Of Britney Spears’ 5 No. 1 Singles, Only 1 Spent More Than a Week at the Top of the Chart
There is no denying it; Britney Spears was and is a hit-making machine. The mercurial pop star has major hits from the ’90s through the 2010s and likely isn’t done with the Billboard Hot 100 charts just yet.
But one surprising aspect of her pop culture dominance is how short her songs’ reigns tend to be. Tracks like “Oops! I Did It Again” and “Toxic” are instantly recognizable by almost anybody — universally regarded as huge successes. Yet only one of Spears’ songs has ever held the top of the charts for longer than a week.
Britney Spears has decades of Hot 100 hits under her belt
Before Spears became the pop sensation we all know her as today, she was a former Mickey Mouse Club member looking for her next step. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC mastermind Lou Pearlman lined up a spot for her in the girl band Innosense, but she decided to move on.
Spears’ instincts were right. The Spice Girls were sucking up all of the available oxygen in that particular niche at the time.
Spears bet on herself as a solo act. With her 1998 single “…Baby One More Time,” she was proven correct. It would become the biggest selling single of the following year and hit No. 1 in 22 different countries.
“Oops! I Did It Again” was an apt title for her next single, as it proved that she was above the many one-hit wonder acts of that era. Her reign of hits continued for the next 20 years.
In 2008, “Womanizer” charted, proving she was capable of churning out hits a decade into her career. Most recently, her 2020 re-release of 2016’s Glory LP added yet more singles capable of topping the charts in several countries at a time.
This Britney Spears song spent more than 1 week at no. 1
According to Billboard, Spears has landed her singles on the Hot 100 chart an incredible 36 times. Of those, 14 made it to the top 10. And five made it to No. 1. Given that these all occurred through the far ends of two decades, her consistency and longevity put her in rare company.
The frequency of her success, and the ubiquity of so many of these songs, papers over one surprising — and unfortunate — fact. Spears has only held the top spot for longer than a week just once. And that period was just two weeks.
Official Charts reports that this success came very early. “… Baby One More Time,” from way back in 1998, cut through all the competition for two solid weeks.
Spears doesn’t always debut at the top of the charts
Spears never had a Michael Jackson-esque run of longtime chart dominance with a given single. But her repeated Hot 100 debuts prove that she always has something fresh up her sleeve. She has the unique ability as an artist to keep making No. 1 debuts deep into her career, Insider reports.
But not every one of her famous songs managed to hit No. 1 at all. “Toxic” was a slow burn, peaking at ninth on the Hot 100, yet it became a regular club track for the next few years. Even a song as iconic as “Oops! I Did It Again” only hit ninth on the Hot 100 at the time, while it later became a major seller as a single, and for the album.
Spears’ more recent work, including the self-penned “Work B*tch,” continues to appear on the charts. Her No. 1 days likely aren’t behind her. A Vegas residency and a demanding touring schedule send signals that she’s transitioning into a legacy act. But her habit of charting well means she hasn’t run out of gas just yet.
