Guinness World Records
More than 20 years after its release, The Killers’ “Mr Brightside” continues to break records and collect awards.
The American alternative rock act was this week presented with two Guinness World Records, for its extraordinary chart success in the United Kingdom.
With a total of 416 weeks — and counting — on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, “Mr Brightside” has the longest stay on the singles survey by a group and the most cumulative weeks on the U.K. tally for one song, according to GWR.
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Earlier this year, “Mr Brightside” was crowned as the biggest-ever single in the U.K. which had never gone to No. 1.
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Hailing from Las Vegas, the band was originally discovered by and signed to U.K. independent Lizard King, and were embraced by Brits as one of their own. “Mr Brightside” was initially released in 2003 with a limited-edition 500 CD run, and was reissued in May 2004, peaking at No. 10.
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Now, after eight years on the national chart, the track is also recognized as one of the U.K.’s all-time top three singles for combined units (sales and streams) and among the top five most-streamed tracks.
“It’s infectious still to us, I know some people can’t wrap their head around it but you’ll see the response [when you see it live],” frontman Brandon Flowers tells GWR. “It’s tough not to be touched by it or be excited by it and there’s going to be people tonight who’ve never seen it live, there’ll be some people who’ve seen it 45 times. And we just don’t get tired of it.”
It would seem, no one has tired of the song. In recent weeks, The Killers were inducted with the SoundExchange Hall of Fame Award, recognition for their status as one of the most streamed acts in the organization’s 21-year history.
The Killers complete a six-night stand at London’s O2 arena tonight (July 11), part of a tour of the U.K. and Europe that runs through mid-July. The band returns to the U.S. for festival appearances at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands before kicking off an August Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and additional North American festival dates through September.
Lisa is no stranger to breaking records — either with the members of her girl group BLACKPINK or solo. Now, the rapper adds yet another Guinness World Record to her list of achievements, thanks to her track “Money” hitting 1 billion streams on Spotify, the organization confirmed Wednesday (Sept. 27). According to Guinness, “Money” earned Lisa […]
Over the past 56 years since Country Music Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton issued her debut album, she has become one of the world’s most beloved — and awarded — artists. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Parton now adds to her immense accolades with three […]
NewJeans and their Bunnies fanbase have a major achievement to celebrate.
Guinness World Records confirmed that the K-pop group — which consists of members Minji, Danielle, Hanni, Hyein and Haerin — has officially become the K-pop act (solo male, solo female or group) to hit 1 billion streams the fastest on Spotify, after just 219 days.
The feat comes less than a year after NewJeans made its formal debut in July 2022. The K-pop stars have a total of six songs on Spotify: “Attention,” “Hurt,” “Hype Boy,” “Cookie,” “Zero, “”Ditto” and “OMG,” with the last two charting at Nos. 82 and 74 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, respectively. “OMG” is currently the girl group’s most-streamed song on the platform, clocking over 320 million plays.
According to Guinness World Records, NewJeans has claimed the throne from BLACKPINK‘s Lisa, who previously held the title among all K-pop acts with a record of 411 days, starting from Oct. 26, 2022. (BTS‘ Jung Kook broke the solo artist record in 409 days on March 27.)
In addition to a performance at Lollapalooza this summer — which will make the quintet the first K-pop group to perform at the music festival, following BTS member J-Hope’s solo performance at last year’s fest — NewJeans are gearing up for a comeback this summer, which means new music for fans to devour.
“It was actually yesterday that they finished recording for the new album that is scheduled to be released this summer,” Min Hee Jin, executive producer/CEO of NewJeans’ label ADOR, told Billboard in early April. “I wanted to break the stereotype that only certain styles of music would be able to succeed in the so-called mainstream industry. In the albums going forward, NewJeans will continue to strive to present something new and unique to exceed the expectations of their fans. NewJeans members keep growing and growing, and we can’t wait to surprise the world again.”
Harry Styles’ Love on Tour has made its way to Seoul and all your favorite acts have stopped to see the show. Eric Nam caught up with Billboard News backstage of Samsung NXT 2.0 and talked about all things fashion, new music, and touring. Saweetie has revealed that her “celebrity guy crush” was none other than Lil Nas X. Guinness World Records named The Weeknd the world’s ‘Most Popular Artists’. Karol G is making history with her upcoming Lollapalooza performance and more!
