The Weeknd has officially made streaming history. His 2020 global hit Blinding Lights is now the first song ever to surpass five billion streams on Spotify, setting a new benchmark for worldwide music success.
Spotify announced the milestone on Sunday (August 31), and the Canadian superstar, born Abel Tesfaye, quickly shared the achievement with his 78 million Instagram followers.
The record-breaking feat adds to the track’s already remarkable legacy. Released in November 2019 as the second single from his After Hours album, Blinding Lights spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first song in history to remain in the chart’s top 10 for an entire year. In 2021, Billboard crowned it the “Greatest Hot 100 Song of All Time.”
Most recently, the track was also ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs of the 21st Century list, which covers music released between 2000 and 2024.
Reflecting on the song’s enduring impact earlier this year, when it crossed the four-billion-stream 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 something that keeps them coming back.”
With Blinding Lights now leading the way, The Weeknd holds an unmatched 28 songs in Spotify’s Billions Club the most of any artist further cementing his status as one of the most streamed musicians of the decade.
