The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ becomes first song ever to hit four billion streams on Spotify

nme.com:

The Weeknd‘s massive hit single ‘Blinding Lights’ has become the first song in history to reach four billion streams on Spotify.Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time, as revealed in early 2023, appeared on Abel Tesfaye’s ‘After Hours’ album.

It was released at the end of 2019, and has spent over 100 weeks in the charts.In that time, it set a new record for most weeks in the Top Five of the chart (43), Top 10 (57 weeks) and Top 40 (86 weeks), and replaced Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit ‘The Twist’ as the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time.In a statement about crossing the four billion mark, The Weeknd said: “I’ll never stop being humbled by anything I create making its way to millions of people let alone billions!“I’m so thankful this song makes people feel a way that they keep going back to listen.”Last year, The Weeknd reacted to the news that Taylor Swift is now the only other music artist with 100million Spotify listeners.Swift, who became the first female artist to reach the milestone, still currently sits behind The Weeknd, who has the most monthly listeners on the streaming service with more than 110million.Last summer, The Weeknd broke another record for highest attendance at Wembley Stadium.

The news was first highlighted by Live Nation UK, who announced that the multi-Grammy-winning artist had “broke Wembley Stadium’s record for sales with their traditional concert set up”.

The date was held as part of his ongoing ‘After Hours ‘Til Dawn’ Tour.Just last month, the artist broke another record for the highest attendance rate during his two-night run at London Stadium, which brought in a combined number of 160,000 fans..