quantum Baby’ Track 

Last summer, Tinashe earned her first Hot 100 hit as a lead artist in 10 years thanks to the mega-viral “Nasty.” This summer, she’s eyeing another from 2024’s Quantum Baby, for which “Nasty” served as the lead single. 

On June 6, Colorado DJ Disco Lines officially released his remix for “No Broke Boys,” earning over 2.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams during its first week (June 6-12), according to Luminate. The following week (June 13-19), that number rose 19% to over 3.1 million official streams. And the song is still growing: Over the first four days of this tracking week (June 20-23), it’s up nearly 20% from the same period the week before, to 2.03 million streams. 

Disco Lines first teased the remix in a May 5 TikTok post, which has since earned over half a million views. Tinashe joined the train a few weeks later with May 31 clip captioned, “Feeling like the song of the summer idk.” Pairing Tinashe’s carefree kiss-off with a danceable beat proved an effective tactic; the official “No Broke Boys” TikTok sound now boasts over 60,700 posts, and the official YouTube audio clip has earned over 318,000 hits. 

Though the track is still growing, things are looking up for Tinashe’s post-“Nasty” world. – KD