It’s the biggest honor that an act can claim on Billboard’s charts each year: the coveted No. 1 spot on the annual Top Artists recap.
As of 2023, the category ranks the year’s best-performing acts based on activity on the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs survey, as well as Billboard Boxscore, which recaps touring data.
Taylor Swift rules the 2023 Top Artists tally, making history in the process: As the superstar previously reigned in 2015 and 2009, she is the first act to finish at No. 1 in three distinct decades, dating to the award’s origin in the year-end 1981 Billboard issue.
Further demonstrating Swift’s sustained success on Billboard’s charts, the span from her first Top Artists triumph in 2009 to her latest in 2023 marks the longest in the retrospective’s history.
Meanwhile, Swift and Adele are the only acts to achieve No. 1 successes on Top Artists three times each, as Adele won in 2011, 2012 and 2016.
Eight other artists have each earned the honor of leading Top Artists twice: 50 Cent (2003, 2005), Chris Brown (2006, 2008), Destiny’s Child (2000, 2001), Drake (2018, 2021), Garth Brooks (1992, 1993), New Kids on the Block (1989, 1990), Post Malone (2019, 2020) and Usher (1998, 2004).
Swift’s latest No. 1 finish on Top Artists follows Bad Bunny’s rule in 2022, when he became the first leading act that primarily records Spanish-language music.
From the first list in 1981 to 2023, browse every act that has dominated the annual Top Artists chart, as revealed in every year-end Billboard issue, encompassing superstars in pop, country, R&B/hip-hop, rock and more.
Among Swift’s numerous 2023 achievements, she upped her total to 13 Billboard 200 No. 1s with the debut of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in November – extending her record for the most among women in the chart’s history. The same week, the set’s “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault]” became her 11th Hot 100 leader.
When Un Verano Sin Ti launched atop the May 21, 2022-dated Billboard 200, Bad Bunny became the first artist with multiple entirely non-English-language leaders on the list, after his El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo ruled for a week in December 2020. Un Verano Sin Ti dominated for 13 weeks and spent the rest of 2022 in the top 10 – and wrapped at No. 1 on the year’s Billboard 200 Albums roundup.
Drake’s LP Certified Lover Boy debuted atop the Billboard 200 in September 2021 and reigned for five total weeks. The set’s “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Future and Young Thug, crowned the Hot 100, marking Drake’s second No. 1 single that year, after “What’s Next.”
Post Malone’s album Hollywood’s Bleeding spent all of 2020 in the Billboard 200’s top 40 on its way to topping the year’s Billboard 200 Albums chart …
… after Hollywood’s Bleeding led the Billboard 200 for five weeks beginning in September 2019. The set yielded the three-week Hot 100 No. 1 “Circles,” which reached the summit that November.
Drake dominated the Hot 100 for a single-year-record 29 weeks in 2018, with three smashes from his album Scorpion: “God’s Plan” (11 weeks), “Nice for What” (eight) and “In My Feelings” (10). He one-upped the 28 weeks that Usher spent at No. 1 in 2004. “God’s Plan” also led the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart.
The singer-songwriter’s album ÷ (Divide) debuted atop the Billboard 200 in March 2017 and gave him two Hot 100 No. 1s: “Shape of You” – the top title on the year’s Hot 100 Songs chart – and “Perfect.”
Sheeran’s older brother, Matt, reminisced to Billboard about being his younger sibling’s sounding board: “I remember, when he first started out, there was one song he played me, and I told him I didn’t like it. He [later] said he never played it again. I don’t know if that was some lost masterpiece … Generally, I like his stuff.”
Adele’s 25 debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 3.48 million equivalent album units in its first week, including 3.38 million in album sales – the biggest respective one-week sums in Luminate tracking history. The LP led the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks through March 2016 and scored top honors on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart. Lead single “Hello” likewise ruled the Hot 100 for 10 frames.
Swift’s segue from country to pop on 1989 sparked her second Top Artists win. The set led the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks through February 2015 and houses the Hot 100 No. 1s “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood.” 1989 also finished at No. 1 on the year’s Billboard 200 Albums chart.
In 2014, the group added the most recent of its four Billboard 200 No. 1s with its aptly-titled album Four.
Unorthodox Jukebox became Bruno Mars’ first Billboard 200 No. 1 in March 2013. It includes his fifth and sixth Hot 100 No. 1s: “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man.”
In June 2012, Adele’s LP 21 logged its 24th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – the most for an album by a woman in the chart’s history. That February, “Set Fire to the Rain” became the set’s third Hot 100 No. 1. 21 topped the Billboard 200 Albums chart for 2012, after leading the list in 2011.
2011 marked new commercial heights for Adele, whose 21 became her first Billboard 200 No. 1 and its first two singles, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You,” led the Hot 100. At year’s end, along with Adele leading Top Artists, 21 ruled the Billboard 200 Albums recap and “Rolling in the Deep” led Hot 100 Songs for 2011.
One year after Lady Gaga arrived as Billboard’s top new artist, she led the overall Top Artists chart. She spent time in the Billboard 200’s top 10 with three titles in 2010: The Fame, EP The Fame Monster and The Remix. That June, she added her seventh Hot 100 top 10, “Alejandro.”
The momentum of Swift’s first Billboard 200 No. 1, Fearless, which launched atop the list in November 2008, continued through 2009, with the LP leading Billboard 200 Albums for the year. The set produced her two highest charting Hot 100 hits to that point: “Love Story” (No. 4 peak that January) and “You Belong With Me” (No. 2, August).
“What do I have to complain about? I have the best time in the world. I’m so lucky,” Swift mused to Billboard ahead of the release of Fearless. “When I go out in public and I go to a mall, yeah, it’s a lot different than it was two years ago, but it’s a beautiful kind of different. It’s the kind of different that I’ve wanted my entire life.”
Brown scored his first top 10 debut on the Hot 100 in 2008, as “Forever” began at No. 9 in May, on its way to a No. 2 peak that August.
After topping the Hot 100 with “I Wanna Love You,” featuring Snoop Dogg, for two weeks in December 2006, Akon earned his second leader, “Don’t Matter,” in April 2007.
Brown, whose self-titled album debuted on the Billboard 200 in December 2005, upped his count to four Hot 100 top 10s by the end of 2006.
After reigning on Top Artists in 2003, 50 Cent returned to No. 1 for 2005, fueled by his second Billboard 200 leader, The Massacre, and his third of four Hot 100 rulers, “Candy Shop,” featuring Olivia. The Massacre went on to finish atop the year’s Billboard 200 Albums chart.
Usher dominated the Billboard 200 in 2004 with his first Billboard 200 No. 1, Confessions, and four Hot 100 No. 1s: “Yeah!,” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, “Burn,” “Confessions Part II” and “My Boo,” with Alicia Keys. Meanwhile, Confessions and “Yeah!” topped the year’s Billboard 200 Albums and Hot 100 Songs charts, respectively.
50 Cent achieved his first of two No. 1 finishes on Top Artists in 2003. His debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ led the Billboard 200 and produced two Hot 100 chart-toppers: “In Da Club” and “21 Questions,” featuring Nate Dogg. The set and “In Da Club” paced the year’s respective Billboard 200 Albums and Hot 100 Songs charts.
Nelly presided over the Hot 100 with two signature songs in 2002: “Hot in Herre,” for seven weeks, and “Dilemma,” featuring Kelly Rowland, for 10. Parent album Nellyville crowned the Billboard 200 for four weeks.
2001 brought Destiny’s Child’s first of two Billboard 200 No. 1 albums, Survivor, and the act’s fourth of four Hot 100 leaders, “Bootylicious.”
Building upon the group’s first Hot 100 No. 1, “Bills, Bills, Bills” in 1999, Destiny’s Child added its second and third leaders in 2000: “Say My Name” for three weeks, and “Independent Women Part I” for a career-best 11 frames.
The group’s LP Millennium – the leading title on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart – ran up 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 starting with its chart-topping debut in June 1999, powered by its lead single, “I Want It That Way.”
Usher’s album My Way generated his first Hot 100 No. 1, “Nice & Slow,” which led for two weeks beginning on, fittingly, Valentine’s Day, in 1998.
Thanks to her album Blue, Rimes, then 15, followed Garth Brooks as the second core country artist – and first woman in the genre – to lead Top Artists.
Morissette’s breakthrough U.S. album Jagged Little Pill was central to alternative’s commercial takeover in the mid-‘90s, topping the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks through September 1996 and ending as the year’s No. 1 title on the Billboard 200 Albums retrospective.
