Bon Jovi’s ‘Prayer’ Re-Enters Hot 100 Due To Viral Revival

Bon Jovi’s 1987 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Livin’ on a Prayer” returns to the ranking at No. 25 thanks to renewed viral interest. The iconic rock track debuts on Streaming Songs at No. 5 after garnering 5.1 million streams in the U.S. last week (up 390%), according to Nielsen BDS. Mostly all of the song’s total streams (96%) arrive from user-generated clips, as viewers have spurred renewed viral interest in a video posted in 2009 of Boston Celtics basketball fan Jeremy Fry dancing to “Prayer” during a stoppage in play at Boston’s TD Garden. A fresh upload of Fry’s dance routine to viral video and content aggregator Utrend.tv on Oct. 17 has drawn 11 million worldwide views alone and has been shared on Facebook more than  1.6 million times since its posting.

“Prayer” re-enters the Hot 100 more than 26 years after it spent four weeks atop the chart (Feb. 14-March 7, 1987). It returns with 94% of its Hot 100 chart points owed to streaming. Still, it sports an 11% uptick to 4,000 downloads sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and jumps 19-8 on Hot Rock Songs. The song, long a staple of adult and rock radio stations’ ’80s music libraries, received more than 500 plays among the Hot 100’s more than 1,200 reporters last week, according to BDS.

Bon Jovi has tallied 25 Hot 100 hits since first arriving with the No. 39-peaking “Runaway” in 1984. Until this week, the band had last appeared on the chart in 2009 with “We Weren’t Born to Follow,” which reached No. 68. In addition to “Prayer,” the band has ruled the chart with “You Give Love a Bad Name” (1986), “Bad Medicine” (1988) and “I’ll Be There for You” (1989).

Sources:

Billboard

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHkRk00iI8

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Skylight Magazine

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