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The Weekend Sets New Billboard Record With “Blinding Lights”

By Guardian Nigeria

22 September 2020   |   11:36 am

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The Weeknd has made Billboard history with his smash single "Blinding Lights" which has now spent a record 28 weeks in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. With the feat, The Weeknd, née Abel Makkonen Tesfaye beats the previous record-holder Ed Sheeran, whose 2017 song “Shape of You” spent 27 weeks in the…

The Weeknd | Image: Blinding Lights Screenshot

The Weeknd has made Billboard history with his smash single “Blinding Lights” which has now spent a record 28 weeks in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.

With the feat, The Weeknd, née Abel Makkonen Tesfaye beats the previous record-holder Ed Sheeran, whose 2017 song “Shape of You” spent 27 weeks in the Hot 100’s Top 5. Other past contenders have included the likes of Post Malone, whose “Circles” lasted 26 weeks; Cardi B and Maroon 5’s collaboration “Girls Like You,” which held on for 24 weeks and Lil Nas X’s smash-hit “Old Town Road (Remix),” which maintained Top 5-status for 23 weeks.

“Blinding Lights” was released as the second single of the Canadian singer’s fourth studio album After Hours.

“Blinding Lights” peaked at number one in thirty-four countries, including the United States and Canada, where it became The Weeknd’s fifth number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Hot 100 for four and seven weeks, respectively. It also became his first number one single in Germany for ten weeks, the United Kingdom for eight weeks, and Australia for eleven weeks, thus making it his most successful single worldwide to date.

The intro to “Blinding Lights” has been used in a TikTok choreographed dance challenge known as the “Blinding Lights Challenge”. It was used to promote Super Bowl LIV, and featured as the theme song for WrestleMania 36.

The music video of “Blinding Lights” shows The Weeknd reliving the happenings of a wild night as well as racing through the streets of downtown L.A. in a drop-top Mercedes.

Earlier this month, in an interview with Rolling Stone, The Weeknd revealed that he is working on having another album ready sooner rather than later.

“I might have another album ready to go by the time this quarantine is over,” he teased.

“I’m guilty of wanting to outdo my last album, but it’s never like, ‘I’ve got to do the same type of song.’ I’m so happy I’m not like that. My palette is so wide.”