2016 wasn't a good year for many reasons; however, it was an excellent year for music. Ariana Grande's "Dangerous Woman" was one of the year's most popular songs. Plus, Lady Gaga returned to pop, and let's not forget the tour-de-force that was Lemonade. Simply put, our faves delivered the hits in spades. When times were tough in 2016, Beyoncé—specifically, "Formation"—saw us through.
But which artist achieved the most success this year? That's a subjective term, of course—I mean, what is success? No one impacted culture more than Beyoncé, but Britney Spears' LP, Glory, was chock-full of delectable bops. We'll leave the lofty analysis to the music scholars and stick to something more cut and dry: streams. In the digital era, music streams are the best way to gauge what artist is the most popular at any given time. So many heavy-hitters released albums and songs this year, but who came out on top as the most-streamed—and, subsequently, the most popular?
That would be Drake. Streaming giant Spotify recently released its list of most-streamed artists and songs of the year, and Drake topped the list with—wait for it—4.7 billion streams. That is a lot of love for Drake!
The rapper's hit, "One Dance," is also the most-streamed song of the year; people listened to it more than 970 million times. As for the most-streamed album? Drake's LP, Views, of course! He quite literally swept the board.
But another popular artist almost beat him: Rihanna. The "Work" queen was Spotify's most popular female artist of the year, with 2.5 billion streams. Not too shabby, eh?
In terms of the most popular songs, "One Dance" is followed by the Seeb Remix of "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" by Mike Posner and "Don’t Let Me Down" by The Chainsmokers. The bubbly "Cheap Thrills" by Sia rounds out the top five. (And now "Cheap Thrills" is in your head, right?)
Pandora's year-end list tells a different story, though. The Internet radio platform's top-performing song this year is "Work" by Rihanna and Drake. This is followed by Drake's "One Dance," "Needed Me" by Rihanna, Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself," and "Hello" by Adele. "Work" and "One Dance" are the only songs that overlap with Spotify's list, so it's safe to name those two tracks the most popular songs of 2016.
Here is a full rundown of Spotify's top-performing artists, albums, and songs of the year. This list will come in handy when you debate who ruled 2016 at your friend's New Year's Eve party. (We'll save you the fight: It was Beyoncé.)
The top five artists for 2016:
The most streamed tracks/most popular songs of 2016:
The most streamed albums of 2016:
