Billie Eilish in bad guy Video | Darkroom/Interscope
Two of the year’s biggest music stories have been the record-breaking run of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus)” and Billie Eilish’s ascent to superstardom.
This week, the latter story reaches a new height at the expense of the former. Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” dethrones “Old Town Road” to claim #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“bad guy,” which has spent much of the summer in the #2 position, becomes Eilish’s first Hot 100 chart-topper. A strong sales, streaming and radio performer for the past several months, “bad guy” also benefited from a recent promotional push that included cassette sales and a new vertical video.
After ruling for a record 19 weeks, “Old Town Road” actually falls to #3 on this week’s chart. Up one place from last week, Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello’s “Señorita” occupies the #2 position.