R&B/Hip-Hop

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 2, we remember the year in SZA — who had the best 12 months of her career and confirmed herself as one of the inner-circle stars of 2020s pop music.

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When SZA’s SOS closed out 2022 with record-breaking stats — 318,000 units earned first week, the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album, and (eventually) ten non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart — that moment seemed like the climax of a years-long campaign for the Grammy winner’s sophomore studio album. If anything, it turned out to actually just be the warning shot for an even more dominant 2023. 

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023:Introduction & Honorable Mentions | Rookie of the Year: Peso Pluma | Comeback of the Year: Miley Cyrus | No. 10: Drake | No. 9: Doja Cat | No. 8: Bad Bunny | No. 7: Olivia Rodrigo | No. 6: Karol G | No. 5: Morgan Wallen | No. 4: Ice Spice | No. 3: Beyoncé

The Grammy winner entered this year still basking in the glow of SOS’ chart takeover. “Kill Bill” was essentially glued to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, while several album tracks – including “Blind,” “Love Language” and “Low” — were gaining traction on TikTok, and “Shirt” was still blowing through the competition at R&B/hip-hop radio, where it eventually peaked at No. 1. The early love for myriad selections from the 23-song set would soon give way to another year-defining hit single by the time the summer drew to a close.

Courtesy of RCA Records

Courtesy of RCA Records

But before that, by February, SZA had already gone back to dropping new music — this time assisting Lizzo with her “Special” remix. While the track was far from a major hit, it did reach No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay late in the year, making for a pleasant full circle moment, considering Lizzo helped honor SZA with her Billboard woman of the year award in March. The duo’s personal friendship and professional partnership was set to continue with co-headlining slots at Made In America, but the show – like a number of hip-hop festivals this year – was ultimately called off. 

Nonetheless, SZA still dazzled on the road in 2023, visiting the U.S. and Europe on her 54-date headlining arena tour. Complete with cinematic interludes, explosive choreography and innovative props, the SOS Tour found SZA blooming into a top-shelf pop star with each new date. From February to October, she trekked across the globe, bringing out surprise guests such as Cardi B, Phoebe Bridgers, Sexyy Red, Travis Scott, Lizzo, Lil Baby and Summer Walker along the way. 

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By April, a Doja Cat-blessed remix of “Kill Bill” helped vault the song to No. 1, becoming SZA’s first Hot 100 chart-topper and cementing its status as one of the year’s defining pop songs. Around that time, “Snooze” was getting ready for its moment in the sun. The song had been swirling around on TikTok for months, and its consistent streaming presence would ultimately keep it on the Hot 100 for an entire year, but the combined efforts of radio’s complete embrace and a star-studded music video (featuring the likes of Young Mazino and Benny Blanco) lifted the song to new heights. Justin Bieber – who also appeared in the music video – later guested on the acoustic “Snooze” remix, helping the track reach its ultimate Hot 100 peak of No. 2. 

The summer months found SZA blessing some of her peers with hits, and, in doing so, she solidified her spot as the year’s resident hitmaker. In July, she gifted Travis Scott a standout verse on “Telekinesis,” which helped the song become an instant fan-favorite from Utopia, spending 11 weeks on the Hot 100 without an official single release. September brought on “Slime You Out,” a much-derided duet with Drake that still debuted atop the Hot 100 — thanks, in large part, to SZA’s commercial dominance. That much was proven the following month, when “Rich Baby Daddy,” a collaboration with Drizzy and Sexyy Red, emerged as the breakout hit and standout track on his For All the Dogs album. How could it not be SZA’s year when some of the biggest stars in contemporary pop music are running to her to guarantee a hit? 

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To close out the year, SZA emerged from Grammy nominations morning with a whopping nine nods – the most of any artist this year, and a cool bookend to her artist of the year snub at the VMAs back in September. With nods across three different genres and recognition in album, record and song of the year, SZA’s Grammy nominations haul served as the perfect encapsulation of just how towering and ubiquitous she was a cultural figure and hitmaker this year. On Billboard’s Year-End charts, she boasts the No. 3 album of the year and the No. 3 (“Kill Bill”) and No. 9 (“Snooze”) songs of the year – the only artist with two unaccompanied solo entries in the Year-End Hot 100 top 10. 

