Thanks to a $.69 “holiday sale” on iTunes, ‘Earned It’ singer The Weeknd (born Abel Tesfaye) has finally earned his third #1 single on the Hot 100.
14 weeks after its debut (and after a lengthy 8-week run at #2 behind rap duo Rae Sremmurd‘s smash single ‘Black Beatles’), ‘Starboy’ – the title track to Tesfaye’s third album (which hit #1 on the Billboard 200) – ascended to the tally’s perch on the wings of strong digital downloads and streaming performance. Billboard reports:
[‘Starboy’ logged] the chart’s greatest week-over-week sales gain (up 28,000), surging by 49 percent to 86,000 downloads sold in the week ending Dec. 22. “Starboy” tops the Hot 100 after eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2, tying for the most weeks spent at No. 2 before leading the list. It matches Justin Bieber‘s “Sorry,” which ruled at last on the Jan. 23, 2016, chart, and OutKast‘s “The Way You Move,” featuring Sleepy Brown (Feb. 14, 2004).”
Congratz are certainly in order for Weeknd and his ‘Starboy’ co-stars Daft Punk. The achievement marks the group’s first run at #1 in the U.S.
Tuck in below to see who else filled out this week’s refreshed Billboard Hot 100: