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Since Drake dropped his debut album, Thank Me Later, in 2010, he’s enjoyed a yearly coronation more often than not: For the seventh time in the past 13 years, the superstar caps the year as Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist. He first achieved the rank in 2012, ran a four-peat from 2015-18, and reclaimed the MVP title last year. With seven rings, the 6 God firmly stands in a class of his own, three ahead of his nearest challenger, R. Kelly, who headed the year-end recap four times.
Unsurprisingly, Drake also repeats on the Top Rap Artists chart, which debuted last year. Beyoncé, meanwhile, rules 2022’s Top R&B Artists recap, now in its second year.
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Drake traces his success this year to the endurance of his 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy and 2022 release Honestly, Nevermind. The former also wraps 2022 at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums recap, while the latter finishes at No. 21. Certified, which contains hits like “Way 2 Sexy,” featuring Drake and Tems, “Knife Talk,” with 21 Savage and featuring Project Pat and the Travis Scott-assisted “Fair Trade,” never fell below No. 13 on the weekly Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums recap during the chart year. Further, with its 10 weeks at No. 1 to date, it’s only Drake’s second album to reach the double-digit mark, after Take Care and its 12-week run in 2012-13.
Looking (far) ahead, Drake is already a frontrunner for his eighth title as the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist. His collaborative album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, was released Nov. 4 and debuted on the Nov. 19, 2022, chart date – the first week of the 2023 chart year.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
Harlow ‘First’ in Class: Jack Harlow’s “First Class” captures first place on the annual Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs recap and gives the 24-year-old Louisville-bred rapper his first year-end champ on the list. The single, which debuted in April and samples Fergie’s 2006 track “Glamorous,” featuring Ludacris, logged 10 weeks on top of the weekly Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and spent its first 27 weeks on the list inside the top 10.
The song’s double-digit stay also punched Harlow’s ticket into a rare club. Between “Class” and “Industry Baby,” his collaboration with Lil Nas X that spent 18 weeks on top of the list, Harlow became one of only a handful of artists with two songs that have claimed 10 or more weeks at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. “Industry Baby,” released in 2021, comes in at No. 6 on the 2022 year-end recap. Harlow and Drake are the only acts with multiple songs in the top 10 of this year’s annual Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ranking.
Latto’s ‘Big’ Prizes: Elsewhere, Latto cashes in big on several year-end lists, including as the Top New R&B/Hip-Hop Artist. The 23-year-old rapper’s win ends a nine-year gap for a woman to lead the yearly recap, since Iggy Azalea took home top new honors in 2014. The breakout success stems from Latto’s “Big Energy” single, released in September 2021, found its stride in 2022, first by entering the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs’ top 10 in January, topping the chart for two weeks in April and remaining on the list through September, a full year since its release.
Radio support played a pivotal role in the “Big Energy” story, most notably at the rhythmic format. The single clocked 35 weeks in the top 10 of the Rhythmic Airplay chart, the second-most by any song in the chart’s 30-year existence. No surprise then, that “Energy” is the No. 1 title on Rhythmic Airplay Songs for 2022. In addition, it nabs other awards as the year’s top R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales track and Rap Digital Song Sales, while Latto herself is the Top Female Rap Artist.
“Essence” Is Radio Champ: The Afrobeats genre brings home a big prize on the year-end charts thanks to Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, which is No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Songs. Following its July release and growing buzz on TikTok, the Nigerian acts’ collaboration found quick reception on U.S. airwaves after its radio campaign began, flying to the top of the weekly R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart just eight weeks after its debut. The journey at the top, though, was longer – historically long, in fact. “Essence” clocked 27 weeks at No. 1 on the chart, a tie for the second-longest in the chart’s history, and became the first song to remain in the top 10 for an entire year.
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As noted, “Essence” wins the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay race and “Big Energy” takes the title for R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales. The genre’s streaming champ? Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin.” It managed 13-week conquest of the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart, the longest since Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” ran up 14 frames in 2020.
Future takes the crowns for No. 1 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Artist, No. 1 Hot Rap Songs Artist and No. 1 Rap Streaming Songs Artist. One of the rapper’s best – if not the best – years of his career includes silver medals on the year-end charts for Top Rap Albums (I Never Liked You) and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (“Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems).
