Culture

Lil Nas X’s Montero (Call Me By Your Name) debuts at number 1 on Billboard Hot 100

By Sam Damshenas

6th April 2021

“I hope my haters are sad. I hope they are crying.”

Lil Nas X’s brand new single Montero (Call Me By Your Name) has debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The hip-hop anthem is the rapper’s second chart-topper in the United States after Old Town Road, which made history when it spent a record-breaking 19 weeks at number one.

It also became Lil Nas X’s fifth entry on the Hot 100 after Old Town Road, Panini (#5), Rodeo with Cardi B (#22) and Holiday (#37).

Montero (Call Me By Your Name) also reached the pole position in the UK and Ireland.

Since its release, Lil Nas X has continued to cement his status as the king of social media with clapbacks towards the conservative pundits who took issue with the music video.

In the biblical and ancient Greek-inspired visual, Lil Nas X pole dances his way into hell, where he proceeds to give Satan a raunchy lap dance in thigh-high boots with stiletto heels and Calvin Klein underwear.

After snapping Satan’s neck, the star crowns himself as the new ruler of hell with Lucifer’s horns as his eyes glow and wings emerge.

As we wrote in our review, “It’s a blockbuster of a music video that challenges the status quo, is powerful in its queerness, and unapologetic with its message.”

The music video received rave reviews from the LGBTQ+ community and liberal media for unabashedly celebrating queer sexuality in a way that hasn’t been seen from a mainstream, chart-topping artist such as Lil Nas X.

Right-wing commentators, however, the ones who are still shedding conservative tears over Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP, slammed Lil Nas X for promoting Satanism and ‘corrupting’ younger listeners.

Following the announcement that the song debuted at number one in the US, Lil Nas X celebrated “getting a song about gay sex” to the top of the charts and said he hopes his haters are ‘sad and crying’.

“I want your tears to fill my Grammy cup,” he wrote. 

Check out Lil Nas X’s instantly iconic celebratory tweets below.

Montero (Call Me By Your Name) and Holiday will be included on Lil Nas X’s debut studio album Montero, which is due for release this summer.

We recently unpacked how the star became a revolutionary queer icon for our generation – you can read that in full here.