Partly thanks to the controversy surrounding the music video of Lil Nas X’s song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name), ” the openly gay rapper has secured his second Billboard Hot 100 Number 1 single. Billboard Magazine reports according to MRC Data “ ‘Montero’ drew 46.9 million U.S. streams and sold 21,000 downloads in the week ending April 1” and also received 1.1 million radio airplay audience impressions in the week ending April 4. Lil Nas X’s newest single, released on March 26, dethroned Justin Bieber’s new single, “Peaches” from the top spot.
In a discussion about “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, Billboard’s Heran Mamo said:
The music video did a devilishly good job getting the song to No. 1, and with nearly 100 million YouTube views in less than two weeks, I’m giving it significant credit. The controversy behind the “Satan Shoes” also helped the song take off – even if the sneakers are legally not allowed to fly off the shelves. There is quite possibly no such thing as bad publicity for Lil Nas X in the case of “Montero,” since religious and conservative critics unintentionally made his song even more popular. The devil works hard, but Lil Nas X for sure works harder.
Lil Nas X definitely has an abundance of detractors and homophobes. One of those is a rapper by the name of Sada Baby who posted an Instagram story with the quote “Lord we said Nas X, not DMX” referring to the rapper born as Earl Simmons, 50, who admitted to a hospital in New York after suffering a heart attack and remains in a vegetative state. Lil Nas X responded to the comment by Sada Baby from his Twitter account Monday evening.
this is so fucked up omg 😢 everyone stream the number 1 smash hit Montero (Call Me By Your Name) out now on all platforms! 😔
— ✟ (@LilNasX) April 6, 2021
The rapper also took to Twitter Monday evening to celebrate his single debuting at number 1.
me after getting a song about gay sex to the top of the billboard charts pic.twitter.com/UJK5HpDCOA
— ✟ (@LilNasX) April 5, 2021
Sources: Billboard, People Magazine, Lil Nas X Official Twitter Account
