Taylor Swift’s single will debut #1 and deny ‘Despacito’ the chart record

Taylor Swift announced her return to the musical world overnight, with a new record named Reputation, a very nu metal album cover, and a lead single set to drop on Friday.

Unless the tides have turned terribly against Taylor Swift, this single — with an entire week’s worth of streaming, purchasing, ‘have-you-heard’-ing, hastily typed reviews and think-pieces, debates about her new sound (of course there will be a new sound), and all the other promotion it will receive — looks likely to debut at #1 on the Hot 100.

This means that ‘Despacito’ will fail to equal the chart record for longest run at #1 that we wrote about earlier this week: a 16-week run at the #1 spot made by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s ‘One Sweet Day’ in 1995 and 1996.

Incidentally Mariah and Boyz II Men were knocked off the number one spot (this is the U.S., remember) by Celine Dion’s ‘Because You Love Me’, which stayed at #1 for six weeks until it was knocked off the top spot by ‘Always Be My Baby’ by Mariah.

Point is, chart records are interesting things to analyse and speculate about, and you don’t fuck with Mariah Carey.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.