The Weeknd has a lot to be grateful for this week, especially after his smash hit “Blinding Lights” spent a record-smashing 88th week on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Blinding Lights” debuted at No. 11 on the Hot 100 dated Dec. 14, 2019. This week, it passes Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” which spent 87 weeks on the survey in 2012-14.
“Lights” is one of three Hot 100 No. 1s from The Weeknd’s 2020 album After Hours, and it’s the first (and, so far, only) song to spend a year in the Hot 100 top 10. And while the single holds in the top 20 of the all-genre tally, a new one debuts: “Take My Breath,” The Weeknd’s first song since After Hours and first taste of his upcoming musical era, starts at No. 6 in the week ending Aug. 21 and secures the Canadian-Ethiopian superstar his 13th top 10 hit.
On Monday (Aug. 16), The Weeknd showed his gratitude for his latest musical feats and some exciting birthdays: His second mixtape Thursday celebrates its 10th anniversary on Wednesday, while his dog Caesar recently turned 4.
“Forever grateful to be able to experiment with sounds, try new things with my voice and create music with the people I truly love and respect,” he captioned the post, which features a rather blinding shot of the singer, a man who appears to be The Weeknd obscuring his face behind balloons emblematic of his 2011 House of Balloons project, and a comic of The Weeknd slapping at his old red-suit-jacket-wearing self for singing the hook of “Blinding Lights” while screaming at him, “The Dawn Is Coming!!!!!”
The 31-year-old star previously announced “the dawn is coming” at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards in May. “I just want to say the After Hours are done and the dawn is coming,” the superstar said during his acceptance speech after he won the Top Hot 100 Song award for “Blinding Lights.”
“For the last decade every song has been a journey and to be able to continue this journey has been nothing short of a blessing,” he added in his Instagram caption. “It’s the only gift I could ever ask for. I’ll be doing it for as long as I can breathe. I love my fans and wouldn’t be here without you. Big day for blinding lights. Multiple songs in the top 20. Thursday turns 10. Caesar turned 4 and the f—ing dawn is coming. LET’S GO.”
“Blinding Lights,” which ranks at No. 18 in its 88th week, hit No. 1 for its first of four weeks on top on the chart dated April 4, 2020. Over its run, it has rewritten the records for the most time spent in the Hot 100’s top five (43 weeks), top 10 (57 weeks), top 20 (79 weeks) and top 40 (84 weeks).
See The Weeknd’s celebratory post below.
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