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Five such enduring songs have hit No. 1.
5/19/2026
Michael Jackson performs in concert circa 1983. Kevin Mazur/WireImage
As previously reported, Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” is the biggest song in the world — more than 43 years after its release, moonwalking two spots to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart (dated May 23). The song has surged as the Jackson biopic Michael continues to thrill moviegoers, topping the latest box office over its fourth weekend of release.
“Billie Jean” totaled 51.5 million chart-contributing streams (up 7% week over week) and 3,000 sold (down 3%) worldwide May 8-14, according to Luminate. (The Global 200 ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world.)
Jackson, who died in 2009, is No. 1 on the Global 200 for the first time. Meanwhile, “Billie Jean” claims the record for the longest rise to the top, reigning in its 144th week. (The chart launched in September 2020.)
“Billie Jean” also dates back the furthest among all Global 200 No. 1s, having been released on Jackson’s album Thriller in November 1982; it dominated the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in March-April 1983.
Since the Global 200 began, five songs have hit No. 1 more than a decade after their release, reflecting a combination of their evergreen appeal and new buzz that has helped win over subsequent generations of fans. From Jackson’s coronation with “Billie Jean” to the song it dethrones — Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” featuring Nicki Minaj — to two festive carols and a Stranger Things-boosted favorite, below is a look at the leaders that have built legacies strong enough to conquer much newer chart competition.
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Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”
Year released: 1982
Date hit No. 1 on Global 200: May 23, 2026Originally released on Jackson’s opus Thriller, the song ruled the Hot 100 for seven weeks and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for nine weeks in 1983. With those songs No. 1 and Thriller then atop the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Paul Grein reported in the March 5, 1983, Billboard issue that Jackson made history as the first artist to lead all four lists at the same time.
Michael has also sparked appreciation for the late King of Pop’s wider library, with 17 of his songs infusing the May 16 and 23 Global 200 charts, the most among all acts in those weeks.
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Wham!, “Last Christmas”
Year released: 1984
Date hit No. 1 on Global 200: Dec. 20, 2025The jangly, bittersweet synth single by the duo of the late George Michael, who solely wrote and produced it, and Andrew Ridgeley, and has grown this decade, reaching a No. 2 best on the Hot 100 this past holiday season.
Ridgeley marveled to Billboard in December at how it has become “beloved by all generations,” citing “the special place the song occupies in so many hearts and one that George Michael would have been immensely proud of. Thank you, everyone who has embraced the song as a little piece of their own merry Christmas.”
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Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
Year released: 1985
Date hit No. 1 on Global 200: June 18, 2022The song’s sync in Netflix’s Stranger Things catapulted the alt nugget to No. 1 on the Global 200, as well as No. 3 on the Hot 100. It first peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100 in 1985. Bush celebrated that the song was given “a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show — I love it, too!”
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Mariah Carey, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
Year released: 1994
Date hit No. 1 on Global 200: Dec. 19, 2020Unwrapped on Carey’s album Merry Christmas, the song hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 a quarter-century later. It hangs atop the highest bough on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs retrospective and has since run up record commands of 22 weeks on the Hot 100 and 20 weeks on the Global 200.
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Justin Bieber feat. Nicki Minaj, “Beauty and a Beat”
Year released: 2012
Date hit No. 1 on Global 200: May 9, 2026Bieber played Coachella in Indio, Calif., on both April 11 and April 18, with the song, a No. 5 hit on the Hot 100 in 2013, part of his April 11 set. Mixing newer songs with a segment in which he played clips of his earlier hits directly from YouTube, he told the crowd, referencing the scope of his catalog, “Tonight is such a special night. I feel like we gotta take you guys on a bit of a journey …”
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