The Weeknd Holds Off Drake On This Week’s Hot 100 Chart
“Hotline Bling” remains in the No. 2 slot.
Last week, "Hotline Bling" moved into the second spot on the Hot 100, and it looked like Drake had the momentum to steal No. 1 from his former collaborator the Weeknd. But the Weeknd executed a savvy bit of chart ju-jitsu by releasing a pair of remixes of "The Hills" with two different commercial juggernauts: Eminem and Nicki Minaj. His move paid off—Billboard reports that "The Hills" remains in the top position this week. The Eminem and Nicki versions of "The Hills" accounted for 49% of the track's sales during the last week.
As Billboard points out, Drake has a strong chance of hitting No. 1 next week: the rapper is expected to drop his video for "Hotline Bling" today, which will result in yet another surge of interest in his single. In addition, as the novelty of "The Hills" remixes wears off, those songs are likely to be less popular.
Read Drake's FADER cover story.