If you haven’t noticed, the Billboard Hot 100 is currently being dominated by songs that have been out for a long, long time. The No. 1 song in the country, Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” has been on the chart for over a year (more on that later), and on average, the songs that comprise the current top 10 of the chart have been on there for a whopping 28 weeks each. That doesn’t mean the top 10 has been static for months — two songs in the top 10, Doja Cat’s “Woman” and Imagine Dragons’ “Enemy,” climbed up in just the past two weeks — but it does mean that songs that have been out for months are still resonating across listeners old and new.

It also means that the song that tops Billboard’s annual Songs of the Summer chart in 2022 may very well be out by now — and has been out for a while. Although the Songs of the Summer chart doesn’t start until Memorial Day Weekend and conclude until Labor Day Weekend, we already have a fairly healthy crop of contenders, based on some slow-rising and quickly climbing tracks that seem ready to keep growing in the spring and potentially peak in the summer. Of course, there are always a few wild cards in the song of the summer showdown — like last year’s champ, the BTS smash “Butter,” which wasn’t released until mid-May, but proceeded to dominate the competition upon arrival.

So which previously released tracks are our current front-runners and dark horses? And which superstars, who may or may not have new music coming, are worth keeping an eye on? Even though it’s only March, we’re ready for warm weather — and to wade into the race for the 2022 song of the summer, with some way-too-early predictions:

THE FRONT-RUNNERS

Doja Cat, “Woman” 

Doja Cat keeps rattling off hits from last year’s Planet Her album, and her latest, “Woman,” both enters the top 10 on this week’s Hot 100 and sounds like the type of song that could rule streaming playlists and airwaves for months to come. The mix of Afrobeat, reggae and R&B sounds like a natural fit for beach and barbecue playlists alike; as for Doja, there are few more bankable hit-makers on the planet right now, so save a frontrunner spot for Planet Her.

Latto, “Big Energy” 

Latto’s sunny rap breakthrough “Big Energy” is two spots below “Woman” at No. 11 on this week’s Hot 100, and may receive a boost from a new Mariah Carey remix that nods to the interpolation of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” that Carey’s “Fantasy” and “Big Energy” share. The song may also gain momentum in the coming months simply by being so summer-friendly: the shimmering production and boisterous hook are ready to be deployed at dance parties, and Latto is primed for an even bigger hit.

Fireboy DML feat. Ed Sheeran, “Peru” 

Speaking of danceable chart-climbers, “Peru,” from Nigerian artist Fireboy DML and featuring Ed Sheeran, has continued scaling the Hot 100 as the weather warms up, bumping up nine spots to a new peak of No. 54 this week. “Peru” not only has the sound, tempo and chorus to cross over this summer, but Sheeran’s presence will certainly open the song up to radio programmers who have otherwise yet to embrace the Afropop movement. Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence” was one of the most notable hits of 2021, and there’s at least a chance that “Peru” ends up being even bigger.

Imagine Dragons feat. J.I.D, “Enemy”

Last week, Imagine Dragons scored their first top 10 hit in five years, when “Enemy,” their team-up with lightning-quick rapper J.I.D for Netflix’s Arcane soundtrack, climbed into the upper tier of the tally. The brooding, industrial-influenced “Enemy” doesn’t sound like a summer song… but neither did Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” which was one of the biggest hits of 2013 and held the record for most weeks spent on the Hot 100 for seven years. When you consider the added boost from alternative radio that “Enemy” will receive in the coming months, Imagine Dragons has to stay in the contenders’ circle.

Becky G & Karol G, “MAMIII” 

The reggaetón single that pairs Latin pop stars Becky G and Karol G has resulted in mainstream pop success for both, with a top 20 bow on the Hot 100 and a current position of No. 26. The streaming numbers continue to bode well for “MAMIII,” and if the track receives a flashy primetime performance or major remix, the two G’s could be enjoying the first top 10 hit of their respective careers together — as well as a real song of the summer contender.

JNR CHOI & Sam Tompkins, “To The Moon!” 

London-based rapper JNR CHOI built a drill track around a sample of singer-songwriter Sam Tompkins’ cover of Bruno Mars’ “Talking to the Moon,” named it after an Elon Musk catchphrase, watched it go viral on TikTok, and is now enjoying a No. 64 Hot 100 peak. Got all that? Even if you don’t, one listen to “To The Moon” unlocks its summer-song potential, a classic drill production with a crossover-ready pop hook at its core — and now, with a new remix featuring Gunna.

THE OUTSIDE SHOTS:

Anitta, “Envolver” 

As outlined in this week’s Trending Up newsletter, Anitta’s reggaetón single has taken off on TikTok thanks to a viral dance challenge, and may serve as the stateside breakthrough that the Brazilian pop star has been attempting over the past few years. “Envolver” hasn’t hit the Hot 100 yet, but its streaming gains suggest a significant few months ahead.