A year after being No. 1 on Hot Rap Songwriters, Lil Baby successfully defends his title. This year, though, he ups his collection to also take the prize at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriters, after coming in second place in last year’s standings.
Just as the 29-year-old singer-songwriter did in 2021, Sneedville, Tenn. native Morgan Wallen reigns as Billboard’s Top Country Artist of 2022. Concurrently, he finishes first as top country male artist.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
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Wallen’s Dangerous set is the No. 1 Top Country Albums title of 2022. The 30-track LP has led the weekly albums list for well over 80 frames. On April 2, when it rolled into its record-breaking 51st week, it made history as it surpassed the 50-week commands logged by Luke Combs’ This One’s For You and Shania Twain’s Come on Over.
Notably, the methodology for Top Country Albums changed as of the survey dated Feb. 11, 2017, when the chart switched from using a strictly album sales-based formula to one calculating multiple metrics, incorporating album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Thus, the steady streaming activity of Dangerous’ 30 songs has contributed to the set’s chart rank each week during its run.
Dangerous blasted in at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart dated Jan. 23, 2021, with 265,000 equivalent album units earned. That marked the biggest week for a country album since Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty launched with 266,000 in September 2018. Wallen achieved the largest week for a solo male since Luke Bryan’s Kill the Lights began with 345,000 (August 2015).
Wallen also possesses the No. 1 and 2 hits of 2022 on Billboard’s streaming-, airplay and sales based Hot Country Songs. “Wasted on You,” which is from Dangerous, is the leading song of the year, while stand-alone single “You Proof” is No. 2.
“Wasted” rocketed atop the weekly Hot Country Songs survey in January 2021 and topped the tally for 11 weeks. “You Proof” debuted in the penthouse in May of 2022, giving the artist his sixth leader and his fifth No. 1 start, the most of any artist. “You Proof” also dominated the weekly Country Airplay chart for five frames — his longest running No. 1 among his seven chart-toppers.
Underwood Shines: Billboard’s Top Female Country Artist of 2022 is Carrie Underwood. She ranks 10th overall.
Underwood’s Denim & Rhinestones LP entered Top Country Albums at No. 2 on the chart dated June 25, marking her 10th top 10 in as many visits. Released June 10, the set earned 31,000 equivalent album units in its first week, with 22,000 of that sum in album sales, according to Luminate.
Underwood is the second-highest ranking woman on the Top Country Albums Artists recap (Taylor Swift is first) and Underwood is seventh among all artists.
On the list for top Country Airplay Artists of 2022 Underwood is the top female (12th overall). The artist’s hit “Ghost Story,” which reached No. 6 in October 2021 awarded Underwood with her landmark 30th song to reach the chart’s weekly top 10.
Since Country Airplay was launched in January 1990, Underwood is second among women with the most top 10s; Reba McEntire leads with 30.
Billboard’s Top Country Duo/Group of 2022 is Zac Brown Band. The act ranks first among duos and groups on the year-end Top Country Albums Artists recap, and 15th overall.
At the end of October 2021, ZBB released its seventh studio LP The Comeback which arrived at No. 3 on the weekly Top Country Albums chart with 19,000 units in its first week. It was the band’s 10th top 10.
Over on Country Airplay, ZBB achieved its first No. 1 in over five years when “Same Boat” (from The Comeback set), floated from 4-1 on the tally dated Dec. 4, 2021. It awarded the act with its 14th No. 1.
Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2022 is Zach Bryan who finished fifth on the overall Top Country Artists recap.
Bryan is also fifth on the Top Country Albums Artists roundup this year. Bryan’s American Heartbreak album ranks eighth on the year-end Top Country Albums titles list. The 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Oologah, Okla. released the hefty 34-track effort on May 20 and it entered atop the June 4 dated chart with 71,000 equivalent album units. Concurrently it bowed at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Also noteworthy for 2022, the group Parmalee’s “Take My Name” is No. 1 on the year-end Country Airplay Songs tally. The song led the survey for two weeks starting June 18. It gave the group its third No. 1, plus it remained in the top 10 for 21 weeks; the fourth longest run in the list’s upper tier in the almost 23-year history of the chart.
Latto finishes 2022 as Billboard’s top new artist, after her breakthrough year on the charts with the smash single “Big Energy.”
