Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" Is Now the Longest Running No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 History

Now's the perfect time to get Mariah on an "Old Town Road" remix.

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Image via Getty/Noam Galai
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"Old Town Road," now many remixes deep into its campaign of ubiquity, has broken a key Billboard charts record.

Monday, it was confirmed that Lil Nas X's breakthrough hit has now spent 17 weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For those keeping count, that number does indeed give the song the distinction of being the one to have spent the most amount of time in the top spot. Billboard and Chart Data shared the news:

The boast-worthy accomplishment for the 7 cut knocks down the previously tied (at 16 weeks) record-holders of "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi x Daddy Yankee x Justin Bieber and the Mariah Carey x Boyz II Men collab "One Sweet Day."

On Instagram, Lil Nas X posted a long reflective post with a series of photos tracking the song’s success, writing in an emoji-packed caption, “Did i know it would become the longest running number 1 song of all time? NO! but I am so thankful that this blessing has been placed upon me. 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 of this journey. as i said before, it’s just the beginning!” He looked back at how in October 2018, “starting to lose faith in what i could be, i went looking for beats on youtube.” He went on to describe working on the track "EVERY SINGLE DAY. It needed to be funny, it needed to be catchy, it needed to be hip hop, it needed to be country, & it needed to be short!!"

Since its arrival in this arena, "Old Town Road" has enlisted the remix services of everyone from Young Thug to RM from BTS, all while knocking down charts records along the way. Back in April, for example, the TikTok-boosted hit broke Drake's one-week streaming record. While that Billboard U.S. Streaming Songs title was previously held by Drake's "In My Feelings" with 116.2 million plays in just seven days, "Old Town Road" pulled off a week-long haul of 143 million.

Asked about pulling off something "fairly left-field" in the music industry in an interview with Complex earlier this year, X explained why he doesn't consider himself part of the Atlanta rap scene in the traditional sense. "I don't really know how to say it, but musically I'm not just in that lane," he said. "I would say my identity is more wrapped up in growing up in the internet age."

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Speaking with TMZ earlier this month on what was then merely the possibility of breaking this record, X said that he planned to celebrate by sending some roses to Mariah Carey and joked that he would also be cutting down on his usual five-hour bathtub cries should such a feat come to fruition.

Prior to Monday's confirmation of the smashed Hot 100 record, Lil Nas X linked with Twitter boss Jack Dorsey:

And in equally important news, this happened:

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