Toronto crooner The Weeknd has recently taken to Twitter to celebrate one of the biggest feats for an artist. From his hit 2020 album After Hours, The Weeknd’s single “Blinding Lights” has officially become the most streamed song on Spotify. The Canadian singer took to Twitter to celebrate the occasion with his fans with a tweet on January 1, 2023, “FOR NEW YEARS ???” In a follow-up tweet, The Weeknd wrote, “happy new years to blinding lights. the most streamed song of all time tonight.”
“Blinding Lights” was first released on November 29, 2019, and became an instant hit. It was the second single from his fourth studio album, After Hours. After debuting at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, it spent the next four weeks at the No. 1 spot. Later, it became the first song to be in the Top 10 songs on the chart for a full year. According to Spotify’s Daily Global chart, the song has surpassed Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” by 918,000 filtered streams. Besides his song, The Weeknd himself also ended 2022 as Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year. In January 2022, he dropped his most recent album Dawn FM which debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 2.
But that’s not all – “Blinding Lights” has also been officially crowned the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time. The song, which appeared on The Weeknd’s After Hours album and was released at the end of 2019, has spent over 100 weeks in the charts. In that time, it set a new record for most weeks in the Top Five of the chart (43), Top 10 (57 weeks), and Top 40 (86 weeks). It replaces Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit “The Twist” as the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time.
Toasting the news on Twitter on New Year’s Eve, The Weeknd shared screencaps from the song’s video, writing: “happy new years to blinding lights. the most streamed song of all time tonight.”
Last month saw The Weeknd share his new track from the new Avatar: The Way Of Water movie. The track ‘Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)’ was written by The Weeknd and produced by Swedish House Mafia and composer Simon Franglen.
Looking into the future, The Weeknd recently announced a series of European dates for his ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ tour, which include two shows at London Stadium on July 7 and 8 and a newly added Wembley Stadium show.
In conclusion, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has achieved an impressive feat, surpassing Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” as the most-streamed song in Spotify history with 3.332 billion streams. It has also been crowned the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time, setting new records for most weeks in the top five, top 10, and top 40 of the chart. The Weeknd has announced a series of European tour dates, including shows at London Stadium and Wembley Stadium. It’s clear that the Canadian singer is on a roll, and fans can’t wait to see what he has in store next.