The 23-year-old Atlanta-born rapper is also 2022’s Top New R&B/Hip-Hop Artist and the top female rap artist, while “Big Energy” is No. 1 on the year-end R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales, Rap Digital Song Sales and Rhythmic Airplay Songs recaps.
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Latto’s “Big Energy” was a big deal in 2022, peaking at No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart in April and spending 37 weeks (all consecutive) in the top 40 of the weekly chart. The track flourished in popularity on TikTok and eventually migrated to hit status at streamers, retail and radio. It vaulted to No. 3 following the release of a new remix of the track with Mariah Carey and featuring DJ Khaled.
On the “Big Energy” remix, Carey sings a portion of her 1995 No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Fantasy” – both songs sample Tom Tom Club’s 1982 Hot 100 hit “Genius of Love.”
“Big Energy” also closes 2022 at No. 7 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs roundup. Aside from “Big Energy,” Latto notched another hit on the Hot 100 during the 2022 chart year through her featured turn on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Budget.”
Latto additionally landed a top 20-charting album on the Billboard 200 with the song’s parent set, 777, peaking at No. 15 in April.
Latto follows recent year-end top new artist honorees Olivia Rodrigo (2021), Roddy Ricch (2020), Billie Eilish (2019), Cardi B (2018), Lil Uzi Vert (2017), Bryson Tiller (2016) and Fetty Wap (2015).
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate. The Top New Artists category ranks the best-performing new acts of the year based on activity on the Billboard 200 albums and Billboard Hot 100 songs charts, as well as Billboard Boxscore (touring), for the 2022 tracking period.
2022 was the year of Bad Bunny. The superstar rules Billboard’s year-end Top Artists chart for the first time and his blockbuster release Un Verano Sin Ti is the year-end No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums recap. It’s both the first time that an act that primarily records in Spanish is the year’s top artist, and a mostly non-English-language set is the biggest album of the year. (Billboard began compiling the year-end Top Artists category in 1981, and albums in 1956.)
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The 28-year-old Puerto Rican (born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) crowns the year-end Top Artists tally thanks largely to the extraordinary success of his second No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the all-Spanish-language Un Verano Sin Ti, and its slew of hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. Un Verano Sin Ti debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated May 21 and spent 13 nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart – the most weeks at No. 1 since 2016. The set also never left the top two positions of the weekly list in its first 24 weeks – becoming the first album to spend its first six months in the top two.
Un Verano Sin Ti also marked just the second all-Spanish-language album to reach No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200, following Bad Bunny’s own El Ultimo Tour del Mundo in 2020.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate. The Top Artists and Top New Artists categories ranks the best-performing overall acts, and new acts, of the year based on activity on the Billboard 200 album and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as well as Billboard Boxscore (touring) data, for the 2022 tracking period.
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Bad Bunny also profited from the continued success of four of his other albums – YHLQMDLG, El Ultimo Tour del Mundo, X 100PRE and the boxed set Anniversary Trilogy – all of which charted on the Billboard 200 during the 2022 tracking year. In total, Bad Bunny places four albums on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart – Un Verano Sin Ti (No. 1), YHLQMDLG (No. 36), El Ultimo Tour del Mundo (No. 69) and X 100PRE (No. 165).
Un Verano Sin Ti saw 22 of its 23 songs debut on the Hot 100 concurrent with the album’s release (the one album track that didn’t debut had already hit the list in 2019). On the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap, Bad Bunny places seven titles, led by “Me Porto Bonito,” with Chencho Corleone, at No. 20. Fueled by the success of the 24 songs he placed on the Hot 100 during the chart year, Bunny is No. 1 on Hot 100 Artists recap for 2022.
Bad Bunny is additionally 2022’s top male artist for the first time, while Taylor Swift is the top female (No. 2 on the overall list), Glass Animals is the top duo/group (No. 18 overall) and Latto leads the 2022 Top New Artists chart (No. 34 overall).
It’s Bad Bunny’s first time as the year’s top male, while for Swift, it’s her sixth time as the lead female (she was also tops in 2020, 2018, 2015, 2013 and 2009). She notched a pair of new No. 1s on the Billboard 200 during the chart year — Red (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights — which finish at Nos. 5 and 4, respectively, on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart. It’s the first time one act has two of the top five year-end biggest albums since 1975, when John Denver was Nos. 3 and 4 with John Denver’s Greatest Hits and Back Home Again.
