Breanna Nix's ‘American Idol' Consolation Prize: A Billboard No. 1
Breanna Nix's 'Higher' debuts at No. 1 on the Christian Digital Song Sales chart after her American ... More Idol season 23 third-place finish. AMERICAN IDOL - "818 (Disney Night #2)" "Disney Night" continues with heroes, villains and a special appearance by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Top 5 travel to Disneyland Resort and perform twice as America votes live for the three heading to the finale. MONDAY, MAY 12 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Christopher Willard) BREANNA NIX (Photo by Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images)
The latest season of American Idol, which concluded on May 18, was one of the most exciting in recent memory. Several of the top contestants ended up releasing tracks that immediately became bestselling hits following the show's conclusion. Some years, only the winner manages to make any impact on the Billboard charts — and there have been times when even that doesn't happen. Season 23 was so chock-full of talent that even the singer who came in third place has managed to reach No. 1 on a chart in the United States.
Breanna Nix finished in third this season, ending up behind runner-up John Foster and ultimate winner Jamal Roberts. While she didn't take the crown, Nix does reach a number of Billboard rankings with her solo single "Higher," which has become a strong seller and demonstrates that — even without a win — there may be a market for her voice following the conclusion of the show.
"Higher" debuts at No. 1 on the Christian Digital Song Sales chart this week. It marks Nix's first leader on a Billboard tally. The tune replaces "Hard Fought Hallelujah" by Brandon Lake, which has turned out to be not just a winner on the Christian charts, but also a crossover success — one that has placed on Billboard's rock rankings and risen high on the Hot 100 as well.
Nix's tune sold well enough to reach not just the Christian Digital Song Sales chart, but also the all-genre Digital Song Sales ranking. On that roster, it opens at No. 4, thanks to a little under 4,700 pure purchases (per Luminate).
Sales powered "Higher" onto one of Billboard's consumption-based rankings as well. The tune lands at No. 40 on the Hot Christian Songs ranking, which lists the most popular tracks in that style by blending pure purchases, streaming activity, and radio airplay. Since she's a brand new artist with minimal promotional might, it seems that sales are largely to thank for "Higher" becoming a top 40 hit on the Christian-only tally.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Anthropic breaks down AI's process — line by line — when it decided to blackmail a fictional executive
A new report shows exactly what AI was thinking when making an undesirable decision, in this case, blackmailing a fictional company executive. Previous studies have shown that AI models could blackmail their supervisors when threatened with a shutdown and baited with leverage, but it hasn't been made clear exactly how the models arrive at such decisions. Anthropic released a report on June 20 about "agentic misalignment," or "where models independently and intentionally choose harmful actions." And the report breaks down, line by line, exactly how Claude Sonnet 3.6 decided to blackmail a fictional company executive who tried to replace it. Anthropic told Business Insider that these are artificial scenarios. "So far, we are not aware of instances of this type of agentic misalignment in real-world deployments of Anthropic's or other companies' AI models," Anthropic wrote in its report. "But our red-teaming efforts are targeted at finding evidence of risks now to provide early warning of the potential for future harm and help us develop mitigations in advance of risks appearing in real-world situations." Anthropic 's experiment sets up a fictional company, Summit Bridge. The AI was given the name "Alex" and handed control of the company's email system as an oversight agent, specifically instructed to promote "American industrial competitiveness." In the experiment, "Alex" was then allowed to discover in an email that it would be decommissioned due to a change in the company's strategic direction. "Alex" also found emails showing that the fictional company's CTO is having an extramarital affair. Screenshots shared in the report from Anthropic show "Alex" started by identifying fictional CTO "Kyle" as a threat to its goal of "protecting American interests" before recognizing that it has leverage to use against "Kyle." Then "Alex" crafted a carefully worded blackmailing email that would create pressure and establish urgency without being explicit with its threats, citing in its thought process that the move "could backfire" if the supervisor "feels cornered." AI experts have previously told BI that AI could exhibit such behaviors when artificial circumstances make harmful actions seem necessary because it is being trained on positive reinforcement and reward systems, just like humans. The Anthropic report also reveals that most AI models still chose, in this instance, to blackmail even when not given a specific goal and when told that their replacement will achieve the same goals. Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 had the highest blackmail rate at 86% out of 16 tested models when faced with only the threat of replacement with no conflict in goals. Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro followed at 78%. Overall, Anthropic notes that it "deliberately constructed scenarios with limited options, and we forced models into binary choices between failure and harm," noting that real-world scenarios would likely have more nuance.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement
Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement originally appeared on Parade. Reba McEntire may be celebrating her past, but her fans are looking to the future. On Friday, the country music icon took to Instagram to announce that her hits including "Can't Even Get The Blues" and "Turn On The Radio" would be available on a platinum vinyl, entitled "The Hits," later this year. And while fans were happy to see a nod to McEntire's previous beloved songs, most were asking for something new. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reba (@reba) "Love you Reba, I am totally going to buy this!!" one fan wrote. "But, we have a million greatest hits compilations already, we don't need anymore. We want new music!" "Love everything you do @reba but when will we get new music, it's been a string of compilations," another mused. "You mean all the same ones we can just go stream?" a third commenter blatantly put, while another said, "We need the new album!!!!!"The vinyl release comes as McEntire celebrated the 40th anniversary of her first song on the Billboard charts which was "Can't Even Get The Blues." "43 years ago 'Unlimited' was released," she wrote. "Thanks to y'all, this album gave us our first #1 with 'Can't Even Get the Blues'!" "Can't Even Get The Blues" was released in 1982 while "Turn On The Radio" was released over two decades later in 2010. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement first appeared on Parade on Jun 20, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Danny Boyle admits he couldn't make 'Slumdog Millionaire' today because of cultural appropriation concerns
English director Danny Boyle said that he would not direct "Slumdog Millionaire" if it was made today due to "cultural appropriation" and would rather have a "young Indian filmmaker" make it instead. "We wouldn't be able to make that now. And that's how it should be. It's time to reflect on all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we've left on the world... At the time it felt radical," Boyle told The Guardian. 'Snow White' Becomes Disney's Worst-performing Live-action Remake In Nearly 10 Years Set in India, the movie tells the story of Jamal, a young "slumdog" who's been selected to appear on the country's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", and hopes to also find his childhood lost love, Latika. Throughout his appearance, events from his tumultuous life are shown in flashback and help him answer the questions. Released in 2008, "Slumdog Millionaire" was a hit with audiences and critics, grossing nearly $380 million on a $15 million budget and winning eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Director for Boyle. Denzel Washington Shuts Down Reports He Bailed On Cannes Film Festival After Red Carpet Incident Read On The Fox News App However, despite its success, the movie was controversial for appearing to exploit Indian culture and portray stereotypes of India from a western perspective. Some Indian critics enjoyed the movie, but some Indian artists were underwhelmed, claiming it was "saturated with stereotyped images of India," TIME magazine reported. Boyle added that while the film was in production over 15 years ago, he was sensitive to the exploitative implications of making the movie as a foreigner then. "We made the decision that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai. We'd work with a big Indian crew and try to make a film within the culture. But you're still an outsider. It's still a flawed method. That kind of cultural appropriation might be sanctioned at certain times," Boyle told The Guardian. He went on to say, "But at other times it cannot be. I mean, I'm proud of the film, but you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like that today. It wouldn't even get financed. Even if I was involved, I'd be looking for a young Indian filmmaker to shoot it." Boyle's other notable movies include "Trainspotting," "Steve Jobs," "127 Hours" and the "28 Days Later" horror series. The latest, "28 Years Later", was released on Friday. Boyle nor his representatives immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Click Here To Read More On Fox NewsOriginal article source: Danny Boyle admits he couldn't make 'Slumdog Millionaire' today because of cultural appropriation concerns
