Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ Leads Billboard Hot 100 for 12th Week, New Taylor Swift & Drake Songs Debut in Top 10

Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” launches at No. 2.

Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, dominates the Billboard Hot 100 for a 12th week. The single is just the 20th in the Hot 100’s six-decade history to reign for at least that long and is the first since Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee spent a record-tying 16 weeks on top with “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, in 2017.

Elsewhere in a busy top 10 on the Hot 100, Taylor Swift soars onto the chart at No. 2 with “You Need to Calm Down” and Drake launches at No. 7 with “Money in the Grave,” featuring Rick Ross. With the latter song’s bow, Drake adds his 35th Hot 100 top 10, breaking out of a tie with The Beatles for the second-best total all-time.

Let’s run down the top 10 of the newest Hot 100 (dated June 29), which blends all-genre U.S. streaming, radio airplay and digital sales data. All charts will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (June 25).

As on the Hot 100, “Old Town Road” (on Columbia Records) leads the Streaming Songs chart for a 12th week, with 91.6 million U.S. streams, down 8%, in the week ending June 20, according to Nielsen Music. “Road” set the record for the top streaming week ever (143 million) following the April 5 arrival of its remix with Cyrus and claims nine of the 11 biggest streaming frames to date, including the top three.

“Road” drops to No. 2 after eight weeks atop the Digital Song Sales chart with 59,000 downloads sold, down 16%, in the week ending June 20. On Radio Songs, where it reached No. 2, “Road” holds at No. 3, with 95.8 million audience impressions, down 3%, in the week ending June 23.

“Road” concurrently leads the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a 12th week each and the Songs of the Summer survey for a fourth frame, following the seasonal survey’s annual return after Memorial Day.

Next week, Lil Nas X’s EP 7 should make a notable debut on various album charts. Released June 21, the set features both the Cyrus and original versions of “Road.”

Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” bounds onto the Hot 100 at No. 2, marking her 24th top 10, a sum that now only 12 artists have achieved. It follows “ME!,” featuring Brendon Urie, which reached its No. 2 high on the May 11 chart. Both songs are from her album Lover, due Aug. 23.

“Calm” opens atop Digital Song Sales with 79,000 sold, marking Swift’s record-extending 17th No. 1 on the chart (ahead of runner-up Rihanna’s 14). Helped by its star-studded official video, “Calm” starts at No. 3 on Streaming Songs (39 million) and No. 50 on Radio Songs (24.2 million).

“Road” outpaces “Calm” by a less than two-to-one points lead on the Hot 100 (1.8 to 1), after eight weeks of “Road” outperforming its closest weekly competition by such a wide margin; only one song has tallied more weeks leading No. 2 titles by at least a two-to-one points gap: Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” for nine weeks in 1992-93.

Also reflecting the scope of the Hot 100 reign for “Road”: if “Calm” peaks at No. 2, it would likely become the sixth song to stop at the runner-up spot blocked by “Road,” which would break the record for keeping the most No. 2 hits from reaching No. 1; Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” in 1991, and Percy Faith and His Orchestra’s “Theme From A Summer Place” (1960) each held off five No. 2 hits each.

So far, “Road” has kept these six songs peaking below it at No. 2 on the Hot 100: “Wow.” by Post Malone; “ME!,” Swift featuring Urie; “If I Can’t Have You,” Shawn Mendes; “I Don’t Care,” Ed Sheeran and Bieber; “Bad Guy,” Billie Eilish; and “Calm,” Swift.

As for “Bad Guy,” it descends to No. 3 on the Hot 100 after three weeks at its No. 2 best. It keeps at No. 2 on Streaming Songs (43.8 million, up 13%) and No. 4 on Digital Song Sales (21,000, up 1%) and becomes Eilish’s first Radio Songs top 10 (13-9; 58.6 million, up 16%).

Khalid‘s “Talk” slips to No. 4 on the Hot 100 from its No. 3 high, with top Airplay Gainer honors for a fourth week (up 8% to 114.7 million). The track tops Radio Songs for a second week and becomes Khalid’s third No. 1 on the mainstream top 40-based Pop Songs airplay chart, while ruling the streaming-, airplay- and sales-fueled Hot R&B Songs chart for a ninth frame.

Find out more Hot 100 news on Billboard.com this week, and, for all chart news, you can listen (and subscribe) to Billboard‘s Chart Beat Podcast and Pop Shop Podcast and follow @billboard and @billboardcharts. And again, be sure to visit Billboard.com tomorrow (June 25), when all charts, including the Hot 100 in its entirety, will refresh. The next issue of Billboard magazine is on sale Friday (June 28).

Source: billboard.com