Dove Cameron, “Boyfriend” 

Meanwhile, Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend” has made the Hot 100, and is quickly rising — up seven spots to No. 42 in its sixth week on the tally. The former Disney Channel star teased the sensual, gender-convention-flipping single in the weeks leading up to its February release, which yielded a notable streaming debut; sonically, “Boyfriend” is more muted than a typical summer song, but don’t be surprised if it keeps climbing, especially with a brand new music video.

Megan Thee Stallion & Dua Lipa, “Sweetest Pie”

Camila Cabello feat. Ed Sheeran, “Bam Bam”

Consider these two recently released collaborations in the same category of summer-song potential: both the Megan/Dua pop confection “Sweetest Pie” and the Camila/Ed post-breakup sing-along “Bam Bam” were released in early March, missed out on top 10 Hot 100 debuts, but are still sitting in the top 40 of the chart as pop radio support starts to kick in. The four artists across these two songs possess such mainstream power and radio cachet that the (slightly) slow starts of “Sweetest Pie” and “Bam Bam” can’t disqualify them from summer contention.

Tiësto & Ava Max, “The Motto” 

Last year, Dutch EDM powerhouse Tiësto made a song of the summer bid with “The Business,” while top 40 mainstay Ava Max collected another hit with “My Head & My Heart.” This year, they’ve teamed up for the thumping “The Motto,” and fans of both are buying in: the song shoots up 13 spots to No. 51 on this week’s Hot 100. With more outdoor festivals and major tours this year, expect to hear that bass line from “The Motto” a whole lot.

Glass Animals, “Heat Waves” 

Well… can you really rule it out? The current biggest song in the country for the fourth week in a row made history for the longest climb to the top of the Hot 100 ever, at 59 weeks — to show you how long “Heat Waves,” originally released by Glass Animals in June 2020, has hung around, it was also featured as an outside shot in last year’s Way-Too-Early Song of the Summer round-up! “Heat Waves” staying atop the Hot 100 well into the summer seems improbable, but this song keeps defying expectation — plus, it’s called “Heat Waves” and takes place in the middle of June, so it’s a readymade summer anthem!

THE TO-BE-DETERMINEDS

Harry Styles 

Not that many hours hours from now, Styles will kick off his third solo era with “As It Was,” the lead single from his May album Harry’s House. Will the song continue his mainstream dominance following smashes like “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar,” return to the more meditative grandiosity of his first album, or offer something totally different from both? We’ll soon have an inkling of Styles’ creative focus, but after the enormity of his Fine Line singles, “As It Was” (or any subsequent radio hopefuls from Harry’s House) should be considered an instant contender.

Lizzo

Lizzo returned last August with “Rumors,” a Cardi B collaboration that bowed at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and… didn’t exactly kick off the new album cycle pop fans were breathlessly anticipating. Fortunately, it looks like that cycle is upon us eight months later, with a new single, “About Damn Time,” arriving next month, to coincide with a double-duty SNL gig on Apr. 15. Lizzo won over streaming platforms and pop radio with smashes like “Truth Hurts” and “Good As Hell,” and it shouldn’t be hard to find support when her next project officially materializes.

Nicki Minaj 

After a relatively quiet 2021, Minaj has started off the year with a bang — first with back-to-back Lil Baby team-ups, “Do We Have a Problem?” and “Bussin,” and then last week with the Fivio Foreign collaboration “We Go Up.” The proper follow-up to 2018’s Queen is hopefully on the horizon, too, so whether Minaj enters the song of the summer competition with one of these songs, an upcoming collaboration or a solo track, she has the pedigree to dominate during a particularly prolific period.

Lil Nas X 

This week, Lil Nas X is focused on his previously released music — Montero is up for album of the year at this Sunday’s Grammys, while “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” is nominated for record of the year and song of the year. But that doesn’t mean new music isn’t also around the corner: earlier this month, he teased an unreleased song titled “Lean on My Body” on TikTok. A little over six months after Montero’s release, are we that far away from its follow-up? Even if the answer is “yes, sadly,” Nas could rule with a one-off single and reclaim the crown “Old Town Road” first earned him in 2019.

Cardi B 

The wait continues for Cardi B’s follow-up to her stunning debut album, Invasion of Privacy — next week will mark the four-year anniversary of its release — although the hip-hop superstar has said that new music is on the way this year. Whenever it does, it will undoubtedly have a strong shot at the top of the Hot 100, considering Cardi’s two most recent singles as a lead artist, 2020’s “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion and 2021’s “Up,” both made it there. Give us an “I Like It” reunion with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, Cardi, and watch the 2022 SOTS title become your own.

