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The Weeknd Earns His First Adult Contemporary No. 1 With ‘Blinding Lights’

The Weeknd achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio airplay chart, as "Blinding Lights" rises to No. 1 on the survey dated Nov. 7.

The Weeknd achieves his first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary radio airplay chart, as “Blinding Lights” rises to No. 1 on the survey dated Nov. 7.

He had previously peaked as high as No. 13 with his first two entries, “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” and “Can’t Feel My Face,” both in 2015.

“Lights,” released on XO/Republic Records, adds to shining chart history, as it leads the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart for a record-extending 33rd week and spends a record-padding 31st frame in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top five, after four weeks at No. 1. It also ruled Radio Songs for an unprecedented 26 weeks and crowned Adult Pop Songs for 20 weeks, the most ever for a song by a lead soloist.

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The track additionally topped the Pop Songs airplay chart for six weeks and this week spends its record-breaking 46th frame on the survey. It bests the 45-week runs of five other hits (most recently Harry Styles’ “Adore You”).

The Weeknd concurrently debuts his newest AC charted title, as “In Your Eyes” opens at No. 29. Originally released, with “Lights,” on his album After Hours, the song is being promoted to AC radio via a version featuring Kenny G.

As for the sax star, Kenny G adds his 27th AC entry, dating to his first, “Songbird,” in 1987. That song became his first of 10 top 10s on the tally, a sum that includes two No. 1s, both in 1993: “Forever in Love” and “By the Time This Night Is Over,” the latter featuring Peabo Bryson.

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Kenny G is the second artist to have debuted at least one song on the AC chart in the ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, ’10s and ’20s, following Barry Manilow, whose streak dates back to the ’70s. (Chicago has also appeared on AC in each decade from the ’70s through the ’20s, with a 2019 holiday track that remained on the ranking this January. Whitney Houston and Richard Marx also extended their AC histories to every decade from the ’80s through the ’20s with songs that debuted last year and charted into 2020.)