The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” single has broken another Billboard record more than a year after its release. The award-winning single is now the longest-charting solo record on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to chart data, “Blinding Lights,” the second single off The Weeknd’s After Hours album, has officially spent 78 weeks on the music chart, beating out Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”— which previously spent 76 weeks on the chart — for the position of the third-longest charting song in Hot 100 history.
“Blinding Lights” is now behind “Radioactive” by the Imagine Dragons, which spent 87 weeks on the chart and AWOLNation’s “Sail” which has already seen 79 weeks, according to Forbes.
Considering both singles are from bands, The Weeknd’s song is the longest solo track to chart on the Billboard list.
Though The Weeknd’s record-breaking single was not acknowledged by the Recording Academy at this year’s Grammy Awards, the Toronto star’s song is not short of any accolades. It was recently named Single of the Year at the Juno Awards, which honors the best music from Canadian musicians, and won the awards for Song of the Year, Titanium Song of the Year and TikTok Bop of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards last month.
During the 2021 Billboard Awards ceremony, The Weeknd’s 2019 single also earned him wins for Top Hot 100 Song, Top Radio Song and Top R&B Song. These victories exclude the trophies he won for his work on the After Hours album.
With all of the praise and recent changes to the Grammys, the “Save Your Tears” star is still uninterested in possible recognition from the Recording Academy. “Even though I won’t be submitting my music, the Grammys’ recent admission of corruption will hopefully be a positive move for the future of this plagued award and give the artist community the respect it deserves with a transparent voting process,” the “Heartless” singer previously said.