Robert Smith has achieved a career first on the Billboard Hot 100, landing his debut solo chart entry thanks to his collaboration with Olivia Rodrigo.
The Cure frontman enters the latest Billboard Hot 100 at No. 17 with What’s Wrong With Me, a standout track from Olivia Rodrigo’s new album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.
The achievement marks Smith’s first appearance on the chart as a solo artist, despite enjoying decades of success with The Cure.
Robert Smith secures first solo Hot 100 entry
According to Billboard data compiled by Luminate, What’s Wrong With Me generated 15.5 million official US streams during its first week of release.
The strong performance helped propel the song to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Smith a milestone chart achievement more than 40 years into his recording career.
While this is his first solo appearance on the chart, Smith previously reached the Hot 100 14 times with The Cure between 1986 and 1996.
The band’s biggest US hit remains Love Song, which peaked at No. 2 in 1989.
Olivia Rodrigo’s new album debuts at No. 1
The collaboration appears on Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
The album opened with 485,000 equivalent album units in the United States, making it the second-largest debut week of 2026 behind ARIRANG by BTS.
Olivia Rodrigo on her connection to The Cure
Rodrigo has previously spoken about her admiration for The Cure and the emotional impact the band’s music has had on her life.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, she recalled a particularly memorable concert experience.
“I saw The Cure with my dad and we were just holding each other singing Pictures of You, and I’m like, ‘This is so beautiful,’ we’re just crying. That’s just a thing in my family. We’re very, very emotional when it comes to music, it’s sort of our thing.”
The collaboration with Smith represents one of the most high-profile guest appearances on the album.
Robert Smith confirms two new Cure albums are on the way
Away from his work with Rodrigo, Smith recently revealed that The Cure are preparing to release two more albums.
During an interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, he explained that the band recorded enough material for three separate records.
“We did record three albums’ worth of songs, so the second one is done.”
“The third one is weird, actually.”
Smith suggested that one of the upcoming projects takes a surprisingly upbeat direction compared to the band’s recent material.
“People think, ‘Ah, it’s because he’s been working with Olivia,’ because the third one is actually really upbeat. It’s really poppy… it’s my idea of Cure Pop. It’s probably 20 BPM slower than anything she does, but [compared to] what we’ve done in the last couple of years, it’s really rocking. It’s banging.”
However, the next album scheduled for release will continue the darker themes associated with the band’s recent work.
“The next one, if anything, it’s more dismal than Songs of a Lost World.”
“It’s quite dark… it’s a different perspective on things.”
