Taylor Swift dominated the Billboard Hot 100 charts on May 4, 2024. She was deep into her record-breaking Eras tour while her hits kept climbing the charts. Other highlights from this day in Top 40 music history include Madonna holding a free concert in Brazil, a festival being canceled due to dangerous weather, and Marie Osmond of the Osmond family remarrying her first husband.
Breakthrough Hits and Milestones
The industry has seen many milestones on May 4, including when Taylor Swift knocked it out of the park with hit after hit on the charts:
- 2019: On the Billboard Hot 100 for May 4 was Post Malone’s “Wow” at No. 2, which spent 18 weeks on the charts. In addition, Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” came in at No. 3 after 27 weeks on the charts.
- 2024: Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight” was at No. 1 on the chart, and her single “Down Bad” hit No. 2. Moving down the charts, Swift’s “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” was at No. 3, and her song “The Tortured Poets Department” was at No. 4 on the charts on May 4.
- 2024: There was no stopping this mega superstar as Swift’s “So Long, London” was No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” was at No. 6. Swift had several other successive hits, including “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” at No. 14.
- 2024: After thousands of paid performances in her decades of touring, Madonna held a free concert at the historic Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Interestingly, Lady Gaga followed in Madonna’s footsteps and held a free show at this same place on May 3, 2025, which she titled Mayhem on the Beach.
Notable Recordings and Performances
Our hats off to these fun performances held on May 4:
- 2019: Pop star and sometime country star, Miley Cyrus, performed at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 2024: AJR played the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on May 4 as part of their The Maybe Man tour. The top songs they sang included “Yes I’m a Mess” and “Touchy Feely Fool.”
Industry Changes and Challenges
There have been difficult moments on this day too:
- 2011: Pop singer turned country artist Marie Osmond remarried her former husband, Steve Craig. They were previously married in 1982. They had a child, got divorced, and then remarried. Love has a way of finding each other’s hearts again.
- 2024: Pop fans anticipated fun under the sun at the Lovers & Friends music festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds with headliners such as Usher, Alicia Keys, T-Pain, and Mary J. Blige. However, the National Weather Service issued high wind warnings due to severe weather, and the festival organizers canceled the event for May 4.
May 4 was a significant day for the pop genre, with megastar Taylor Swift and Post Malone hitting the charts in 2019. Challenges, changes, and evolution are a major part of the music industry, and artists and organizers seem to roll with the punches when an obstacle or challenge arises.
