The Weeknd

The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ Was The Best-Selling Song Of 2020

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Next week marks one year since The Weeknd released his acclaimed album After Hours. Since then, the singer has had many accomplishments. He was invited to perform at the Super Bowl half time show, and even honored with his own day by Toronto’s mayor. Now, The Weeknd can claim another impressive achievement: “Blinding Lights” was officially the best-selling song of 2020.

According to a year-end report released by the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI), “Blinding Lights” sold more units globally than any other song last year. Coming behind him in second place is Tones And I with her 2019 track “Dance Monkey,” followed by Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” Saint Jhn’s “Roses,” and Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.”

While The Weeknd had the highest-performing song of the year, he wasn’t the best-selling artist. That title was recently given to BTS after they had a wildly successful year. The Weeknd did, however, come in at fourth place behind Drake and Taylor Swift.

News of the massive success of “Blinding Lights” arrives shortly after the song secured another feat. On Monday, “Blinding Lights” became the first single to ever spend a full year in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “After Hours was always meant to be a very personal project. It’s a story I had to tell,” The Weeknd told Billboard about his chart victory. “The fact I’ve been able to tell it with the world listening is incredible. This Billboard chart record is truly a result of the fans. I’m so humbled and forever grateful to them.”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ Is The First Song To Spend A Full Year In The Top 10 Of The Hot 100

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As it stands now, it seems to be Olivia Rodrigo’s world: It was just revealed that “Drivers License” is the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for an eight consecutive week. Looking at the charts a different way, though, the world may actually belong to The Weeknd, as he just pulled off a spectacular feat that has never been done before.

“Blinding Lights” (which, as a reminder, was released as a single way back in November 2019), is No. 3 on the latest Hot 100, dated March 13. This is the song’s 52nd week in the top 10 of the chart, making it the first tune to ever spend a full year in the top 10. If the track can somehow remain in the top 5 spots for another 9 weeks (which doesn’t seem outlandish at this point), it’ll become the first song to spend a year in the top 5 as well. As of now, it has 43 top-5 weeks (which is a record), 52 weeks in the top 10, 58 weeks in the top 20 (which is second all-time), 61 weeks in the top 40 (tied for third all-time), and 65 weeks on the chart overall (tied for seventh-most all-time.)

Simply put, no song has ever dominated the Hot 100 quite like “Blinding Lights” has. On a bafflingly unrelated note, the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony is this weekend, where The Weeknd managed to secure exactly 0 nominations.

Nick Jonas Anchored An ‘SNL’ Edition Of The ‘Dionne Warwick Talk Show’

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Dionne Warwick has become everyone’s favorite auntie on Twitter. The legendary singer has graced her growing social media fan base with phenomenal content that ranges from poking fun at the young generation of artists to seeking knowledge about them as well. All in all, it’s been a joy to watch Warwick work through the Twitter world and it was only a matter of time before Saturday Night Live emulated her personality on the show, something the cast did during their most recent episode.

Setting up the stage for her daily show, Ego Nwodim played the role of Warwick for the Dionne Warwick Talk Show. The sketch began with Kenan Thompson, who appeared dressed as The Weeknd in his current After Hours plastic surgery look. She asked him about his apparent plastic surgery addiction, confusing his “love” for it as the basis of his “Can’t Feel My Face” track.

Warwick quickly rushed him off stage and invited Nick Jonas, who hosted and performed on the SNL episode, to replace him. The comical questions continued as she asked Nick, who is currently a coach on The Voice, how he could be a more boring contributor to the show than fellow coach John Legend. Warwick also mixed up him with his fellow Jonas brother, Joe, before asking Nick a daring question about his manhood.

The sketch continued with an appearance from Dua Lipa, played by Melissa Villasenor, who agreed to join Warwick in egging Wendy Williams’ house. Lastly Machine Gun Kelly, played by Pete Davidson, joined to close the show, but Warwick was extremely disturbed by his look and quickly asked him to leave.

You can watch the sketch above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Weeknd Makes More History As ‘Blinding Lights’ Crosses A Rare Streaming Milestone

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The Weeknd released “Blinding Lights” as a single back in late 2019. Remarkably, it hasn’t really left the top of the charts: On the latest Hot 100 revealed on Monday, it’s still at No. 4. The song just keeps on making history and now it has passed another impressive milestone: Chart Data reports that “Blinding Lights” has eclipsed 2 billion streams on Spotify and it did so faster than any other song ever has.

As of now, only three other songs have more Spotify streams that “Blinding Lights,” and they are Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” (about 2.72 billion), Post Malone and 21 Savage’s “Rockstar” (2.12 billion), and Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey” (2.1 billion). Meanwhile, The Weeknd has a handful of other songs in the list of Spotify’s 100 most streamed songs: His Daft Punk collaboration “Starboy” is 19th with 1.52 billion streams, “The Hills” is No. 75 with 1.6 billion, and “Can’t Feel My Face” is No. 91 with 1.11 billion.

Speaking of Daft Punk, The Weeknd talked about the recently disbanded duo in a newly resurfaced interview quote, saying, “Oh my God — that’s different. Those guys are one of the reasons I make music, so I can’t even compare them to other people. Their branding and how seriously they take their craft and image and everything — they’re almost not even real. But seriously, they’re very strategic, they’re very smart, and they don’t attach themselves to anything they feel isn’t right.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Weeknd’s Finally Over His Grammy Snub: ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’

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Some artists truly don’t care about the Grammy Awards, and some just act like they don’t care. The Weeknd is different. The R&B crooner didn’t hide his outrage when he first got snubbed by the Grammys, but now he says he’s over it. The Weeknd Deals With Grammy Snub When Grammy nominations were announced in […]

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