BTS 

Finally, we have the reigning song of the summer champs, whose “Butter” dominated for 10 non-consecutive weeks (briefly interrupted by another BTS single, “Permission to Dance,” atop the Hot 100). Fan theories abound on when we might get a new BTS single or album, but rest assured, whenever new music drops, season-long domination is a distinct possibility for the group with six No. 1 singles in the past two years.

When Dove Cameron started writing “Boyfriend,” she had zero expectations it would take flight. “I never thought it would end up on the EP if I’m being honest,” she tells Billboard. But after a TikTok tease of the chorus went viral, the singer/actress and her team wasted no time getting into the studio to complete the unfinished demo.

Now, the Disruptor Records single is her first non-Disney hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 42 on the March 19, 2022 tally. “Usually you have three months to prepare for a song, but we all strapped in and have been making up for lost time. Which means I’m not ever sleeping,” she laughs.

“Boyfriend” is not only a win for the Descendants/Liv and Maddie alum’s adult music career, but a validation of her queer identity, which the public only learned about last year (though she’s been out to her friends and family since she was a child). “That means the most to me of anything,” she shares. “It’s healing for me to be having this experience.”

I will ask you about music, but first and foremost I have to know what it was like being a guest judge on Drag Race.

It’s one of those things that has meant so much to me for so long. And I was not fully convinced would ever happen. When they called, I had a full-blown panic attack — I’ve been watching Drag Race for probably eight years. Seeing it so boldly represented in mainstream media was very important for my experience with my own coming out and my relationship with my queerness.

How did “Boyfriend” come together?

“Boyfriend” was the very first song I sat down to write for my EP. I had just come off a tour the night before, so I was writing from a perspective of freedom. I never thought it would end up on the EP, if I’m being honest. I was telling the story of this crazy night I had a couple weeks before that. And in the middle of recounting this insane story I think I casually said something to the room like, “F–k, I could be a better boyfriend than this guy.” And we were all kinda like, “wait, is this a good hook?” A lot of it became a report of what it felt like to grow up queer and be surrounded by all these women who were famously mistreated and under-celebrated.

Can you share the particulars of that crazy night?

The circumstances surrounding it were so far-fetched that if I told them to you it would give the whole thing away and it would reveal who these people are. I sadly can’t. Just know it was a very wild night and maybe I’ll put it into a book one day.

How quickly did it come together?

I’m finding that of all my favorite songs I’ve written myself, the concept, the writing process and the recording process are all under 3-4 hours, which sounds insane. It’s fast. Once you have the concept and have built the world, that’s the key for me at least. I’ve fledged out a cinematic moment: we’re gonna zoom-in on special shots, we’re gonna get the atmosphere, it’s gonna be lyrically aligned with making you feel transported somewhere. And once you do that, it’s pretty easy. You’re teeing up a scene that you yourself have roots in. I like writing from a sensory perspective.

And the funny part, for me, is I had just come off of tour and my voice was wrecked. And everybody is like “wow you have this saucy, sexy vocal sound” and I’m like, “You mean damage? It’s called something is sitting on my cord.”

I’m hearing a lot of cinematic terms as you describe your music. Do you draw on your acting as you record?

Yes, definitely. When I set out to do the EP I was feeling particularly inspired by a lot of my male cinematic classic villains in some of my favorite films. Not their story, but the mood. Everything is very influenced by cinema for me. And “Boyfriend” is very orchestral, the big crashes and swells and the horns in the production.

When “Boyfriend” blew up on TikTok, were you following all the clips people shared?

What happened with “Boyfriend” is that I posted a nine-second clip of the chorus, which is really misleading — the rest of the song sounds nothing like the chorus. When it blew up I was so shocked. I was dumbfounded, jaw on the floor, refreshing the recreates every hour. Like, “what is going on?” It was like somebody put a spell on the song. I couldn’t tear myself away from how creative people were getting. The mark of a song that is beloved is when people take it and make it into something else that’s important to them. It’s so flattering. TikTok is a great measure. Going forward I have a new song called “Breakfast” and I’m going to test how people feel about the hook in “Breakfast” first before I decide what I’m going to release next. It’s an amazing immediate feedback loop we’ve never had in the industry and it’s going to allow me and other artists to release music more immediately. It’s like, “I wrote this last week and I’m going to release it next week.” It’s really freeing.

When it blew up, did your label notice and hop into gear?

I’ve been with the same team for ages. Everybody has kids, they’re going to barbeques, they have migraines – it’s just a bunch of humans. When I wrote “Boyfriend” and a bunch of other songs in October they were like, “Why don’t you put something on TikTok to show fans that you’re working on in the studio?” And that was the whole reason I released “Boyfriend.” It was not a grand plan, there was no promo behind it.

You tip to your queer identity in this song. It must have been liberating to see it received so well.

