The Weeknd's ‘Blinding Lights’ is the most streamed song of all time on Spotify

The continued success of The Weeknd and his music has been meteoric and unmatched in the modern digital era.  While he had already become a household name and pop superstar, the announcement and subsequent release of his fourth album, After Hours, certainly signified that the Canadian singer and producer was only getting started.

Even before the release of the album on March 20th, 2020, The Weeknd had already earned the record for most pre-saves for a release on Apple Music, amassing 1.02 million individuals adding it to their libraries.  After the official release, while the world remained in a state of uncertainty amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic, his single, Blinding Lights, provided a soundtrack and reason to dance while the world confronted this new reality.  While plans to tour had to be canceled, The Weeknd put his energy into a now iconic live performance at the 2021 Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.  Although he has since released an incredible follow-up album in the form of 2022’s Dawn FM, while collaborating with the dance music icons Swedish House Mafia on the regular, the impact of Blinding Lights is continuing to break records.

At the end of 2022, The Weeknd took to Twitter to announce that Blinding Lights had officially become the most streamed song of all time on Spotify, usurping Ed Sheeran who had held that title prior to then.  Ed Sheeran is of course a force of his own in the music world and even became the first artist to secure 100 million followers on Spotify.  His single, Shape Of You, had held the record for most streams on the platform until Blinding Lights caught up at the end of last year.  As of this writing, Shape Of You has amassed a sturdy 3,339,791,424 while Blinding Lights continues to pull ahead, garnering an incredible 3,347,104,270 streams.

happy new years to blinding lights. the most streamed song of all time tonight @Spotify pic.twitter.com/kNL0X6zK2o

— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) December 31, 2022

Image Credit: Jon kolbert via Wikimedia Commons | License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)