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Mariah Carey’s “Thank God I Found You,” featuring Joe and 98 Degrees, hits No. 1 on the Hot 100. Carey becomes the first artist to reign in 11 consecutive years, a record streak that still stands, having tallied time at No. 1 each year dating to her 1990 debut with “Vision of Love.”

*NSYNC’s No Strings Attached soars in atop the Billboard 200 with 2.4 million copies sold in the United States in its first week, a new single-week record since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991 and marking the first album to sell more than 2 million in a single frame.

“Consider this,” Geoff Mayfield, then-director of charts, wrote that issue. “No Strings Attached hit cash registers at the rate of 4½ copies per second during the album’s opening week. Factor in that music stores are closed at least a few hours each day, with many shutting down as early as 8 or 9 p.m. and even earlier on Sunday, and the pace was even faster than that. Amazing.”

Janet Jackson becomes the first woman with Hot 100 No. 1s in three distinct decades, as “Doesn’t Really Matter’ extends her streak of scoring leaders in the 1980s and ‘90s to the 2000s. Following the song’s three-week reign, Madonna mirrors the feat when “Music” takes over atop the Sept. 16, 2000-dated chart.

Usher collects his fourth Hot 100 No. 1 of 2004, becoming the first soloist to send a quartet of songs to their first weeks at No. 1 in a single year. “My Boo,” with Alicia Keys, follows “Confessions Part II,” “Burn” and “Yeah!,” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris.

“Some of Josh Groban’s fans think he has the voice of an angel,” Billboard wrote in that week’s issue, “so it seems appropriate that his first attempt at a Christmas album carves out a rare niche in chart history.” As Noel ascends to No. 1, it becomes the first holiday album by a vocalist to lead since the survey combined stereo and mono releases in 1963. (Saxophone star Kenny G notched the only other such No. 1 in that stretch with Miracles: The Holiday Album in December 1994.)

Lady Gaga becomes the first artist to send six initial entries to No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart, as “Telephone,” featuring Beyonce, marks her latest leader. She previously ruled, beginning in January 2009, with “Just Dance,” featuring Colby O’Donis, “Poker Face,” “LoveGame,” “Paparazzi” and “Bad Romance.”

The Glee cast becomes the first non-solo act to reach 100 career Hot 100 hits (and the second overall, after Elvis Presley). The troupe from the TV series, which premiered just more than a year-and-a-half earlier and aired through 2015, remains the only non-solo act with a triple-digit total, ultimately upping its total to 207 entries. (The Beatles follow among groups with 72 charted hits.)

Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” dethrones her prior smash “Shake It Off” atop the Hot 100, making her the first, and to date only, woman in the chart’s archives to succeed herself at the summit.

“I was a 24-year-old young woman who was meeting people and dating the way everyone should be allowed to,” Swift reflected to Billboard about “Blank Space” in 2019. “But because I’m also a songwriter and in the public eye – and because this was five years ago when the conversation around double standards against women was less of a mainstream argument – people were allowed to shame me, joke about me, and make me feel like I was doing something wrong. I used ‘Blank Space’ as a way to show people that I knew what they were saying, and that the way they were portraying me – a serial man-eater, volatile, dramatic, petulant, immature – wasn’t breaking me … it was actually an inspiring character they had drawn up.

“Was it factual or autobiographical? No. Was it a way for me to show strength by turning a scarlet letter into a fashion accessory? Absolutely.”

Adele’s 25 rockets in atop the Billboard 200 with 3.38 million copies sold in the U.S. in its first week, marking the first album to move more than 3 million in a single frame, according to Luminate. The set was estimated to have sold 5.6 copies per second that week; 41% of all albums sold in that span were 25; and the collection that week sold more than twice the total of the Nos. 2 through 100 titles combined (1.48 million).

Future debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with HNDRXX. As it takes the place of his own self-titled album, which bowed on top a week earlier, the rapper becomes the first act to achieve chart-topping debuts in successive weeks.

A title runs up 50 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs for the first time: Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant To Be.” The chart began in its earliest form in 1944 and became the genre’s singular survey in 1958.

