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Rihanna Surpasses Michael Jackson’s Billboard Record With ‘Work’

By Val Powell
Published on: 00:50 PST, Feb 24, 2016

Rihanna just achieved her 14th No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with her latest track, “Work,” featuring rapper Drake, according to Billboard. The singer is now third on the list of artists with the highest number of No. 1 hits in the history of the chart, and she has now more chart toppers than the late pop icon Michael Jackson.

Before her newest single climbed the charts, she tied with the King of Pop with 13 No. 1 hits, but with “Work” assuming the highest spot this week, the R&B singer surpassed him, making her one of the top three artists who have the most No. 1 singles in the Hot 100 chart.

Rihanna is behind Mariah Carey with 18 and The Beatles, who topped the list with 20. “Navy you killed it this week! #NavyRDie,” she tweeted recently after her song climbed the chart atop Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself.” Indeed, it was a wonderful birthday gift for the singer who recently turned 28 this month.

The singer scored her first Billboard No. 1 in 2006 with the popular dance track, “SOS.” The track quickly took the No. 1 spot in a short span of time. Her other chart-topping songs on the Hot 100 include “Umbrella” with Jay Z, “Rude Boy,” “Disturbia,” “Only Girl in the World,” “Love the Way You Lie” with Eminem, “What’s My Name” featuring Drake, “Live Your Life” with T.I., “Monster” featuring Eminem, “S&M,” and “Diamonds.”

“SOS” Was Rihanna’s First Billboard No.1 Hit

After its debut on streaming services including official and user-generated content on YouTube, “Work” is now No. 1 on Streaming Songs, climbing from number four last week. It showed a 73 percent increase to 25.8 million streams, based from the data released by Nielsen music.

This is Rihanna’s second No. 1 on Streaming Songs, following her “Monster” collaboration with rapper Eminem. As for Drake, this is his first time to lead Streaming Songs.

According to Billboard: ” ‘Work’ concurrently holds at No. 2 on Digital Songs (119,000, up 5 percent), after debuting at No. 1 on the ranking three weeks ago, and lifts 13-10 on Radio Songs (76 million, up 21 percent). Rihanna posts her 24th top 10 on Radio Songs, passing Mariah Carey’s 23 for the most top 10s dating to the chart’s December 1990 inception.”

Watch Rihanna Seduce Drake in her ‘Work’ Music Video

“Work” also leads the subscription service-based On-Demand Songs chart for a second week and tops Billboard’s Hot R&B/hip-Hop Songs chart for a third (non-consecutive) week.

The 28-year-old singer is definitely making history as Billboard declared Rihanna and Drake’s collaboration single “the ninth No. 1 Hot 100 in a row by non-Americans.” Rihanna was born in Barbados, while Drake was born in Canada.

Aside from the Michael Jackson Billboard record, “Work” beat Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself,” which dropped from No.1 to No. 2 for two non-consecutive weeks of reigning the Hot 100 chart, but it is currently enjoying its No. 1 position on the Radio Songs list. Will Rihanna maintain her current standing when Billboard.com refreshed all the rankings including the Hot 100 chart?

Rihanna is only 28, and it looks like she will be able to surpass even Mariah Carey and The Beatles soon. It has been just a decade since “SOS” first hit the charts, giving her an average of more than one chart-topping track every year.

Drake Got His First Billboard No.1 Hit with a Rihanna Collab

As for Drake, this is his second Hot 100 chart topper. He first scored his No. 1 Hot 100 with “What’s My Name” with Rihanna. He has scored two No. 2 Hot 100 with his debut single “Best I Ever Had” back in 2009 and “Hotline Bling” released just last year.

[Photos by Dimitrios Kambouris, Tim Whitby/Getty Images]

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