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Canadian Hot 100 First-Timers: Alexander Stewart Charts With "I Wish You Cheated"

The Toronto-born musician and TikTok creator makes his Canadian Hot 100 debut on the Jan. 6 chart with a relatable lovelorn single.

Alexander Stewart

Alexander Stewart

via Facebook

Canadian singer-songwriter Alexander Stewart starts 2024 off with a bang, making his debut on the Canadian Hot 100 with the explosive "i wish you cheated," off of his new EP, if you only knew. The lovelorn single arrives on the Jan. 6 chart at No. 100 after gathering steam since Stewart's October performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Starting off with mournful piano and Stewart's voice, the song has a strong premise: Stewart wishes his ex had cheated on him so that he could have clarity, and a simple justification for feeling angry and upset. The piano cuts out at the end of the chorus as Stewart asks: "how do I move on / when you did nothing wrong?" Then, Stewart ramps up the energy with backup vocals, dropouts and a theatricality that calls to mind Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license."


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It's the kind of emotionally relatable song that resonates on TikTok, and it has. The Toronto-born musician is now based in L.A. and has built up an impressive online fanbase, with six million followers on TikTok and 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube. He released if you only knew with entertainment company FAE, and according to a press release the initial TikTok campaign for "i wish you cheated" amassed more than 43 million views. Stewart was the second-most popular artist on TikTok in Canada in 2023, behind Lauren Spencer Smith, who charted on the Billboard Hot 100 last year with "Last Christmas."

Stewart previously appeared on the Canada CHR/Top 40 radio chart with "Backwards" in 2020, which peaked at No. 31. But this is his first time on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, and he's pretty excited about it. Stewart could be poised to climb higher, if he can gather momentum as holiday music drops off the charts in the coming weeks. The top 10 of this week's Billboard Canadian Hot 100 are all holiday songs.

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Also new on the Jan. 6 chart is "Entrapreneur" by U.K. rapper Central Cee, who first hit the Billboard Hot 100 last year with his Drake collab "On The Radar Freestyle." "Entrapreneur" enters at No. 87.

Here are the other new entries on the Canadian Hot 100 this week:

  • "Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season" by Andy Williams at No. 42
  • "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" by Gwen Stefani Featuring Blake Shelton at No. 45
  • "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by Mariah Carey at No. 46
  • "My Only Wish (This Year)" by Britney Spears at No. 49
  • "Wrap Me Up" by Jimmy Fallon and Megan Trainor at No. 92
Check out the full chart here and follow all of Billboard Canada's charts here.
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R. Zee Jackson
Doug McClement

R. Zee Jackson

FYI

Obituaries: Canadian Reggae Star R. Zee Jackson, A&M Promo Exec JP Guilbert, Irish Singer-Songwriter Glen Hansard

This week we also acknowledge the passing of French music DJ and producer Kavinsky.

R. Zee Jackson (also known as Esso Jaxxon) a Jamaican-Canadian reggae vocalist, songwriter and engineer who had a major impact on the Toronto reggae scene, died on July 25, at age 72.

A profile in the Canada Black Music Archives (CBMA) writes that ''R. Zee Jackson was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, where he spent his childhood before migrating to Canada. In 1973 he participated in a cultural exchange program to the United States which would lead him to moving to Canada in 1975. There he would meet reggae producer Oswald Creary of Half Moon Records and Doug McClement of Comfort Sounds Studio.''

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