Glass Animals also triumph as the year’s top/duo group for the first time, largely powered by the act’s smash single “Heat Waves” – the British band’s first No. 1 on the weekly Hot 100. It also broke the record for the longest-charting Hot 100 hit (91 weeks) and wraps 2022 at No. 1 on the Hot 100 Songs year-end recap.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” reigns as the No. 1 hit on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, following its sizzling, record-breaking run on the weekly ranking, which blends streaming, radio airplay and sales data.
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Meanwhile, Bad Bunny tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists recap. He charted all 22 newly released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti on the Hot 100 in the album’s explosive first chart week in May, including four in the top 10.
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“Heat Waves” tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart after it completed the longest climb to the weekly Hot 100’s summit in the chart’s history: 59 weeks.
The first Hot 100 leader (and entry) for British quartet Glass Animals – Dave Bayley, Edmund Irwin-Singer, Drew MacFarlane and Joe Seaward – debuted on the Jan. 16, 2021-dated chart and spent five weeks at No. 1 this March-April. Released in June 2020, the track subsequently topped weekly alternative, pop and adult radio airplay tallies, and, helping spark its multi-format crossover, connected prominently on TikTok.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
“The song is about nostalgia and the past, and remembering and missing people,” Bayley mused upon the single’s Hot 100 coronation. “I think through the last couple years, and still now, people have been missing their loved ones, and not everyone’s been able to just go visit their parents, or their best friend. It’s been quite difficult … that’s my hunch as to why people have gravitated towards this song.
“I almost feel like it gives us a little bit of breathing room,” Bayley added of the song’s success. “I think there’s often a lot of pressure to keep putting things out. But because this has kept going, it’s given us the confidence to just keep doing what we were doing.”
“Heat Waves,” released on Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic Records, went on to spend a record 91 weeks on the Hot 100 overall.
“When I wrote this song, I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly,” Bayley further shared when “Heat Waves” rewrote the Hot 100’s new longevity mark. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe.”
“Heat Waves” is the first year-end Hot 100 No. 1 by a group (of more than two members) since The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” in 2009. Plus, until this year, no British group had led the year-end list since The Police with “Every Breath You Take” in 1983. (Among duos, U.S.-based Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped the 2013 tally with “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz; among non-solo British acts, in between Glass Animals and The Police, Wham! wrapped at No. 1 for 1985 with “Careless Whisper.”)
“Heat Waves” is also the No. 1 title on the 2022 year-end Streaming Songs chart.
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” places at No. 2 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart, after it ruled the weekly Hot 100 for 15 weeks, the fourth-longest command in the chart’s history. The single also tops the year-end Billboard Global 200, Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Pop Airplay Songs charts.
The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” ranks at No. 3 on the 2022 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart and leads the year-end Radio Songs and Adult Pop Airplay Song tallies; Adele’s “Easy on Me” finishes at No. 4 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs survey and is the No. 1 title of the year on Adult Contemporary Songs; and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” places at No. 5 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs ranking.
Rounding out the top 10 of the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart: Jack Harlow’s “First Class” (No. 6); Latto’s “Big Energy” (No. 7); Bieber’s “Ghost” (No. 8); Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin” (No. 9); and Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” (No. 10), also the top title on the year-end Digital Song Sales chart.
While Lipa landed the No. 1 spot on the 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart with “Levitating,” John scores his highest yearly placement since “Candle in the Wind 1997″/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight” was No. 8 in 1998 (after finishing at No. 1 in 1997).
Bad Bunny crowns Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart. He sent all 22 newly-released tracks on his album Un Verano Sin Ti, released on Rimas Entertainment, onto the Hot 100 in the album’s first chart week in May, including four in the top 10. Among those four, “Me Porto Bonito,” with Chencho Corleone, finishes highest on the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap, at No. 20.
Bad Bunny also rules the year’s overall Top Artists chart, while Un Verano Sin Ti is 2022’s No. 1 title on the Billboard 200 Albums year-end retrospective.
