The Weeknd is on the money! He joins Jackson as the only male soloists with multiple No. 1 singles from three albums on the Billboard Hot 100, with “Die for You” reaching the top spot on the chart as of March 11.
(The achievement is based on the fact that “Die for You” by Starboy was first made available in 2016, more than six years before its recent remix, featuring Ariana Grande, led to its coronation. All of the song’s renditions are combined into a single chart entry for Billboard’s charts.)
There are only seven members of the exclusive club of artists who have had multiple Hot 100 No. 1 singles that were first released on three or more albums, with The Weeknd being the newest since 2001. From more than three albums, two of those acts have achieved numerous number-one positions.
Let’s review each act’s outstanding collection of numerous Hot 100 No. 1 singles from three or more albums (with information about songs with notable release histories outside the albums listed below, akin to the voyage of “Die for You”). On the most recent Hot 100, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande come in first place: With “Die for You” and “Save Your Tears,” they are the first performers in the exclusive group of acts to get top billing on both of their No. 1 singles. The other couples that shared featured billing on their No. 1s were Drake and Future, Drake and Rihanna, Eminem and Rihanna, Nelly Furtado and Timbaland, and Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule.
With “Die for You” hitting No. 1 on the Hot 100 after a six-year-plus wait, the second-longest from a debut on the chart, I thought of a song that should be noted among those that took long routes to the top: “At This Moment” by Billy Vera & The Beaters. The ballad peaked at No. 79 its first time out, as a live version, in 1981 and, thanks to a newer studio recording, hit No. 1 over five years and four months later, in January 1987.
