The track reigns 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. It also logged a record, and staggering, 86 weeks in the chart’s top 40. In November 2021, “Blinding Lights” crownedBillboard’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 told Billboard upon learning of the song’s reigning all-time Hot 100 command. “I just count my blessings, and I’m just grateful.”
Count down the top 10 hits below on Billboard’s Top Hot 100 Songs of the 21st Century retrospective, and check out the entire 100-position chart in Billboard’s Greatest of All Time charts menu.
Billboard’s Top Artists, Top Billboard 200 Albums and Top Hot 100 Songs of the 21st Century recaps reflect performance on weekly charts dated Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 28, 2024. The Top Artists category ranks the best-performing acts in that span based on activity on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100. (Titles released prior to mid-1999 are excluded, although such entries that appeared on the Billboard 200 or Hot 100 in that span contribute to the calculation of the Top Artists chart.)
“We Belong Together,” Mariah Carey
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
After Carey topped the Hot 100 in every year from 1990 through 2000, she returned to the summit in 2005 with her lost-love song that reigned for 14 weeks. It’s one of her 19 No. 1s, the most among soloists in the chart’s history.
In 2020, Carey reflected to Billboard about writing and recording “We Belong Together.” “After I left the studio, I got in the car and I just played the demo over and over,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is going to be really monumental.’ I didn’t know exactly how the moment was going to be, I just knew that I loved it.”
Living up to its buoyant title, and sound, the song flew to No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 2021 and charted for 77 weeks – the most for a title by a woman artist in the chart’s archives.
The single from Wallen’s album One Thing at a Time dominated the Hot 100 for 16 weeks in 2023, boosted by crossover success at country, pop and adult radio formats.
“Everything has gotten so, so huge,” Wallen mused to Billboard in late 2023. “I don’t really go to the grocery store. I have to go through back doors to go to the doctor and all that kind of stuff. I still try to hold on to as much [normalcy] as possible. I like driving, so I try to drive as much as I can by myself. I play my shows, I hang out with my son [Indie] and I hide pretty much. And I’m OK with that. I’m happy as hell with that.”
The single soared in atop the Hot 100 and spent 12 weeks at No. 1 in 2017. It spent 59 total weeks on the ranking, the most of any Sheeran hit, including four others that charted for at least a full year.
The smash, co-written and co-produced by David Guetta, ruled the Hot 100 for 14 weeks in 2009 and totaled more than a year on the chart. As it directly followed the 12-week reign of their “Boom Boom Pow,” the Black Eyed Peas linked a record 26-week run at No. 1.
“Party Rock Anthem,” LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo
After LMFAO hit a No. 31 high on the Hot 100 among five prior entries, the act roared to a six-week command with “Party Rock Anthem” in 2011. LMFAO led again with fellow fun follow-up “Sexy and I Know It.”
Ronson and Mars’ hit ruled the Hot 100 for 14 weeks in 2015. It’s the longest-leading of Mars’ nine career No. 1s. Ronson previously reigned as a producer of Mars’ 2012-13 No. 1 “Locked Out of Heaven” and subsequently led as a writer of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s 2019 chart-topper “Shallow.”
The Weeknd co-wrote and co-produced the synth-driven, 1980s-evoking No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Top Hot 100 Songs of the 21st Century chart. Also among its writers and producers: pop titan Max Martin.
Released on REPUBLIC Records, the song led the Hot 100 for four weeks in 2020, among 90 weeks on the chart overall, the longest stay on the ranking all-time for a title by a soloist.
“From the first time I met Abel [Tesfaye, The Weeknd’s birth name], 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.”
