Lil Nas X might be sending Mariah Carey flowers—because he just beat a record she'd held since the 1990s. The rapper's "Old Town Road," featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, has now spent 17 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100's top spot, the only song ever to do so, per NBC News. The previous record of 16 weeks was set by Carey and Boyz II Men with "One Sweet Day" in 1995 and 1996, and in 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito," featuring Justin Bieber, tied it. Lil Nas X told TMZ last week that if he beat the record, "I may buy Mariah Carey some roses and send them to her because I love her."
As Fox News explains, Billboard removed "Old Town Road" from its country charts in March because it decided the song "does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version"; it was at that point that Cyrus got involved and recorded a remix with Lil Nas X. The song got even more popular and ended up in the Hot 100's No. 1 spot in April. Lil Nas X has since recorded other remixes, and Billboard counts both the original song and its remixes when calculating chart position. The rapper has been tweeting about the milestone all day, and thanked Carey when she tweeted her congratulations. "you are a legend and an icon and i’m blessed to even have you acknowledging me right now!" he wrote. "Growing up to your music & now having you talk to me directly is unreal!" (More Lil Nas X stories.)
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