Doja Cat places second on Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Artists chart, having notched three new top 10s on the weekly Hot 100 during the year, followed in the top 10 by Styles (No. 3); Sheeran (No. 4); Morgan Wallen (No. 5); Taylor Swift (No. 6); Bieber (No. 7); Drake (No. 8); Future (No. 9); and Lil Baby (No. 10).
Meanwhile, Republic Records tops Billboard‘s 2022 year-end Hot 100 Labels chart. The label defends its 2021 title, after it also led during the last decade in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is 2022’s year-end No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.
The blockbuster album was released on May 6, 2022 and debuted at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200 chart (dated May 21). It marked just the second all-Spanish-language album to reach No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200, following Bad Bunny’s own El Ultimo Tour del Mundo in 2020.
Un Verano Sin Ti spent 13 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2022 – the most weeks at No. 1 for any album since 2016, when Drake’s Views also notched 13 weeks in the lead. Un Verano Sin Ti was so popular, it never left the top two positions on the weekly Billboard 200 for its first 24 weeks on the chart – the first time any album had spent its first six months in the top two.
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Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
Un Verano Sin Ti is also the first Latin album to finish as the year-end No. 1 Billboard 200 Album. (Latin titles are defined as those that have charted on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart.)
In addition, Un Verano Sin Ti also places at No. 1 on the year-end Independent Albums, Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums charts.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
At No. 2 on the 2022 year-end Billboard 200 Albums ranking is Adele’s 30, which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200 during the 2022 chart year. The third-biggest album on the year-end chart is 2021’s top album, Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album.
Taylor Swift doubles up in the 2022 year-end top five, as her most recent release, Midnights, is No. 4, while her 2021 release Red (Taylor’s Version), is No. 5. It’s the first time one act has two of the top five year-end biggest albums since 1975, when John Denver was Nos. 3 and 4 with John Denver’s Greatest Hits and Back Home Again.
Both Midnights and Red (Taylor’s Version) debuted at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard 200, with the former charting just two weeks on the list during the 2022 chart year. Midnights charts so high on the year-end ranking from only two weeks of charting activity thanks to its incredibly large first two weeks, in terms of overall equivalent album units earned.
Notably, in the last 15 years (2008-22), Swift has placed at least one album in the year-end Billboard 200 Albums recap in all but two years. She’s only missed a top 10 year-end roundup in that span of time in 2016 and 2017. (The absence in those years was owed mostly to her not releasing any new albums for three years between the bows of 1989 In October of 2014 and Reputation in November of 2017.) In 2016, her highest-ranking album was 1989, at No. 17, while in 2017, her top-performing set was also 1989, at No. 101.
The Encanto soundtrack is No. 6 on the 2022 Billboard 200 Albums recap, followed by Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy and The Weeknd’s The Highlights. Three albums in the 2022 year-end top 10 are repeats from 2021’s recap: Dangerous (No. 1 in 2021), Sour (No. 2 in 2021) and Certified Lover Boy (No. 5 in 2021).
Of 2022’s top 10 Billboard 200 Albums, the only title that didn’t reach No. 1 on the weekly chart is The Weeknd’s 18-track greatest hits set The Highlights, which has so-far peaked at No. 2. It’s the first hits compilation from a single artist to finish in the year-end top 10 since 2014, when Garth Brooks’ 77-track covers/retrospective boxed set Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences was No. 9. The last conventional greatest hits album to rank among the year’s top 10 albums was another Brooks effort, the 34-track The Ultimate Hits, which closed 2008 as the No. 10 title of the year.
Fleetwood Mac‘s Christine McVie died on Wednesday (Nov. 30) at age 79 following a “short illness,” per a statement released by her family.
“She was in the company of her family,” the statement read. “We kindly ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this extremely painful time, and we would like everyone to keep Christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being, and revered musician who was loved universally.”
McVie was a powerful vocalist, instrumentalist and lyricist had an illustrious, decades-long career as a member of Fleetwood Mac, which she joined in 1970, and later as a solo act. During her time in Fleetwood, the band had 29 albums on the Billboard 200 and 25 Hot 100 hits, including nine top 10s and one No. 1 smash: “Dreams” in 1977.
As a solo artist, McVie released several albums including Christine Perfect and most recently Lindsay Buckingham Christine McVie in 2017 alongside her former bandmate.
To honor the late Christine McVie, we’ve compiled a series of photos to celebrate her vibrant life and accomplishments. See them below.