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Well, it’s official, The Weeknd is the GOAT.
Okay, maybe he’s not. But the man did achieve a GOAT level honor as data gathered by the Guinness World Records suggest the Canadian crooner is the most popular artist on the planet today. Beating out the likes of Drake, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and whoever else you thought might’ve been today’s biggest musician. The “Blinding Lights” singer proved to be the most beloved artist in this digital era as fans have streamed his catalogue way more than anyone else you may call the GOAT.
“No one else even comes close,” the record-keeping organization declared Monday.
Guinness argues its case by citing the “Starboy” performer’s Spotify stats, including an unmatched 111.4 million monthly listeners. The 33-year-old Grammy winner has nearly 30 million more listeners than second-placed Miley Cyrus, which also puts him far ahead of Shakira, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
Miley Cyrus was in second place?? Who knew? No shots.
Now that he knows he’s that dude in 2023, you can expect The Weeknd to strut with all kinds of swagger when he hits the road this Summer for his After Hours Til Dawn tour which kicks off in Portugal in June and returns to North America in September.
While we knew The Weeknd was one of the biggest artists in the game today, we didn’t know he was actually Guinness World Records huge. It would be interesting to see how many records he would’ve moved had streaming not been a thing and fans still had to buy CD’s and vinyl records to get their groove on to the falsetto professional. Maybe five times platinum? Maybe diamond? We’ll never know, but what we do know is that the man is doing his thing, and we can’t be mad at that.
What do y’all think of The Weeknd being the most popular music artist on the planet? Let us know in the comments section below.
It’s official: The Weeknd is statistically the most popular artist in the world according to Guinness World Records.
The organization proffered the title upon the pop star on Monday after analyzing the Spotify data of some of the biggest names in the music industry, including number of monthly listeners on the streaming platform.
Considering the artist otherwise known as Abel Tesfaye holds the record as the first, and so far only, artist in Spotify history to reach 100 million monthly listeners as of the end of February, he’s far and away at the top of the class. And yet, even in the few weeks since he crossed the nine-figure threshold, the “Starboy” singer has gained even more streaming followers — up to 111.4 million, according to the Guinness report.
And there’s quite the wide berth between that mind-boggling number and the next artist on the list, Miley Cyrus, who currently tallies 82.4 million monthly listeners in the wake of releasing her hotly anticipated eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation. Other artists who trail The Weeknd include Shakira (81.6 million), Ariana Grande (80.6 million), Taylor Swift (80. 2 million), Rihanna (78.5 million) and Ed Sheeran (77.5 million).
A little over a week ago, The Weeknd swept the 2023 Juno Awards in his native Canada, taking home four awards, including both artist of the year and songwriter of the year for a record fourth time; single of the year for a third time (for 2022’s “Sacrifice”)l and pop album of the year (for Dawn FM).
What’s her name, what’s her name? Lisa of BLACKPINK set a trio of new world records last year, the Guinness Book of World Records announced on Tuesday (Jan. 24).
According to the outlet, the “Lalisa” rapper became the first solo K-pop winner at the MTV Video Music Awards last year, where she took home the trophy for best K-pop over BTS, and the first solo K-pop winner at the MTV Europe Music Awards, where she technically nominated twice in the same category thanks to BLACKPINK’s own nod.
Additionally, Lisa’s third record is all about social media, setting the new high water mark for most followers on Instagram for a K-pop artist with a massive 86.3 million Blinks following her on the platform. As for her bandmates, Jennie currently sits at 73.5 million followers on Instagram, while Rosé boasts 66.2 million and Jisoo has 67.8 million as of press time.
The quartet is currently on the Asia leg of the ongoing Born Pink World Tour, having most recently performed in Bangkok, three separate nights in Hong Kong and a date in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This spring, they’re set to make even more history by becoming the first K-pop group to ever headline Coachella alongside Bad Bunny and Frank Ocean. The accomplishment comes just four years after the girls first made their debut at the Indio, Calif.-based festival, as documented in their 2020 Netflix documentary Blackpink: Light Up the Sky.
Earlier this month, Lisa and her bandmates dropped the limited edition vinyl of their 2022 sophomore album, Born Pink. The baby pink pressing came with a 72-page photobook as well as a litany of other accessories, photocards, a double-sided poster and more.
See the Guinness Book of World Records’ official announcement about Lisa latest accomplishments below.
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