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\n\tTaylor Swift<\/a> fans kept \u201chope-alite\u201d alive that \u201cOpalite\u201d would become her 14th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100<\/a>, even though it faced some competitive headwinds in reaching the summit. The infectious bop came through, reaching the top in this, its 20th week on the chart, and moving Swift just a little bit closer to an all-time record.<\/p>\n \n\tThirteen has traditionally been Swift\u2019s lucky number, but so is 14. (And so will be 15, and so on.) With 14 career No. 1s, she now ties Rihanna for the most Hot 100 leaders in the history of the chart. Who\u2019s ahead of her? Only the Beatles, with 20 No. 1s, and Mariah Carey, with 19 \u2014 neither of those presenting anything like an insurmountable mark for someone as prolific as Swift.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOpalite\u201d follows \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d as her second No. 1 from the album \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl.\u201d \u201cOphelia\u201d spent 10 weeks at No. 1. \u201cOpalite\u201d previously debuted at No. 2, during the week of the album\u2019s release, and was always destined to register as the album\u2019s second-most-popular track. Since then, it had spent several weeks in the top 10 and was a mainstay of the top 20, based primarily on streaming demand. But it was not officially released as a single until the music video dropped on Feb. 6. <\/p>\n \n\tLast week would have seemed like a prime time for \u201cOpalite\u201d to top the chart, based on all those immediate video streams. But it was kept out of a top position by the huge resurgence of Bad Bunny\u2019s catalog following his Super Bowl halftime appearance, among other factors. Perhaps seeing the Bad Bunny tsunami coming during that time frame, the biggest push for singles sales was held back a week and came during this latest chart period.<\/p>\n \n\tUbiquitous for four months now among fans, the song had already peaked some time ago on Billboard\u2019s streaming chart; it falls to No. 17 on that register this week. So making it to No. 1 on the Hot 100 this week was much more reliant on increased radio play as well as singles sales.<\/p>\n \n\tThe radio airplay impressions for \u201cOpalite\u201d were up 17% this week, to 58.9 million, after already taking a leap last week. The most substantial gain, though, was in sales. The single sold 168,00 copies this week, up 2,290%. Of those 168,000, Billboard and Luminate report, 144,000 were physical copies, representing a mix of one vinyl and six CD variants. Some of those editions had gone on sale in January but did not count toward her tally till they shipped during this mid-February time frame.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sales tally for the single was impressive enough that Billboard reported it was the highly weekly sales for any song since Jason Aldean\u2019s \u201cTry That in a Small Town\u201d went viral and sold 175,000 downloads in a single week in August 2023.<\/p>\n \n\tThe number of streams for \u201cOpalite\u201d in this time frame was 11.4 million, down 20% from the week before.<\/p>\n \n\tSwift probably would have had an easier path to hitting No. 1 a week earlier if Billboard had not recently instituted a rule change. The publication altered its playbook so that free YouTube streams no longer count in the calculation of a hit. That was presumably one reason why Swift gave Apple Music and Spotify Premium a two-day exclusive on the \u201cOpalite\u201d video, to redirect fans to paid services whose totals still count toward the charts. Regardless, it all worked out for her, even if there was a week of delayed gratification for Swifties to enjoy their heroine getting her latest chart triumph.<\/p>\n \n\tNashville has a very strong presence at the top of the Hot 100 this week, if you count Swift, and you should, as a longtime mainstay and still a part-time resident. Following the former country queen at No. 1 is current country star Ella Langley at No. 2, as her smash \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d \u2014 which recently peaked at the top of the chart, then took a dip \u2014 rose two spots from its No. 4 position last week.<\/p>\n \n\tFollowing those two songs are Olivia Dean\u2019s \u201cMan I Need\u201d at No. 3, and Bad Bunny\u2019s \u201cDtMF\u201d (last week\u2019s leader) dipping a few spots to No. 4. Bad Bunny also has two other songs remaining in the top 10 for a total of three, after landing four there last week. \u201cTit\u00ed Me Pregunt\u00f3\u201d is at No. 7 and \u201cBaile Inolvidable\u201d is at No. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe No. 5 song is Alex Warren\u2019s \u201cOrdinary,\u201d followed by \u201cGolden\u201d at No. 7 and Swift\u2019s \u201cOphelia\u201d still affording her a second spot in the top 10 at No. 8.<\/p>\n \n\tOver on the Billboard 200 album chart, Bad Bunny was a holdover at No. 1 with \u201cDeB\u00cd TiRAR M\u00e1S FOToS,\u201d the second consecutive and fifth nonconsecutive time that album reached the top. <\/p>\n \n\tThere were two new entries in the top 10, both from artists debuting more modestly with their current projects than they did with their previous albums.<\/p>\n