Seventeen years after his death, music icon Michael Jackson is still making music history.
On June 3, 2026, People reported that Jackson is about to “officially become the first and only artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in every decade since the 1970s.”
Michael Jackson’s Newest Hit Comes From a 2014 Album Released After His Death
Inspired by the May release of Jackson’s biopic “Michael,” starring the King of Pop’s nephew Jafaar Jackson, his music is hot yet again. But while many classics have hit the charts, one song that’s never charted before — “Chicago,” released on the posthumous 2014 album “Xscape” — will land on the June 6 Billboard chart at number 30.
That means Jackson will now have at least one new song on the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the last six decades: 11 songs in the 70s, 20 hits in the 80s, 12 songs in the ’90s, four in the 2000s, four more in the 2010s, and now one — “Chicago” — in the 2020s.
According to Billboard, the sudden climb of “Chicago” isn’t from radio play, but “almost entirely from 10.7 million official chart-eligible streams” in the U.S. from May 22 to 28, as calculated by data tracker Luminate. Billboard allows older songs to appear on the chart if they are “ranking in the top 50 and showing meaningful gains.”
“Chicago” wasn’t a single when “Xscape” was released. Only two songs from the album hit the charts then — “Slave to the Rhythm” and “Love Never Felt So Good,” a duet with Justin Timberlake that made the Top 10.
How Did Michael Jackson’s ‘Chicago’ Get So Popular?
As “Chicago” started zooming up the charts after the movie was released, Variety noted on May 20 that it had become Jackson’s eighth most-played track on Spotify, skyrocketing into the platform’s top 30 songs in the U.S. and making it into the top 100 on YouTube’s US Top Songs.
The song was first recorded when Jackson was making his 2001 album “Invincible” but was called “She Was Loving Me” at the time, per Variety. Written by Cory Rooney, it didn’t make the final cut, and remained in Jackson’s archives until Timbaland re-produced the song and it was added to “Xscape.”
Timbaland had to fend off a lawsuit in 2016 that claimed he’d stolen the beat he added to “Chicago,” according to MJVibe.com, but the musician who filed the suit eventually dropped all claims in the suit and promised not to seek any money for court costs.
“Chicago” didn’t gain traction when it first appeared on “Xscape” in 2014, though. It wasn’t until 2023, Variety reported, that a new generation discovered the track, and a sped-up version started circulating on TikTok, highlighting the lyrics “She smiled and looked at me / I was surprised to see that a woman like that was really into me.” Social media users placed the music clip under their own videos, including the popular animated birds video above.
From there, the song’s popularity has only grown with the incredible box office performance of “Michael.” On May 31, Complex reported that the movie has generated approximately $846.3 million worldwide, which puts the film “within striking distance of becoming the highest-grossing music biopic ever released.”
