‘I hope my haters are crying’: Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ debuts at No. 1 on Hot 100

Lil Nas X has returned to a familiar place: the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100.

Billboard announced Monday that the singer and rapper’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)� had topped its flagship singles chart almost two years to the date since his “Old Town Road� began its record-setting 19-week run at No. 1 in 2019.

“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)� — the title nods to both Lil Nas X’s real name, Montero Lamar Hill, and director Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 romantic drama — racked up nearly 47 million streams in the United States in the week after its release on March 26, according to MRC Data.

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And like “Old Town Road,� which rode a wave of controversy over whether it should be classified as a country song, “Montero� benefited from widespread debate on social media. This time Lil Nas X, 21, set off an old-fashioned satanic panic with the song’s eye-popping music video, in which he rides a stripper pole to hell and gives the devil a lap dance.

Conservative politicians and commentators promptly condemned the clip; many more took issue with a limited-edition line of so-called Satan Shoes: Nike Air Max 97s tricked out — minus Nike’s approval — with custom detailing and what Lil Nas X said was a drop of human blood in the soles. (Nike sued Mschf, the Brooklyn-based company that designed the shoes, but not before the run of 666 pairs sold out at more than a thousand bucks a pop.) “Saturday Night Live� addressed the hubbub over the weekend with a sketch in which the rapper, played by Chris Redd, gives God a lap dance “to even things out.�

On Monday, Lil Nas X — who spent much of last week expertly toying with his critics on Twitter — continued the fun in a series of posts about “Montero’s� chart placement.

“I hope my haters are sad. i hope they are crying. i want your tears to fill my grammy cup,� he wrote in one, followed by a tweet in which he said, “god i am gonna do so much sex tonight.� (Before Billboard made its announcement, he posted about the earthquake that rattled Los Angeles early Monday morning, saying it “kinda turned me on.�)

Though “Montero’s� streams were more than enough to get the song to No. 1 — at No. 2 is Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,� which drew 27.1 million — its weekly total came in far behind some other recent streaming hits, including Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,� which debuted atop the Hot 100 last year with 93 million streams, and “Drivers License� by Olivia Rodrigo, which racked up 76.1 million in January.

The all-time leader on the weekly streams tally? “Old Town Road,� which was streamed a whopping 143 million times in one seven-day period in April 2019.