Thanks to her viral hit “Tennessee Orange,” Megan Moroney’s career is red-hot.
The Douglasville, Georgia, native recently inked a hybrid label deal with Sony Music Nashville and New York-based Columbia Records as SMN sends “Tennessee Orange” to country radio where it debuted at No. 60 for Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Dec. 3.
The heartfelt ballad, about being so smitten with someone that you’re willing to temporarily trade her University of Georgia red and black hues for their beloved University of Tennessee orange, broke onto the Billboard Hot 100 in October. “Tennessee Orange” sits at No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, while Moroney is at No. 13 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. According to Luminate, the song has earned 52.5 million on-demand official U.S. streams.
Of her Sony Music Nashville/Columbia Records deal, Moroney tells Billboard, “I felt like they most understood what I’ve been doing. They don’t want to change me at all. My goal is to stay country. We brought in Columbia because my lyrics feel cultural — I’m not necessarily singing about trucks and beer and stuff like that. I noticed in my messages and comments, so many people are like, ‘I don’t like country music, but I love your songs.’ I wanted a team that can get this music out to a bigger audience, so that’s why I felt we needed the Columbia team, too.”
Moroney grew up in a musical family, taking piano lessons and singing with her dad. However, she “never really thought of music as a career,” and initially studied accounting at the University of Georgia, before transitioning to marketing and music business. She was in college when she began writing music and quickly integrated herself into the Music City co-writing scene once she moved to Nashville in 2020.
Moroney spoke with Billboard about crafting “Tennessee Orange,” working with Sugarland’s Kristian Bush (who produced “Tennessee Orange”), and her dream collaborations.
What do you recall about writing your first song?
I had the opportunity to open a show for Chase Rice at the Georgia Theatre and he told me I needed an original song to do the show. So I wrote my first song at 19, called “Stay a Memory,” to be able to do that—it was my first real gig. I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a music artist. As a little girl, I did music for fun, but I never would’ve thought that songwriting and being an artist could be a career.
You graduated from UGA and moved to Nashville in mid-2020. What was that like trying to break into the industry during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic?
I moved here and was trying to meet people and network, but it was hard because everything was closed. At UGA, because I had been in the music business program, I was Kristian Bush’s intern in Atlanta, and we kept in touch after I graduated. I had been in Nashville about three months, and Kristian was asking how it was going and I was like, “Well, I’ve met friends, but not really any co-writers.” So he offered to help me record some demos of songs I had written.
When you were an intern, did Kristian know you were also an aspiring artist?
I didn’t really bring it up, that I was trying to do the whole music thing — because the first time I walked into their studio, there were a bunch of CMA awards and Grammys on the wall. I was like, “I’m keeping my mouth shut. I’ve written like three decent songs in my life, so I’m not gonna sit here and tell them that I’m an aspiring artist.”
You are managed by Juli Griffith at Punch Bowl Entertainment. How did you two get connected?
Kristian introduced me and Juli was a publisher in Nashville for a long time. She connected me with Ben Williams and that was my first co-writing session ever, on Zoom. He wrote like half my EP [Pistol Made of Roses, released in July].
Before you released the EP, you’d released a song called “Wonder.” How did that shape you as a songwriter?
I wrote that completely by myself, and it was one of the songs I demoed with Kristian. I was at the beach with my friend Natalie and she was arguing with this guy and was upset about it. I told her, “If he loved you and cared about you, you wouldn’t be wondering if he did.” I had a couple of drinks in me and just started rhyming s–t. We had a house full of people we went to the beach with and I played it for them and they were like, “How did you do that?” I think that was the first song that I wrote where I thought, “There is something here.”
You wrote “Tennessee Orange” with Ben, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins. What do you recall about the writing session?
Ben is my go-to writer, and I had not met David or Paul before. I woke up that morning and had the hook of “In Georgia they’d call it a sin/ I’m wearing Tennessee orange for him.” I felt like it was risky taking that idea for a song in, because I didn’t know two of the other writers, and I didn’t know if they even cared about football. But it was a great writing session, and I just became obsessed with getting the song right.
