Home ›› 31 Dec 2021 ›› Show Biz
Drake is No 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Artists chart for a second time, while 2021 marks the fifth straight year that a male artist has led the tally.
Post Malone was tops in both 2020 and 2019, while Drake was the top artist for the first time in 2018 and Ed Sheeran ruled in 2017, according to a report of Billboard.com.
The 35-year-old Drake is the year’s top artist not just thanks to the success of the pop and hip-hop superstar’s latest Billboard 200 No 1 album, Certified Lover Boy (his 10th No 1), and its accompanying hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart; he also reigns supreme via the continued presence of his catalog of previously released albums on the Billboard 200.
Certified Lover Boy debuted at No1 on the Sept. 18, 2021-dated Billboard 200 chart and logged only nine weeks on the survey before the 2021 chart year closed.
In total during the chart year, Drake placed eight albums on the Billboard 200 (only one of which was new, Certified). Only Taylor Swift placed more albums on the chart in the 2021 chart year, with nine (three of which were new). She finishes at No4 on the Top Artists list.
BTS is the top duo/group for a second straight year (No12 on the overall list). The South Korean group notched four No1s on the Hot 100 during the 2021 chart year — the most of any act — and scored their fifth No1 album on the Billboard 200 with the chart-topping debut of Be (December 5, 2020-dated chart). The set closes the year at No40 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart.
Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ triumphs as the year-end No1 on the Hot 100 Songs recap, following the track’s record-breaking run on the chart. The song debuted on the weekly Hot 100 dated October 17, 2020, peaked at No2 on the May 22, 2021-dated survey, and, as of the current issue, has yet to leave the tally. During the chart year, the song broke the record for the most weeks in the top 10 and top 20 for a song by a female artist. ‘Levitating’ also boasts the second-most weeks in the top 10 among all songs, second to only The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ (57), which was 2020’s year-end Hot 100 No1.
The year-end Hot 100 No1 hit is by a lead female artist for the first time in 10 years, since Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ was tops in 2011.
2020’s year-end Hot 100 champ, The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights,’ is the No3 Hot 100 title of 2021. Meanwhile, The Weeknd’s ‘Save Your Tears,’ with Ariana Grande, is the No2 song of the year. As The Weeknd has the Nos. 2 and 3 year-end songs on the Hot 100, he’s the first act with two of the three year-end songs since Justin Bieber was Nos. 1 and 2 in 2016, respectively, with ‘Love Yourself’ and ‘Sorry.’
