With ‘Heat Waves,’ Glass Animals Climb To The Top Of The Billboard Charts

Glass Animals’ smash song ‘Heat Waves’ has hit Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list, becoming the first British group to do so since Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ in 2008.

It was published in 2020 and has spent a record-breaking 59 weeks at the top of the charts, making it one of the all-time longest runs to the top. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ held the previous record until December 2019.

‘Heat Waves’ was a runaway success on various mediums, including radio, streaming sites, and TikTok, during its tenure on the charts. ‘Heat Waves,’ which was re-released in March 2021 with a new verse by Iann Dior, helped Glass Animals create chart history in the United States back in November.

The song had previously spent 42 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 when it hit number 10 for the first time that month. Due to the continued success of the track, which has been streamed over 1.1 billion times on Spotify, Glass Animals became the first UK band to reach the top of Spotify’s worldwide singles list.

In January, the song reached the top of Spotify’s Global Top 50 Chart, making Glass Animals the first British band to do so. On Spotify, it continues to receive over 4.26 million daily streams.

At the BandLab NME Awards 2022, the song was also nominated for a BRIT Award for ‘Song Of The Year,’ as well as Best Band In The World and Best Band From The UK: Supported by Pizza Express.

Glass Animals discussed the secret to the single’s runaway success with NME on the red carpet at the BRIT awards.

 “It landed at the right time,” front man Dave Bayley told NME about the track’s success. “I feel like everyone in the pandemic has been feeling nostalgic. No one was going out and creating new memories, they were all reliving the old ones. This song is about that – it’s about memories, it’s about missing someone, and everyone’s been missing people in this age.”

—Aditi Manjunath