“I never thought that I’d have a pop/country crossover song,” Rexha marveled to Billboard. “That just goes to show you that all the best things are unexpected. My thing is going with feel and not creating any boundaries for myself.”

Drake becomes the first artist to chart 200 career titles on the Hot 100, thanks to debuts from his album Care Package.

On the Oct. 21, 2023, Hot 100, Drake goes on to up his count to more than 300 entries. By the end of 2024, he extended his record total to 338.

Mariah Carey unwraps the first No. 1 holiday hit on the Hot 100 by a woman artist: “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

“It’s a little bit of a whirlwind,” Carey merrily told Billboard shortly following the announcement. “Wow. I just want to thank everybody. I want the world to have the best holiday ever.”

Madonna becomes the first act ever to score as many as 50 No. 1s on any single Billboard chart, as “I Don’t Search I Find” crowns Dance Club Songs. (In 2022, the Queen of Pop commemorated the feat with the album Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, which debuted at No. 1 on the Top Dance Albums chart.)

“Dance is my first love,” Madonna told Billboard in an exclusive statement, “so every time one of my songs is celebrated in the clubs and recognized on the charts it feels like home! I never take the support of my fans for granted, and it’s always like the very first time.”

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

Bad Bunny’s first Billboard 200 No. 1, El Ultimo Tour del Mundo, marks the first all-Spanish-language album to reign, dating to the all-genre chart’s 1956 inception. The previous highest-charting such set? Bad Bunny’s own YHLQMDLG, which debuted at its No. 2 best in March 2020.

Walt Disney Records, which formed in 1956, just before the Hot 100 began in 1958, achieves its first No. 1 with the Encanto ensemble smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

“The [Encanto] rollout began with a fantastic film, incredible music and a strong marketing campaign,” Disney Music Group president Ken Bunt told Billboard, adding that one reason he feels that “Bruno,” specifically, connected is that it “includes the entire Family Madrigal, which reflects the dynamics of so many families.”

A song takes more than 52 chart weeks to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for the first time, as Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” reaches the top spot in its 59th frame. It goes on to spend a record 91 weeks on the chart.

Sam Smith and Kim Petras become, respectively, the first openly nonbinary and trans artists to top the Hot 100, with “Unholy.”

In an exclusive chat with Billboard, Petras said, “I think I grew up in a more difficult time than now – 10 years ago, I could not have imagined how accepted my presence would be. As long as the music is good and you’re really freaking good at what you do, you can make it.”

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

Swift subsequently infuses the top 14 spots on the May 4, 2024-dated 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.

Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito blasts in atop the Billboard 200. The Latin star’s first No. 1 is also the chart’s first all-Spanish-language leading set (beyond guest Sean Paul’s English lyrics on one track) by a woman artist.

Oliver Anthony Music’s breakout viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” debuts at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The singer-songwriter becomes the first artist to launch atop the list with no prior chart history in any form.

Sweet (and Sour) success: All 12 songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, Guts, chart simultaneously in the Hot 100’s top 40, led by “Vampire” at No. 1. As all 11 tracks from her debut LP, Sour, hit the top 40 in 2021, she becomes the first artist to send every song from two career-opening albums into the Hot 100’s top 40.

Pop and R&B/hip-hop superstar Beyoncé shuffles in atop Hot Country Songs with “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Previously, no Black woman, or female known to be biracial, had led the list.

Beyoncé scores the same first on the April 13-dated Top Country Albums chart with parent collection Cowboy Carter.

Said BBR Music Group leader/president Frontline Recordings, North America, Jon Loba, “Maybe [country radio] won’t play every Beyoncé record, but right now one of the biggest icons in music is saying, ‘This genre is cool, this genre matters,’ and we should at least, in this moment, embrace that. Everybody wants to be here. Come to our house. We’re the coolest house on the block.”

Sabrina Carpenter charts her first three top five Hot 100 hits at Nos. 2 (“Taste”), 3 (“Please Please Please”) and 4 (“Espresso”), becoming the first soloist to chart three initial top five hits in the region simultaneously. Previously, only The Beatles tallied such a triple, on the chart dated March 7, 1964, with “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You” and “Please Please Me.”