Truthfully, there’s only one pop star who can hold a candle to SZA’s dominance this year – and you probably already know exactly what their name is. The difference with SZA, however, is that she did it all without ever giving off the largely calculated, pre-scripted feeling that so often characterizes a run like that one she’s on with SOS. She moved at her own pace and reaped unbeatable dividends.

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 3, we remember the year in Beyoncé — who, 25 years into her superstardom, proved once again that whenever she puts her imprint on a year, she needs to be mentioned among the handful of greatest active pop stars.
With the groundbreaking 2022 she had, Beyoncé could have taken a year off, basking in the success of her Billboard 200 chart-topping album, Renaissance. However, a Queen never rests, and Bey continued her reign through 2023.

She kicked off the year with the growth of “Cuff It,” her second hit from Renaissance following “Break My Soul.” The song ultimately hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 6 in February), boosted by a TikTok-viral dance, and received a “Wetter” remix (based on a viral mashup of the original “Cuff It” with Twista’s 2009 hit “Wetter”) with new vocals, which was also very well-received by fans.

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023:Introduction & Honorable Mentions | Rookie of the Year: Peso Pluma | Comeback of the Year: Miley Cyrus | No. 10: Drake | No. 9: Doja Cat | No. 8: Bad Bunny | No. 7: Olivia Rodrigo | No. 6: Karol G | No. 5: Morgan Wallen | No. 4: Beyoncé

Within two months of 2023, Beyoncé made history. At the 65th annual Grammy Awards in February, while she controversially lost the top album of the year award to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House – meaning she’s still yet to take him the top prize at Music’s Biggest Night – she still ultimately took home four awards, two in the dance categories and two in the R&B categories. The victories brought her to 32 total for her career, and past composer Georg Solti for the all-time record of most Grammy wins.

Mason Poole

Mason Poole

“I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing [the dance/electronic] genre. God bless you,” she said in part during her historic acceptance speech – a powerful public display of allyship on a major award show, proving once more that Queen Bey’s kingdom includes everyone.

Just when fans thought Bey couldn’t “get no higher than this,” she raised the bar again. After releasing a celebratory, high-octane remix of “America Has a Problem” featuring Kendrick Lamar – which helped return the song to the Hot 100 at a new peak inside the top 40 – Beyoncé kicked off her long-awaited Renaissance World Tour stadium show in Stockholm, Sweden, in May, complete with dazzling costumes, a hit-filled setlist and jaw-dropping choreography. While many were unable to snag the prized tickets to the show, every detail of the tour flooded social media, allowing for fans at home worldwide to enjoy the glitz and glamor of the Renaissance shows.

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The tour was a gift that kept on giving throughout 2023, with countless celebrities in attendance every night, including pop stars like Selena Gomez and Dua Lipa, rock legends like Paul McCartney and even Bey’s former Destiny’s Child groupmates Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett. The “mute challenge” became a prominent part of the set during “Energy”: When Bey sang, “Look around, everybody on mute,” the crowd would actually fall silent, a hilarious yet beautifully uniting moment of stillness – leading to even-funnier moments of fans failing the challenge and scolding each other for it.

Following in the footsteps of her mother, Blue Ivy Carter also had her time to shine throughout the 56-show run, becoming a fan-favorite part of the set, as she danced onstage during “My Power” and “Black Parade” night after night. The tour wrapped off just as impressively as it began, claiming the title of 2023’s top-grossing tour among those who reported numbers to Billboard Box Score, with $579.8 million and 2.8 million tickets sold.

A Queen also knows when to give her fellow Queens their roses, with Beyoncé setting the example for women everywhere with her constant support for Taylor Swift, who was also making waves throughout the year with her own Eras Tour. With the two pop superstars attending each other’s concert film premieres and posing happily with each other, before sharing public words of adoration, the world watched in real time as the powerhouses worked together to shift the culture of women being pit against each other to women lifting each other up – perhaps Bey’s most important accomplishment in 2023.

