Drake Misses Out On His First No. 1 Hit With 'Hotline Bling' Thanks To ...

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The VergeThe Verge logo.Drake misses out on his first No. 1 hit with ‘Hotline Bling’ thanks to Apple MusicComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...

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Drake misses out on his first No. 1 hit with ‘Hotline Bling’ thanks to Apple Music

When exclusives backfire

When exclusives backfire

by Micah SingletonCloseMicah SingletonFormer News EditorLast published Jan 9, 2025

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Source Billboard

Oct 26, 2015, 10:16 PM UTC

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Despite being one of three humans with over 100 songs that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (Elvis Presley and Lil Wayne are the others), Drake has never reached to the top of the historic chart. After the smash hit that is the music video for “Hotline Bling” attacked the internet last week, it looked like Drake was well on his way to claiming the top spot from his one-time protégé The Weeknd. But thanks to his deal with Apple Music, The Boy has missed out once again.

Billboard has released this week’s chart, and The Weeknd has held onto the top spot with “The Hills” notching its sixth week atop the chart. How did Drake miss out when “Hotline Bling” was everywhere? Since Apple Music — where Drake exclusively released the video as part of his deal with the company — doesn’t report music video views to Nielsen Music, the company could not incorporate the video into its streaming calculations for the week.

Given the way the memes and GIFs of the James Turrell-inspired video proliferated around the internet, the views were likely in the tens of millions, and would have likely given Drake his first chart-topping single, which he said would be “the biggest moment of my career to date.” With Adele’s comeback single “Hello” on pace to break download records next week, it looks like Drake’s wait to officially have the biggest song in the country will continue.

Apple WWDC 2015 Drake at the announcement of Apple Music

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• Micah SingletonCloseMicah SingletonFormer News EditorLast published Jan 9, 2025

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