Bruno Mars just set the worst debut of his career: his duet with Karol G opened second-to-last on the chart

Which is why this week's numbers are so deliciously weird: "Still," his ballad with Karol G — one of the most hyped collaborations of the year — just debuted at No. 99 out of 100 on the U.K.'s Official Singles Sales chart. Second-to-last. His lowest entry ever on that ranking.

The damage report

• No. 99 on the U.K. Official Singles Sales chart — one slot above the basement.
• No. 93 on the Official Singles Downloads chart, tying "Finesse" for position.
• The song is, technically, his 36th and 20th career hit on those charts respectively, which is the chart-nerd equivalent of "at least you participated."

Before anyone drafts the career obituary: in the U.S., "Still" opened at No. 41 on the Hot 100 — Mars' 45th career entry there. So this is less "the hit machine is broken" and more "the hit machine coughed in one specific country."

The song itself

"Still" is the big English-language moment on Karol G's heartbreak album No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto — an '80s-soaked ballad where the two harmonize about loving someone after it's over. Karol clearly knew the framing risk in advance.

"There's a song on the album that's entirely in English, and I don't want people to just see it as, 'Oh, Karol G's new English song,'" she said in a TikTok around the release. She's since brought Mars out for a surprise live debut of it in L.A., cowboy hat and all.

So is it cooked?

The people who watch charts for a living aren't calling time of death. "Bruno Mars has a magic sauce when it comes to collaborations, including more downtempo tracks like this one," Billboard's Lyndsey Havens noted. "I can totally see it being a slow grower."

Ballads crawl; that's their whole personality. But for exactly one week, the man who cannot miss has a No. 99, and honestly? Let him have one human moment. It's character development.