Debuting a song on the Billboard Hot 100 is a highlight of any musician’s career. It’s Billboard’s premier songs chart after all, and the stars often must align in order to stand with the best of the best.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations.
In total, more than 8,000 artists have landed a song on the survey, dating it the chart’s launch on Aug. 4, 1958. Of those artists, only 17 have charted at least 100 total songs.
Elvis Presley, whose career predates the Hot 100’s launch, became the first artist to tally 100 total hits. He scored his 100th (of an eventual 109 total) in May 1975 with “T-R-O-U-B-L-E.” He held the record for the most overall chart entries until 2011, when the Glee Cast surpassed him, and then nearly doubled his total — reaching 207 entries. That record stood until 2020, when Drake stormed past the TV troupe when his track “Oprah’s Bank Account” debuted.
Drake now leads all artists with a whopping 329 total entries on the chart in his career (through the Hot 100 dated April 13, 2024). He’s the only artist to chart at least 300 total songs in history. Only two other acts have charted at least 200: Taylor Swift (232) and the Glee Cast (207).Three artists joined the 100-hits club in 2023: YoungBoy Never Broke Again achieved the milestone in May and, fittingly, became the youngest artist to ever reach the feat, at age 23; Lil Uzi Vert became the 14th act to join in July, after releasing Pink Tape; and Travis Scott then joined the club on Aug. 12, thanks to the arrival of his LP Utopia. 21 Savage was 16th artist to join the club, and the first in 2024, thanks to his album American Dream, followed by Beyoncé after releasing Cowboy Carter.
As for who might be next in line to join the elite group, the artists just short of 100 career entries are The Weeknd (currently at 99 Hot 100-charted songs), Eminem (96), Bad Bunny (93), Young Thug (93), Lil Durk (92), the late James Brown (91), Ariana Grande (84), the late Juice WRLD (80) and Gunna (79).
While it’s rare for artists to chart triple-digit entries on the Hot 100, it has become a more regular occurrence since the ranking began including streaming figures in 2007. As such, some artists have been able to chart a high number of songs on the Hot 100 after releasing high-profile albums. The model contrasts with prior decades, when acts generally promoted one single at a time in the physical-only marketplace and on radio. That shift in consumption helps explain why artists have been able to chart many songs over short spans in recent years.
