Oxford band Glass Animals have taken the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100, smashing the record for the longest time in the charts before reaching number one.
59 weeks ago, the Glass Animals’ song ‘Heat Wave’ entered the US charts. The week was, among other things, the same one in which Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of America, and Burnley pulled off a surprise 1-0 win away at Anfield.
Now, 14 months later, ‘Heat Wave’ has reached number one. The 59 weeks it took to steadily climb the Billboard Hot 100 charts is a new record. It surpasses the miserly 35 that Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ took to take the top spot.
It caps a remarkable ascent for the Oxford band. With ‘Heat Wave’, Glass Animals have also become the first UK group to break into Spotify’s global top 10 streaming list since Clean Bandit did in 2018. In total, with its June 2020 release approaching two years ago now, the track has been streamed 1.3 billion times on Spotify.
Dave Bayley, Glass Animals’ lead singer, said, “I absolutely can’t believe it. For it to do this means the absolute world.” In a group message from the band, shared by Billboard’s Twitter account, Bayley explained, “This song came out at the beginning of the pandemic and we didn’t think it would really go anywhere because of that, and it has because you guys have embraced it so much.”
That No. 1 feeling 💯📈 @GlassAnimals top the #Hot100 this week with #HeatWaves 🔥 https://t.co/mnq1PPejbt pic.twitter.com/JOW4nc8Q4f
— billboard (@billboard) March 8, 2022
There are a number of reasons why ‘Heat Wave’ not only broke this record, but absolutely decimated it. The first, and most general, is people are listening to music for longer than before. Streaming music leads fans to keep playing their favourite songs, again and again for months. Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ and Ariana Grande’s ‘Save Your Tears’ have both already surpassed 60 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.
Another reason is the fusion of styles of ‘Heat Waves.’ The song toes the line between alternative and pop. This means it has straddled genres, airwaves and specific charts, extending its lifespan as a slow burner.
And then there’s virality breeding more virality. The song has done well on TikTok, apparently featuring in a new and successful clip about some McDonalds not stocking curly fries. On the same platform, it was also part of a successful remix trend.
None of these were massive and catapulted the song to the top, but each viral clip steadily increased its popularity and 59 weeks later, here we are.
