Bruno Mars Breaks The All-Time R&B Chart Record

Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might” returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart dated October 24, logging its 32nd week at the top. The total passes the 31 weeks set by Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” and makes the song the longest-running No. 1 in the history of a chart Billboard traces back to October 1958.

The record came with a detour. A week earlier, Drake and Don Toliver’s “Solar Eclipse” held the top spot on the chart dated October 17, interrupting Mars’ run for a single week before he took the summit back. According to AllHipHop, Mars had already tied the “Luther” record earlier in October, so the October 24 chart is the week the tie was broken. The 32 weeks at No. 1 are a cumulative total, not consecutive weeks.

The numbers behind the record week show a song powered mostly by radio. For the tracking week of October 9 to 15, Parade reported, citing Luminate data, that “I Just Might” drew a radio audience of 51.9 million, sold 1,000 downloads and earned 5.3 million official streams in the United States. A second recap of the same chart week, published by 24Hip-Hop, put the streaming figure at 5.03 million while reporting the same airplay audience and sales totals; both accounts credit Luminate, and Billboard has not published a correction reconciling the two stream counts.

The run began on January 9, when Atlantic released “I Just Might” as the lead single from Mars’ album The Romantic. The song debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated January 24 — his fifth song to top this ranking — and Billboard’s chart history, as recapped by MixShow Prime, shows the reign interrupted only twice, both times by records featuring Drake: for seven weeks in May and June by “Janice STFU,” and for the single week in October by “Solar Eclipse.”

Mars had led this chart before, alone and with partners. His previous No. 1 songs on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs were “That’s What I Like” in 2017, “Finesse” with Cardi B in 2018, “Please Me” with Cardi B in 2019, and “Leave the Door Open” in 2021, recorded with Anderson .Paak as the duo Silk Sonic, according to Parade’s account of Billboard’s chart history.

The song’s reach extends beyond the R&B chart. It was the first Mars song to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and his tenth leader on that chart overall, according to BMG’s release reporting, and it has also topped Billboard’s Pop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay charts.

The record it passed belonged to one of the biggest songs of the previous two years. “Luther,” from Lamar’s album GNX, is built on Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn’s “If This World Were Mine” and spent 31 weeks at No. 1 across 2024 and 2025. Behind the top two on the all-time list sit Lamar’s “Not Like Us” at 22 weeks, SZA’s “Kill Bill” at 21 weeks and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, at 20 weeks.

The Romantic, released February 27 through Atlantic Records, is Mars’ fourth solo album and his first in nearly a decade, following 24K Magic. In the years between solo albums he kept recording with other artists, including “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT.” with ROSÉ. Mars co-directed the “I Just Might” video with Daniel Ramos, giving it a 1970s-inspired look.

Sources: Billboard chart reporting; Parade; AllHipHop; 24Hip-Hop; MixShow Prime; That Grape Juice.