Photo of The Chainsmokers at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2016, by Sarah Kerver

With this bizarre and unpredictable presidential campaign finally in its final days, some national tracking polls are tightening. But newly examined data suggests The Chainsmokers' recent chart success may be the true indicator—seriously.

As we mentioned last week, RealClearPolitics had Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with an average 5-point lead as of Thursday (Oct. 27). Today, her Republican challenger Donald Trump is just 1.7 points behind.

With this year's anomaly election defying so many expectations thus far, we started looking to the 2008 and 2012 elections for any pointers. Nope, too normal. And as we dug back further, we noticed how much our culture and technology had changed between elections.

In 2012, when President Barack Obama won his second term, Maroon 5's "One More Night" had just earned a sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2000, when his predecessor George W. Bush nabbed his first term, Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" was a newly crowned No. 1. And both those songs' chart standings at the time of the corresponding election may have predicted the President.

Using Variance's formula, a new No. 1 song (two weeks or less) favored a new party (aka the non-incumbent candidate) and an older song (more than two weeks at No. 1) favored the party currently in the White House.

Of the elections since the Hot 100's creation in 1958, 10 out of 14 (or 71%) proved the rule of the incumbent versus the non-incumbent No. 1, including both of President Obama's electoral wins.

The Chainsmokers' "Closer," featuring Halsey, is currently enjoying a staggering 11th week atop the Billboard Hot 100, having surpassed Drake's "One Dance" for this year's most weeks at the top. Its closest challenger is The Weeknd's Daft Punk-assisted "Starboy," which overtook "Closer" this week in streaming but lags behind in sales.

That means if Hillary Clinton is to claim the White House and become the 45th President, The Chainsmokers would need to remain at No. 1 on the charts revealed this Monday (Nov. 7), a day before the election, allowing for the incumbent party (the Democrats) to retain the Oval Office. In this case, The Weeknd is Donald Trump, the non-incumbent hoping to unseat the party currently in charge. And if "Starboy" defies the odds to victory next week, Orangeboy may likewise prove the polls wrong.

It's worth noting, there is nothing truly scientific about this formula, unlike many political polls, most of which accurately predicted Trump's astonishing wins in the Republican primaries. In the general election, however, Clinton is still slightly ahead in most of the toss-up states, with Trump essentially needing a win in every battleground plus some blue states to reach the necessary 270 electoral votes.  

Because Billboard has changed its chart methods and schedules multiple times since 1958, for the purpose of comparing similar data, we've recognized the No. 1 song as of the date it was published, which is usually different from the chart date, as it tends to follow the magazine's print calendar. For example, "Closer" claimed the No. 1 slot on the chart post-dated Nov. 12, 2016, although the top rankings were announced on Oct. 31.)

The past No. 1 songs and presidential election winners can be seen below.

Note: 2016 election forecast as of Nov. 2, via FiveThirtyEight. Chart data via Billboard, with (I) representing incumbent party and (N) representing non-incumbent.