Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have come out to deny an allegation by Daniel Hernandez (6ix9ine) that the pair bought the number one spot on the US chart with ‘Stuck With U’, their collaborative single.
Hernandez had accused the duo and Billboard of fraud and chart manipulation, claiming that ‘Gooba’, his recently released single, was improperly discounted, leaving it in third place on the chart.
Presenting forecasts purportedly sent to major record labels, he had also questioned their submission of 60,000 units, which had reportedly boosted their single to number one from five.
Both Grande and Bieber, however, denied the allegations.
Beiber took to his Instagram story on Tuesday to state that if five or more copies of a single are purchased on the same credit card, all of those sales are discounted from the song’s chart placing.
The Canadian singer also hedged that the data company responsible for compiling the Billboard Charts had checked the figures and “found all the sales were legit because fans are amazing and bought them.”
On her part, Grande stated that the numbers have never been her drive in music-making.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) May 18, 2020
“To anybody that is displeased with their placement on the chart or racking their brain thinking of ways they can discredit hard-working women, I ask u to take a moment to humble yourself,” she said.
“However, I would like to say a few things. anyone who knows me or has followed me for a while knows that numbers aren’t the driving force in anything I do.
“I didn’t have a number one for the first five years of my career and it didn’t upset me at all because, from the bottom of my heart, music is everything to me.”
Billboard had earlier addressed the allegation of chart manipulation brought against it by the rapper, detailing the figures that prompted the chart placing of the singles in question.
“Overall, ‘Stuck With U’ drew 28.1m US streams, 26.3m in radio airplay audience, and 108,000 sold in the tracking week,” it explained.
“‘Gooba’ had 55.3m US streams, 172,000 in radio airplay audience and 24,000 sold. Those sums resulted in the songs’ respective rankings on this week’s Hot 100.”
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