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Speaking of concert documentaries, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé — which the superstar wrote, directed and produced —arrived in December to close out Bey’s history-making year strong. On its opening weekend, the film opened in first place with a whopping $21 million in North American ticket sales, sitting at an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a coveted A+ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences who were polled. Despite having a full album of hits freshly on her hands, Bey still snuck in a new song in 2023, the surprise “My House,” which arrived on the same day as the film.

Overall 2023 felt like a year of solidification for Beyoncé after more than two decades in the spotlight, re-confirming her status as one of music’s most important contemporary icons for many years to come. If we’ve learned anything from this year, Beyoncé is going to continue to show her power in 2024 – but she’s yet to reveal if that means her unveiling the next part of her Renaissance series, or dabble in a new genre, like with her long-rumored country album. Whatever she decides on next, the BeyHive has their Queen’s back.

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 4, we remember the year in Ice Spice — who, while still in the earliest stages of her career, became a vital and inescapable part of 2023 pop culture.
From a young age, Ice Spice had manifested becoming successful, and her time in the spotlight finally came toward the end of 2022. “Watch me get lit by the end of the summer,” the then-22-year-old MC rapped on her single “Euphoric,” which she independently released three months before her breakout hit “Munch (Feelin’ U).” The New York drill anthem flashed Ice’s brash and brisk delivery and popularized her colloquialism that she defines as “a hater or somebody that’s really obsessed with you that’s just fiending to eat it.”  

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023:Introduction & Honorable Mentions | Rookie of the Year: Peso Pluma | Comeback of the Year: Miley Cyrus | No. 10: Drake | No. 9: Doja Cat | No. 8: Bad Bunny | No. 7: Olivia Rodrigo | No. 6: Karol G | No. 5: Morgan Wallen

Even though it never broke onto the Billboard Hot 100, “Munch” earned her a label deal with 10K Projects and Capitol Records one month after its release, and introduced Ice Spice as rap’s buzziest newcomer. Her cinnamon curly afro made her instantly recognizable, while her sharp-tongued bars exposed listeners to her own vernacular that quickly became part of the pop culture lexicon, like “baddie friend” from the cutesy-yet-cutthroat single “In Ha Mood,” where she patted herself on the back for accomplishing what she had originally set out to do before the warm-weather months were over. 

Edwig Henson

Coughs

Going into 2023, Ice shut down any remaining one-hit wonder claims, and proved she could dominate the charts and rule as “the People’s Princess,” as dubbed by her fans (who collectively call themselves the Spice Cabinet, while they’re individually known as Munchkins). She kicked off the new year with her debut EP Like..?, a six-song project named after her signature interjection that fused her pop sensibilities with her right-hand producer RIOTUSA’s expansive drill sound. Like..? debuted in the top 40 of the Billboard 200, while the Diddy-sampling, Lil Tjay-assisted “Gangsta Boo” debuted at No. 82 on the Hot 100, marking Ice’s debut entry on the chart.  

After receiving a DM from PinkPantheress to hop on the remix of her melancholy bubblegum pop single “Boy’s a Liar,” the two joined forces on “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” in February. One fan’s TikTok of the two artists filming the music video from an NYC fire escape instantly fueled social media buzz for the song prior to its release — and the song and video quickly justified the hype, their sounds and personalities perfectly complementing one another. The genius linkup between the “Gen Z ‘It’ girls of the internet era,” as PinkPantheress called the duo when speaking to Billboard, wasn’t just written in the stars, but solidified both artists’ statuses as such: “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, earning Ice and Pink each their first top 10 hits.  

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Ice continued expanding her reach outside of the rap world by rubbing elbows with the right people. Zedd invited Ice to perform “No Clarity” – Ice’s 2021 single featuring an uncleared sample of Zedd and Foxes’ 2012 dance smash “Clarity” – during his set at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival in March. But later that month, she connected with one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Ice and PinkPantheress presented Taylor Swift with the song of the year award at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards, but widely circulated photos of Ice’s heartwarming embrace with the megastar suggested this wouldn’t be the last time we’d see these two together.  

