If your summer hasn’t been sountracked by “Old Town Road”, you’ve been doing it wrong. Topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 17 weeks, Lil Nas X’s viral track is now officially the longest-running number one in US chart history.
With 72.5 million streams and 46,000 downloads in the last seven days alone, the song has overtaken “Despacito” (thank god), and Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day”, which both spent 16 weeks at number one.
“i am so thankful that this blessing has been placed upon me”, Lil Nas X wrote on Instagram, “this song has changed my life and the way i see the world around me in less than a year. thank you to every single person who has been apart (sic) of this journey. as i said before, it’s just the beginning!”
The rapper dropped the track in December 2018, before releasing numerous remixes this year, the most popular featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. Along with this ingenious tactic (the remixes are close enough to the original, so they count as one single), Lil Nas X benefited from his internet brain and colossal social media following, which were central to the track’s viral fame.
Passing the torch in a hilariously Photoshopped image, Mariah Carey tweeted her congratulations, writing: “Keep living your best life!”
The rapper currently fronts the autumn 2019 issue of Dazed, which celebrates all things yeehaw. As part of the issue, we’ve also partnered with TikTok on the “Old Town Road”-inspired #LassoChallenge – make your attempt here, and keep an eye out for Lil Nas X’s cover story dropping this afternoon.