Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ Has the Longest No. 1 Run Among Women Ever on Adult Pop Airplay Chart

3 July, 2023

Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” rebounds for a 17th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated July 8), claiming the mark all to itself for the longest reign for a song by a woman in the chart’s history.

“Flowers,” released on Smiley Miley/Columbia Records, wrests the record from Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” the latter’s debut hit that ruled for 16 weeks beginning in August 2002.

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The Adult Pop Airplay chart began in Billboard’s pages in March 1996 and reflects airplay, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on nearly 80 U.S. adult top 40 terrestrial and satellite radio stations.

Among all acts, “Flowers” ties for the sixth-longest Adult Pop Airplay command. Here’s a recap of the list’s longest-leading No. 1s, as the format has segued from a hot adult contemporary focus at its start to a more alternative lean in the late ‘90s and into the 2000s, and a shift back toward purer pop in more recent years.

Most Weeks at No. 1 on Adult Pop Airplay Chart:

  • 25, “Smooth,” Santana feat. Rob Thomas, beginning Oct. 23, 1999
  • 23, “Wherever You Will Go,” The Calling, Dec. 22, 2001
  • 20, “Blinding Lights,” The Weeknd, May 23, 2020
  • 18, “Photograph,” Nickelback, Oct. 29, 2005
  • 18, “Unwell,” matchbox twenty, May 3, 2003
  • 17, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus, March 4, 2023
  • 17, “Iris,” Goo Goo Dolls, Aug. 1, 1998
  • 16, “Complicated,” Avril Lavigne, Aug. 3, 2002
  • 15, “High Hopes,” Panic! At the Disco, Dec. 8, 2018
  • 15, “How To Save a Life,” The Fray, Nov. 4, 2006
  • 15, “Don’t Speak,” No Doubt, Dec. 28, 1996

“Flowers” became Cyrus’ first Adult Pop Airplay No. 1, among three top 10s. It was released from her album Endless Summer Vacation, which has yielded two top 20 follow-ups on the chart: “River” (No. 17 peak, April) and “Jaded” (No. 13, June; it hits a new weekly high in plays, at No. 15, on the July 8 chart).

“Flowers” ruled the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks; it has ranked in the chart’s top five over its entire run so far, placing at No. 4 on the July 8-dated survey. It concurrently returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200.

All charts dated July 8 will update on Billboard.com Wednesday, July 5 (a day later than usual due to the Independence Day holiday in the U.S. on July 4).

Gary Trust

Billboard