Lorde’s “Royals” Spends Ninth Week At #1, Puts The Singer In A Rare League
It might feel like Lorde‘s “Royals” has been ruling the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for at least half a year, but it’s only been nine weeks. And just a reminder: Robin Thicke currently takes the Overstayed Their Welcome In 2013 Award for “Blurred Lines,” which was #1 for 12 weeks this summer.
Still, nine weeks isn’t what you would call a short spell, and 17-year-old Lorde now finds herself in a club with only a handful of females who’ve spent as much time atop the Hot 100 with their first single as a lead act (in other words, not as a “featured” artist). Billboard points out that the other ladies who’ve achieved this feat are Debby Boone with 1977’s “You Light Up My Life” (10 weeks), Ashanti with 2002’s “Foolish” (10 weeks), Ke$ha with “Tik Tok” in 2010 (nine weeks) and Carly Rae Jepsen with “Call Me Maybe” in 2012 (nine weeks).
Of course, if you nix the whole debut single, at least with regards to the States, and lead act bits, there are several ways you can look at this. Ashanti technically featured on Ja Rule‘s chart-topping “Always On Time,” which hit #1 two months before “Foolish” did in 2002. Likewise, Ke$ha featured on Flo Rida‘s “Right Round,” a song that reached the top of the chart a year before “Tik Tok” did. And, technically, yes, “Call Me Maybe” was Carly Rae Jepsen’s debut in the US, but she released several singles in Canada between 2008 and 2009.
So chuck those three out, and we’re left with Debby Boone and Lorde. Now if only the latter could avoid the whole one-hit wonder trap the former fell into…
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