Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber have repudiated allegations made by the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine that they bought their way to the US No 1 spot. 6ix9ine claimed that the pair – who are both managed by Scooter Braun – had purchased 30,000 copies of their charity single, Stuck With U, to augment its chart standing. He additionally claimed that sales of his single Gooba were discounted, occasioning in it charting at No 3.
Writing on Instagram stories, Bieber repudiated 6ix9ine’s allegations, stating that if five or more copies of a single were bought on the same credit card, all of those sales were invigorated against the song’s rating. He said that Nielsen, the US data company accountable for assembling Billboard graphics, had checked the numbers “and found all of our sales to be genuine as our fans are incredible and bought them.”
Grande, posting on Instagram, replied to 6ix9ine’s allegations without naming it: “Anybody who is unhappy with their location on the chart this week or who spends his time persuading himself about as several ways as possible to discredit hard working females (and only females for whatever reason… ..), I ask you to take a moment to demean yourself. “
Billboard issued a detailed article disproving the 6ix9ine claims. “Overall, Stuck With U enticed 28.1 million American broadcasts, 26.3 million radio audiences and 108,000 sold during the following week … Gooba had 55.3 million American broadcasts, 172 000 in radio audience, and 24,000 sold. These sums occasioned in the respective ranking of songs on this week’s Hot 100. “6ix9ine centered its claims on an email displaying a forecast that would have been sent to chief labels last Thursday before the chart was released on Friday, which displayed Stuck With U at number 5. It shared images of a second email, sent, he said, “at the last second” before the close of sales of the graph, which displayed an additional 60,000 sales for Stuck With U, which positioned it at No. 1. Bieber said that the sales of his single with Grande were not reported until Thursday so as to beat the competition. “That is called strategy,” he said. He claimed that the streams that 6ix9ine considered “ineligible” were from his song’s worldwide streaming figures, which do not factor into the domestic chart. The proceeds from Stuck With U go to the First Responders Children’s Foundation, which gives monetary scholarships to the kids of first responders, chiefly those who have been killed or incapacitated in the line of duty.
