Adult Contemporary
56 weeks at No. 1, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus
Date of first week at No. 1: April 15, 2023
“‘Flowers’ is one of those songs that has stood the test of time at multiple formats,” says Jon Zellner, iHeartMedia president, programming operations/digital music, of Miley Cyrus’ smash single. “It’s a mass-appeal song with a very strong hook and sounds like a song you already knew the first time you heard it.”
A year and a half after its release, “Flowers” adds a 56th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart (dated July 20) – and now reigns as the sole longest-leading hit ever on a Billboard radio airplay ranking.
“Flowers” already claimed the record for the most weeks on all of Billboard’s airplay charts combined, as it also ran up reigns of 18 weeks on the all-format Radio Songs chart, 17 weeks on Adult Pop Airplay, 10 weeks on Pop Airplay and four weeks on Dance/Mix Show Airplay.
The song additionally crowned the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks beginning in January 2023. This February, it won the Grammy Award for record of the year. (“It’s fun to be nominated & exciting to win but having my music be loved around the world is the real trophy,” Cyrus posted in reaction to the six Grammy nominations that she received in November.)
Muses Zellner further, “‘Flowers’ is among “songs that will be part of radio station libraries and streaming playlists for many years and likely played by classic hits stations 20 years from now.”
Below, upon the track’s latest historic chart feat, browse the songs that became ubiquitous on airwaves and topped each of Billboard’s 25 currently-published weekly airplay rankings the longest, reflecting a wide variety of radio formats, and enduring earworms.
Date of first week at No. 1: April 15, 2023
Date of first week at No. 1: Dec. 13, 2008
Date of first week at No. 1: Aug. 25, 2007
Date of first week at No. 1: July 1, 2023
Date of first week at No. 1: July 28, 2001
Date of first week at No. 1: Aug. 30, 2008
Date of first week at No. 1: Nov. 13, 2010
Date of first week at No. 1: March 28, 2020
Date of first week at No. 1: April 18, 2020
Date of first week at No. 1: Oct. 23, 1999
Date of first week at No. 1: June 4, 2005
Date of first week at No. 1: March 16, 2013
Date of first week at No. 1: Aug. 16, 2003
Date of first week at No. 1: Aug. 16, 2003
Date of first week at No. 1: Sept. 9, 2000
Date of first week at No. 1: Oct. 21, 2023
Date of first week at No. 1: July 8, 2017
Date of first week at No. 1: Sept. 10, 2016
Date of first week at No. 1: Feb. 1, 2014
Date of first week at No. 1: July 2, 2011
Date of first week at No. 1: May 22, 1999
Date of first week at No. 1: Sept. 23, 2000
Date of first week at No. 1: July 2, 2022
Date of first week at No. 1: July 8, 2006
Date of first week at No. 1: March 13, 1999
Date of first week at No. 1: Feb. 12, 1994
Date of first week at No. 1: Dec. 23, 2023
Date of first week at No. 1: Oct. 15, 2022