25 Key Billboard Chart Moments of the 21st Century

Celine Dion’s All The Way…A Decade of Song leads the first Billboard 200 of the 21st century. Santana’s comeback smash “Smooth,” featuring Rob Thomas, tops the first Hot 100 of the 2000s.

The Beatles bank their record 19th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with 1. The retrospective includes all of their record 20 No. 1 songs on the Hot 100 (earned in 1964-70).

Kelly Clarkson’s inaugural American Idol coronation song “A Moment Like This” becomes the first Hot 100 No. 1 by a contestant from the groundbreaking series. “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this,” Fred Bronson, author of The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, wrote in that week’s issue. “Clarkson only had to wait a few weeks to go from unknown to American Idol. The ultimate confirmation of her idol status is her placing at the top of the Hot 100.”

For decades a reflection of songs’ radio reach and physical sales, the Hot 100 by the early 2000s was driven heavily by airplay, with labels then more and more opting not to release hit radio songs for purchase on their own (on CD, cassette or vinyl), in hopes of selling parent albums instead. As online platforms led by the iTunes Store spark a transformation and rebirth of songs’ commercial fortunes, Billboard adds digital sales to the Hot 100’s formula. That week, Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is the top-selling download, and enters the Hot 100’s top five.

So 2000 and late: The Black Eyed Peas wrap a record 26-week streak at No. 1 on the Hot 100. “Boom Boom Pow” dominated for 12 weeks, directly followed by a 14-week command for “I Gotta Feeling.”

The decade kicks off with Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK” (before TikTok) is the first Hot 100 leader of the 2010s.

Katy Perry tallies her fifth Hot 100 No. 1 from her album Teenage Dream, as “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” follows “California Gurls” (featuring Snoop Dogg), the title track, “Firework” and “E.T.” (featuring Ye, then known as Kanye West) to the summit. Upon the coronation, the set joins Michael Jackson’s Bad, in 1987-88, as the only albums ever to generate five Hot 100 No. 1s each. (No album has since joined their ranks.)

Perry lived out a dream born before she even became a teenager. “Hitting No. 1 is always a great moment, but when it turns into a small piece of history, you’re reminded of how many millions of people are connected to each other by even one tiny event,” Perry told Billboard upon achieving the feat. “Ever since I was 9 years old, singing into my hairbrush, I’ve dreamed very big dreams, but today is bigger than my dreams.”

Adele’s 21 claims its 24th week atop the Billboard 200, the most of any album since 2000.

Billboard launches the Streaming Songs chart, reflecting the top titles in the U.S. each week by both on-demand and programmed streams. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz, struts to the top of the first tally, a week before it begins a six-week rule on the Hot 100.

With its cover of the Bob Dylan-penned “To Make You Feel My Love” the Glee Cast charts its 207th and most recent Hot 100 hit, the most among non-soloists in the chart’s archives. The TV troupe arrived in June 2009 led by its signature take on Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

The Billboard 200, long reflecting the most popular albums of the week based on pure album sales, shifts to a multimetric consumption model, incorporating on-demand streaming and digital track sales in addition to album sales. Taylor Swift leads the list (dated the day she turns 25) with 1989.

Adele’s 25 blasts in atop the Billboard 200 with 3.38 million copies sold in the United States – the largest sales week for an album since data tracker Luminate began tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. It surpasses *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, which held the record for more than 15 years, having soared in with 2.42 million sold in its first week in March 2000.

Rihanna collects her 14th Hot 100 No. 1 of the 2000s – the most among all artists this century – with “Work,” featuring Drake. Speaking of the latter star …

Drake‘s “In My Feelings” tallies a 10th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 – and his unprecedented 29th week on top 10 in 2018, via his three leaders that year, following “Nice for What” and “God’s Plan.” He passes Usher for the most time atop the chart in a single year, after the latter logged 28 weeks at No. 1 in 2004.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, ups its total to a new-record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Harry Styles’ Fine Line leads the first Billboard 200 of the 2020s. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” decorates the top of the Hot 100 to begin the decade. The latter becomes her 19th No. 1 – the most among soloists – and the first holiday hit to jingle to No. 1 since “The Chipmunk Song,” by The Chipmunks with David Seville, in 1958. Brenda Lee goes on to add the third Yuletide leader, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (from 1958), over the 2023 holiday season.

BTS’ “Dynamite” detonates atop the Hot 100, making the superstar septet of J-Hope, Jimin, Jin, Jungkook, RM, Suga and V the first all-South Korean group ever to lead the list.

Thanks to a record 57-week run in the Hot 100’s top 10 from February 2020 through April 2021, including four weeks at No. 1, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is crowned the top title on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs chart, dating to the weekly list’s August 1958 start.

“I don’t think [it] has hit me yet,” The Weeknd (born Abel Tesfaye) told Billboard upon learning of the song’s reigning all-time Hot 100 command. “I just count my blessings, and I’m just grateful.”

“From the first time I met Abel, it was clear that he was destined for global stardom,” Republic Corps co-founder and chairman Monte Lipman reflected in 2021. “‘Blinding Lights’ went into the zeitgeist and became one of those songs that just had this emotional impact on so many people around the world.”

Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” spends a record-breaking 91st week on the Hot 100. Along the way, it traversed the ends of the chart, debuting at No. 100 in January 2021 and notching five weeks at No. 1 in March-April 2022.

Taylor Swift becomes the first act to holds Nos. 1 through 10 on the Hot 100, all from her album Midnights, led by “Anti-Hero.”

“10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album???,” Swift marveled. “I AM IN SHAMBLES.”

Extra-“ordinar”: At age 98, Ariana Grande’s grandmother – Nonna, formally Marjorie Grande – becomes the senior-most artist ever to have appeared on the Hot 100, as “Ordinary Things” debuts. The song, from her granddaughter’s LP Eternal Sunshine, closes with a clip of Nonna imparting advice, as she reflects on her late husband, Frank.

“I always record my Nonna, because you never know what she’s going to say,” Grande said.

Taylor Swift holds the top 14 spots on the Hot 100 – the most for an artist from No. 1 on down in the list’s history. All tracks, led by “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, are from her album The Tortured Poets Department.

Drake adds his record-extending 78th Hot 100 top 10, “Family Matters.” He initially reached the region with his first entry on the chart, “Best I Ever Had,” in 2009.

Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hoists a record-tying 19th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Stray Kids’ Hop tops the final Billboard 200 of the first 25 years of the century. Concurrently, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” shines as the highest ornament on the Hot 100.