Raphael Saadiq on Chart Success: “I’d Rather Have The Song That Stays Around”
The Grammy winner recently took part in THR’s Songwriter’s Roundtable alongside artists like Shaboozey, Hayley Williams and Ed Sheeran.
Raphael Saadiq at the 39th American Cinematheque Awards held at The Beverly Hilton on November 20, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Photo by Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images.
Raphael Saadiq recently spoke about the flawed logic of using the music charts to determine a song’s greatness. The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/producer took part in The Hollywood Reporter’s Songwriters Roundtable, alongside Shaboozey, Hayley Williams, Ed Sheeran and EJAE and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast. During the conversation, Saadiq shared that he isn’t an artist preoccupied with chart success at all.
“I never really cared about Billboard,” he revealed. “I never looked at it. When I wrote a good song and I knew it, the song stayed around longer than everybody who had a No. !. So I’d rather have the song that stays around longer than a number in a magazine. Because the magazine goes, and the song stays.”
The multi-instrumentalist revealed that his greatest gratification comes from before the world even hears the finished song.
“For me, it was always like… when I’m in the studio and you write a song, the reward is always – in the beginning – listening back before everybody else gets a chance to hear it.”
Saadiq’s lengthy career has seen him find success as one third of Tony! Toni! Toné!, as a member of the supergroup Lucy Pearl, and in his storied solo career, plus as a producer for artists like Solange and Joss Stone. He shared a story about running into a fellow musician who was seeing some major chart success at the time.
“This guy walked up to me one day and said ‘I think I just beat you on Billboard, I’m No. 1 and you’re No. 2,’” Saadiq shared. “I was like ‘Congratulations, man!’ Now, I don’t hear that song anymore that he wrote. But I still hear my song! I had to learn through experience.”