I went home and kept chipping away at it for a couple more hours and then I sent them the changed version — just changing things like [how] the line about “You raised me to know right from wrong” was in the second verse originally, but I felt like we needed that [in the first verse] to make the storyline — you have no idea what I am going to say until the hook, and the verse builds up that mystery.
What has the reaction been like when you play “Tennessee Orange” in Georgia?
I had two shows in Athens in November, and was so nervous to play it — but the crowds sing it really loud anyway. I played the Georgia Theatre this past week, and it was the loudest I’ve heard a room of people sing it. They are so supportive, which I am grateful for. I have a show in Knoxville this spring, and I’m sure it will go over really great there.
You are working on a full album. Where are you in the process?
We haven’t gotten into the studio yet, but it’s completely written. The songs are all very me. I don’t like cutting songs that I could just pitch to any female country artist. They all have to be very personal to me.
Who are some of the co-writers on the project?
Ben is on a lot of the songs, but also David Messy [Mescon]. And there’s a song I wrote called “Girl in the Mirror” with Jessie Jo Dillon and Matt Jenkins, and it’s so freakin’ good.
Who would some of your dream duet collaborators be?
Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert are at the top for me. I’ve been a fan of both of them for so long. I’m also obsessed with Justin Bieber, so that would be fun.
You moved to Nashville when artists were off the road. Now that you are able to get out and tour, what are some of your on-the-road essentials?
Advil and Red Bull [laughs]. I drink probably two Red Bulls a day when I’m on the road. I have to have my Airpods for sure, and all of my flashy boots.
Taylor Swift’s Midnights spends a fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 3) as it holds atop the list with 177,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 24 (down 13%), according to Luminate.
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Also in the new Billboard 200’s top 10: Michael Jackson’s former No. 1 Thriller returns to the region after its 40th anniversary reissue, vaulting 115-7; Rod Wave’s new Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day Theory bows at No. 9; and Michael Bublé’s chart-topping Christmas jingles its way back to the top 10 with a 19-10 climb.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 3, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Nov. 29. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Midnights’ 177,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 118,000 (down 16%, equaling 155.8 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 57,000 (down 4%) and SEA units comprise 2,000 (down 49%).
Four former No. 1’s follow Swift on the new Billboard 200, as Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss is a non-mover at No. 2 (119,000 equivalent album units; down 30%), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is steady at No. 3 (56,000; up less than 1%), Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me is also stationary at No. 4 (48,000; down 9%) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rises 6-5 (42,000; up 2%).
Jackson’s former No. 1 Thriller returns to the top 10, jumping from No. 115 to No. 7 after it was reissued in celebration of its 40th anniversary. It earned 37,000 equivalent album units (up 283%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 27,500 (up 820%), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 13.17 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 500.
Thriller spent 37 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1983-84 — the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a singular artist. The only album with more weeks at No. 1 is the soundtrack to the film West Side Story, with 54 weeks in 1962-63.
Thriller was last in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 on the June 30, 1984-dated chart, when it ranked at No. 8. During its initial chart run, its last week on the list was April 20, 1985. It didn’t return to the list until Dec. 5, 2009, when the chart began allowing catalog (older) albums to chart again. (From May of 1991 through November 2009, catalog albums were generally not allowed to chart on the Billboard 200.)
For its 40th anniversary, Thriller was reissued in a variety of new configurations and formats, some with additional bonus tracks. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined together for tracking and charting purposes. Thriller has seen a few high-profile reissues in the past, including a remastered “special edition” in 2001 with previously unreleased bonus tracks and a 25th anniversary edition in 2008 with an unreleased song and new remix collaborations with Akon, Fergie, Kanye West and will.i.am.
Harry Styles’ former leader Harry’s House rises 9-8 on the new Billboard 200 with 33,000 equivalent album units (up 10%).
Rod Wave’s new eight-song Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day Theory debuts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 with nearly 31,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise a little more than 30,000 (equaling 43.32 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), while album sales and TEA units comprise the remaining units. It’s the fifth consecutive and total top 10-charting album for the artist, and follows a pair of No. 1s in Beautiful Mind (2022) and SoulFly (2021).
Rounding out the new top 10 is Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas, which rises 19-10 with 31,000 equivalent album units (up 51%%). The set was originally released in 2011 and spent five weeks at No. 1 in late 2011 and early 2012. It has returned to the top 10 in every Christmas season since.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.