“When I was writing it, it was so subconscious,” Morissette told Billboard in 1995 of the set. “I wasn’t aware of what was coming out of me. I’d go into the booth when the ink wasn’t even dry and sing. I’d listen the next day and not really remember it.”
TLC’s sophomore set CrazySexyCool generated the act’s first two Hot 100 No. 1s: “Creep,” for four weeks, and “Waterfalls,” for seven.
The Swedish pop quartet’s breakthrough LP The Sign led the Billboard 200 for two weeks in April 1994 and the title track topped the Hot 100 for six frames. That domination led to Ace of Base making history as the only act ever to rule Billboard’s year-end Top Artists, Top New Artists, Hot 100 Songs and Billboard 200 Albums recaps in the same year.
Brooks posted his third Billboard 200 leader, In Pieces, in September 1993. The set was one of six that the country titan charted on the survey that year.
Brooks’ first Billboard 200 No. 1, Ropin’ the Wind, upped its reign to 18 weeks in March 1992 – and became the year’s top title on the Billboard 200 Albums ranking. That October, he added his second leader, The Chase. He became the first core country act to rule Top Artists, and, in 1993, the first to reign in consecutive years.
In March 1991, Carey’s debut self-titled album began an 11-week rule on the Billboard 200, the longest domination of her six career No. 1s. The set, which includes four Hot 100 No. 1s, including “Someday” and “I Don’t Wanna Cry” in 1991, wrapped atop the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart.
Before One Direction and Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block flew the flag for boy bands atop Billboard’s Top Artists chart. The Boston quintet notched its second Billboard 200 leader, Step by Step, in 1990. The album’s title cut became the act’s third, and longest-leading, No. 1, for three weeks, on the Hot 100.
In 1989, New Kids on the Block landed their first Billboard 200 No. 1, Hangin’ Tough, and their first two Hot 100 No. 1s, “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)” and the set’s title cut. Impressive first impressions: The group and Ace of Base, in 1994, are the only acts to lead Top Artists and Top New Artists in the same year.
Michael’s debut solo LP Faith ruled the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks starting in January 1988 and yielded four No. 1s on the Hot 100. Along with his reign on Top Artists, Faith and its title track led the year-end respective Billboard 200 Albums and Hot 100 Songs charts.
“There are stars out there, maybe the majority of American stars, who think success is more important than anything else,” he told Rolling Stone in 1988. “I do like being a celebrity – it’s good to get into clubs for free and stuff. But genuinely, I am only really passionate about my music.”
Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet – the top title on Billboard 200 Albums for 1987 – produced the band’s longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1: “Livin’ on a Prayer,” for four weeks beginning that February.
Whitney Houston started its 14-week Billboard 200 domination in March 1986, and spun off two Hot 100 No. 1s that year: “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All.” The set finished at No. 1 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums tally.
Madonna sent lots of material to No. 1 in 1985: She scored her first Billboard 200 leader when Like a Virgin reached the top spot that February, after the set’s title cut ruled the Hot 100 for six weeks into January. She led the Hot 100 again with “Crazy for You” that May.
The title of Richie’s Can’t Slow Down album proved prophetic: The LP ranked in the Billboard 200’s top 10 each week in 1984, after it spent three weeks at No. 1 in December 1983.
Jackson’s opus Thriller started its 37-week Billboard 200 command in March 1983 – the longest in the list’s history for a set by a singular artist; overall, only the West Side Story soundtrack has spent more time at No. 1 (54 weeks, 1962-63). Thriller reigned at No. 1 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart in both 1983 and 1984.
The quintet’s Beauty and the Beat topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks starting in March 1982. The set remains the only No. 1 in the survey’s history by an all-woman rock band. “Our manager, Ginger [Canzoneri], would tell us our number on the charts, and it was unbelievably exciting to listen to the number get higher and higher every week,” guitarist/backing vocalist Jane Wiedlin recalled to Billboard in 2011. “The week we went to No. 1, we were on tour opening for The Police, and they gave us champagne and congratulated us.”
The rockers began a 15-week rule on the Billboard 200 in February 1981 with their LP Hi Infidelity – the No. 1 title for the year on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. The set’s classic ballad “Keep on Loving You” crowned the Hot 100 that March.
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