Yes, for a million reasons. I can recognize that it looks so intentional, like I was like, “Now I’m gonna dye my hair and write a queer anthem,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I wrote it being like, “I don’t even know if this is good” and then put it away and wrote a bunch of other songs where my sexuality isn’t the focal point. And then when people warmly responded to the hook I was like, “oh they think it’s something it’s not, it’s going to be disappointing (for them).” But then to watch the rollout and see people continue to beat the support drum – “oh we love it, no questions” — has been very healing for me. Both to marry who I’ve always known myself to be with my very public decade-long career; those things have been very separate. To be clear, I’ve always known who I was and always been out in my own immediate circles. I feel very lucky. I think I told my parents I was queer when I was eight. I told them, “I’m in love with Erin. And also Colby.” And they were like, “Great.” It was unbelievably lucky. When I went into a career in the public eye, it wasn’t like, “I’m going to keep this a secret.” It was like, “I know I’m queer and someone will probably ask me about it and then I’ll say it.” But no one ever did! And I was publicly dating men and I think I present like a straight cis woman, no one asked me. So finally when it came up and I was like “I’m really f—ing gay,” people were like “w-w-wait, wha?!”

For the most part, people are very kind and very receptive, and I think that’s a testament to where we are right now with this younger generation and their own queer experiences. This generation is so much more expressive and in touch and in communication with each other about intentionally building queer circles and opening up the conversation. It’s a much more open-minded generation from when even I was in middle school. That means the most to me of anything.

Does the rest of the EP sound like this or are there some left turns?

All the music coming next is sonically from the same world. We use a lot of organic sixties musicality, a lot of jazz. In the way that “Boyfriend” is secretly a jazz song – we snuck in an upright bass. They all live within the same world but they are all different girls.

What is it gonna be like on stage when you tour?

I’m still figuring that out, but if I was to dream it up, I told my label I want lots of horns and strings and they were like “Great.” When I tour, I was presenting more rock/alternative before and now I’m thinking big band/jazz. I’m very excited for all the live shows. I found this incredibly talented upright bassist and cellist and violinist and all this crazy sh-t. This is my dream as a movie villain myself – I’m already walking around the world thinking there are strings and horns behind me. It’s a blend of sexy film noir but it’s modern. The blueprint of the house is a dubstep song, drrrrrr, then huge drop, but we’re doing it with live instrumentation and with a sexy affectation.

I thought you said Dovestep for a moment.

You’re not the first person to say that. How f–king egotistical would that be? “I’m creating my own genre and you’re going to have to get with it.”

Anything else you want to add?

I want to thank everybody. I’ve never felt this creatively in touch and permitted to create whatever I want. I think I told myself I was always a supporter for whatever other people wanted to do, and suddenly I just feel renewed and inspired. This song has changed my life and people’s reaction to it has changed my life. I’m shocked and grateful and want to say thank you.

Lord, have mercy — Chloe Bailey is back.

The 23-year-old star took to social media on Thursday (Mar. 31) to reveal that her upcoming single, “Treat Me,” is out on April 8.

“y’all ready?” she asked her fans alongside the single’s cover art, which features  the Chloe x Halle breakout star in nothing but a latex thong and an oversized black puffer jacket. The look is complete with sleek bangs, jewels dripping down her chest and sky-high platform heels.

TREAT ME DROPS 4/8 y’all ready? make sure you pre-save 🖤https://t.co/2g4sIUoybk pic.twitter.com/odqEENhJAH

— Chlöe (@ChloeBailey) March 31, 2022

The single marks Chloe’s first of 2022, after a breakthrough 2021 with her debut solo hit “Have Mercy.” The Murda Beatz-produced “Mercy” hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and broke into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The 23-year-old artist performed the song during the 2021 MTV VMAs and AMAs. She was slated to perform “Have Mercy” during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2022 from Times Square in New York City, but canceled on Dec. 29.

“I’m not the most confident person. Every day, I’m constantly thinking, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with me?’ So we’re all going through that. But I have to remind myself that it’s bigger than me,” Chloe recently said in an interview with In the Know. “Now I can easily say, ‘Oh yeah, they can talk about me. I’ll just put it in my songs again.’ You know? If no one ever said anything negative about me, I would have never made ‘Have Mercy.’ I would have never made half the records that are going to be on my album.”

She also shared that her mentor, Beyoncé, was one of her first inspirations to helping her feel comfortable with the skin she’s in. “I can honestly and genuinely say it was Beyoncé who made me look at my body and say maybe it is OK to have my body. Maybe it is OK to have a plump butt. Maybe it is OK to have to shake and jump to fit in my jeans,” the “Have Mercy” singer explained, referencing Beyoncé’s verse on “Savage.” “During the ‘Bootylicious’ era, I would go and see her flaunting her curves and be like, ‘She looks damn good!’”