Ariana Grande seems to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 any time she has a new single to share with the masses. The American public loves her and the music she makes, and she doesn’t have a difficult time scoring new smashes regularly. In fact, the singer is racking up No. 1s faster than most of her colleagues in the pop world.
Last month, Grande debuted her new single “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” at No. 1 on the Hot 100. It marked her ninth leader on the ranking of the most-consumed songs in the U.S. Nine No. 1s make Grande one of the most successful women in pop music history when it comes to rising to the peak position on the main tunes chart, and she’s been able to collect all of those winners in only a few years.
Grande has scored all nine of her Hot 100 leaders in just over half a decade. That’s an incredibly short span of time to earn that many champions, considering there are many, many other artists who have yet to come even close to that sum, even though they’ve been attempting to do so for longer than Grande has.
The star of the upcoming Wicked movies first reached the Hot 100’s throne in November 2018. Her single “Thank U, Next,” the title track from her then-upcoming album, opened atop the tally. It marked her first No. 1 and chart-topping debut.
She then doubled her total count of No. 1s on the Hot 100 in 2019. Only a few months after “Thank U, Next,” the second single from that album, “7 Rings,” also launched atop the tally.
In 2020, Grande didn’t let the global pandemic slow her down. In fact, that year ended up being her most productive when it came to topping the Hot 100. In 2020 alone, she scored three new leaders–“Stuck With U” with Justin Bieber, “Rain on Me” with Lady Gaga, and her own “Positions”–which all debuted in first place on the weekly list.
Grande then scored two more Hot 100 champions in 2021 and 2023 thanks to her inventive collaborations with The Weeknd. First, he recruited her for a slight reworking of his single “Save Your Tears,” and her presence helped the tune shoot to the summit. Then last year, as his older cut “Die For You” was going viral on TikTok, she hopped on board a newer version and helped push it to No. 1.
To put Grande’s nine Hot 100 No. 1s into perspective, she already claims the seventh-most hits to top the tally among solo female stars in U.S. history. She’s on the same level as both Katy Perry and Beyoncé, who needed longer than Grande to reach the same figure. Perry’s No. 1s span from 2008 until 2013, while Beyoncé only added her ninth solo smash earlier a few months ago, more than 20 years after her first.
