Mary J. Blige enters a select club as just the fourth artist to earn at least 10 No. 1s on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul achieves the feat on the list dated Jan. 18, as “You Ain’t the Only One” rises 3-1 to become her 10th career leader on the radio ranking.
“You Ain’t the Only One” crowns the chart as the most-played song on U.S. panel-contributing adult R&B radio stations in the tracking week of Jan. 3-9, according to Luminate. It improved 22% in plays for the tracking week compared with the prior week. The huge leap earns Blige’s single the weekly Greatest Gainer award, given to the song with the largest gain in plays at the format.
With the new champ, Blige nabs her 10th No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay and ties Charlie Wilson for the third-most leaders among all acts since the chart launched in 1993. The pair trails only Alicia Keys (14) and Toni Braxton (11) on the overall leaderboard. Last November, “You Ain’t the Only One” became Blige’s record-extending 28th top 10 on the radio chart. Keys ranks second in that count, with 24 top 10s, while Gerald Levert and R. Kelly share the third-place mark, at 22 each.
Here’s a recap of Blige’s No. 1 collection on the Adult R&B Airplay chart:
- “Not Gon’ Cry,” four weeks at No. 1, beginning March 2, 1996
- “Be Without You,” 14, Feb. 4, 2006
- “Take Me As I Am,” one, Jan. 27, 2007
- “IfULeave,” Musiq Soulchild featuring Mary. J. Blige, eight, Jan. 10, 2009
- “Thick of It,” 16, Nov. 12, 2016
- “U + Me (Love Lesson),” three, May 6, 2017
- “Good Morning Gorgeous,” four, Feb. 26, 2022
- “Still Believe in Love,” featuring Vado, eight, Dec. 30, 2023
- “Breathing,” featuring Fabolous, one, Oct. 26, 2024
- “You Ain’t The Only One,” one (to date), Jan. 18, 2025
Notably, Blige has topped Adult R&B Airplay with her last three appearances on the list. The three-single streak rewrites the personal best for the R&B legend, who previously notched back-to-back winners with “Thick of It” and “U + Me (Love Lesson).”
Elsewhere, “You Ain’t the Only One” repeats at its No. 18 peak for a third, nonconsecutive week on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations. There, the single reaches 6.7 million in format audience, up 24% from the prior week and enough to secure the Greatest Gainer award.
“You Ain’t the Only One” appears on Blige’s Gratitude album, released in November.
