The title of the most listened to song in history has just been published. It does not belong to any of the classical groups that a priori would come to mind: Not the Beatles, not Queen, not the Rolling Stones They are the authors of the theme that has won the podium of the most reproduced. Nor is it successful stay of Quevedonor any song from the king of Spotify, Bad Bunnynor of current superstars like Rosalía or Taylor Swift.
The protagonist of this feat, with 3.337 million plays on Spotify, is the Canadian composer The Weeknd and his Blinding Lights. The song has surpassed the one that until now held the record, Shape of you by Ed Sheeranwho already predicted the success of his colleague Abel Makkonen Tesfaye.
It was the Canadian singer himself who announced it with a tweet: “Happy New Year to Blinding Lights. The most played song of all time since tonight.” A phenomenon possible thanks to the great diffusion achieved by the music platforms of broadcasting, whose numbers exceed one billion.
A very current list
Most of the topics that occupy the top positions are relatively recent. Justin Bieber is the one with the most songs in the top 100 with six entries, while Post Malone is the one with the most songs in the top 10 with two entries.
The 10 most listened to songs
- Blinding Lightsby The Weeknd
- shape of youby Ed Sheeran
- Dance Monkeyby Tones And I
- Someone You Lovedby Lewis Capaldi
- rock starby Post Malone featuring 21 Savage
- sunflowerby Post Malone and Swae Lee
- One Danceby Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla
- Closerfrom The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
- believerfrom Imagine Dragons
- stayfrom The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber
The songs that are in this ranking, increasingly accessible, are Dance Monkey from Tones and I; Someone You Lovedby Lewis Capaldi, and rock starPost Malone and 21 Savage. The oldest song to enter the top 10 is One Danceand dates back only to April 10, 2016.
As of February 2014, the most streamed song on Spotify was radioactivefrom Imagine Dragons, which shortly after was dethroned by the wake me up by Avicii, which was the first song to surpass 200 million streams. The dj’s song held the record for a year, before being surpassed by Thinking Out Loudby Ed Sheeran, on May 22, 2015, which became the first song to reach 500 million streams on October 12, 2015.
A month later, however, she was overtaken by Lean Onby Major Lazer and DJ Snake along with MØ, who held the record for streams for 11 months until she was surpassed by One Dancefrom Drake with Wizkid and Kyla, on October 18, 2016. Then came shape of you on September 21, 2017, and stayed at the top for 1,928 days, until the recent arrival of The Weeknd.
Spotify maintains a playlist of almost every song with over a billion hits. streams called Billions Club. In January 2023, at least 349 songs have reached this milestone.
‘Blinding lights’: a success story
Canadian singer The Weeknd released Blinding Lights (Blinding Lights) in November 2019 as the second single from his fourth studio album, after hourswhich was released in March 2020. The song was co-produced by the artist alongside Swedish musicians Max Martin and Oscar Holter and Canadian musicians Belly and DaHeala.
Spotify’s feat follows the success of Blinding Lights on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, where it topped for four weeks and stayed in the top 10 for a year. In fact, it became Billboard’s all-time number one in November 2021, and has held that spot on the top 100 songs ever since, dethroning The Twist, by Chubby Checker, and Smoothfrom Santana with Rob Thomas.
