The Weeknd’s acclaimed synth-pop anthem, “Blinding Lights,” has secured another milestone, becoming the first song ever to achieve 4 billion streams on Spotify. This accomplishment, disclosed by Spotify over the weekend, follows a year after the track surpassed Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” as Spotify’s most-streamed song and also claimed the title of the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit of all time, surpassing Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”
As of January 15, the song has amassed 4.005 billion streams on Spotify, and The Weeknd currently holds the position as the top artist on the platform with 113.5 million monthly listeners, surpassing Taylor Swift, the most-streamed artist of 2023, who has 107.7 million listeners.
Released in November 2019 as the second single from his fourth studio album, “After Hours,” the track dominated the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks and notably remained in the Top 10 for an entire year. The official music video on YouTube has garnered 787 million views since its premiere in January 2020.
The co-producers of “Blinding Lights” include Swedish musicians Max Martin and Oscar Holter, alongside The Weeknd and Canadian musicians Belly and DaHeala. The Weeknd expressed his gratitude for the song’s widespread appeal, stating, “I’ll never stop being humbled by anything I create making its way to millions of people, let alone billions.”
Spotify’s global head of music, Jeremy Erlich, highlighted The Weeknd’s consistent success on the platform, noting that “Blinding Lights” is just one of many records broken. The song’s global popularity is seen as a testament to the unifying power of music.
Variety reported that “Blinding Lights” generated approximately $15.5 million to $17.5 million in royalties for the sound recording and an additional $4.5 million or more in publishing. This achievement adds to The Weeknd’s strong start to the year, despite not having released a new album since “Dawn FM” in January 2022. The artist has hinted at a forthcoming sixth studio album, mentioning in May 2023 that it might be his “last hurrah” as The Weeknd, as he feels he has said all he can under that persona.