But before she could collaborate with Swift, Ice checked off the No. 1 artist from her collab bucket list when Nicki Minaj hopped on the “Princess Diana” remix in April. Much like her destined team-up with PinkPantheress, the undeniable power between rap’s new princess and its long-reigning queen made the remix an instant hit. “Princess Diana” debuted at No. 4 on the Hot 100 – earning Ice her second top 10 hit – and took the throne on Hot Rap Songs, making it the first No. 1 by two co-billed women in the chart’s 34-year history.  

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And since Ice knows no bounds, she wasn’t going to just stop at music. Having already served as the face of two major celebrity brands – Beyoncé’s Ivy Park and Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS – Ice made her proper foray into the fashion world when she attended her first-ever Met Gala on May 1. And by the end of the month, she went from the Met to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., where she made a surprise appearance during Swift’s Eras Tour stop to live-debut the “Karma” remix she was featured on. “I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch,” Swift wrote while announcing the remix the day before its release. With the ultimate cosign, Ice had enough auxiliary star power to launch her into the pop stratosphere and the upper echelon of the charts. “Karma” leaped to No. 2 on the Hot 100, earning Ice her third top 10 and her highest-charting hit to date.  

By the year’s halfway point, Ice showed no signs of slowing down, and found new ways to keep herself in the conversation. In June, Ice became part of the pop cultural event of the summer – the Barbie movie – by reuniting with Minaj on the bass-bumping “Barbie World” anthem, which sampled Aqua’s 1997 Eurodance smash “Barbie Girl.” The song debuted at No. 7 on the Hot 100, earning Ice her fourth top 10 hit in just four months.   

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And while Ice continued to scorch through the mainstream, she and her team strategized career moves that made sure she didn’t burn out. She opted to drop the deluxe version of Like..? with four new songs in July instead of rushing a debut studio album. Her delectable “Deli” cut became the next single and reached No. 41 on the Hot 100, making it her highest-charting solo single to date and showing that Ice didn’t need to rely on A-list assistance for hits.  

All eyes were on Ice, and in August, Billboard awarded her with a new title: R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Year. Despite the honor arriving two days before the one-year anniversary of her breakout single “Munch,” the 24-year-old MC’s career trajectory felt far more established for someone who was just getting started. And by the end of the third quarter, she had cemented herself as a household name.  

She and Swift reconnected at another awards show, this time at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, and the cameras couldn’t stop capturing their chemistry, as well as Ice’s teary-eyed acceptance speech when she won best new artist. To sweeten the pot, Dunkin’ announced the new Ice Spice Munchkins Drink during the commercial break, with a hilarious spot that she filmed alongside acclaimed actor and Dunkin’s No. 1 fan Ben Affleck.  

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Ice was officially inescapable. And while she was connecting with audiences at home, she was also connecting with them around the world through multiple festival performances. She performed at Rolling Loud California and Miami; Hot 97 Summer Jam, where she was surprised with a gold plaque for “Munch”; and four European festivals in the span of a single week. Ice utilized every performance opportunity to get better and better, gearing up for her role as the supporting act for Doja Cat’s Scarlet Tour in November. 

But a month before she hit the road, Ice made a pit stop at Saturday Night Live for her musical guest debut during the season 49 premiere, and the first live taping since the writer’s strike ended. The pressure to deliver a memorable performance was on, but Ice handled it with finesse – and with the help of a couple famous friends. Swift made a surprise cameo to introduce Ice before her live debut performance of “Pretty Girl” with Afrobeats star Rema, which dropped the day prior. Ice proved she could balance her relationships with A-listers and fellow up-and-comers, while dipping her toes into yet another genre, which honored her Nigerian roots. 

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Ice ended 2023 by effortlessly collecting major accolades like Infinity Stones and prevailing as one of the most commercially successful and culturally relevant new artists in pop and hip-hop. Ice topped Billboard’s year-end Top New R&B/Hip-Hop Artists chart and landed on Forbes 30 Under 30 music list. And she earned four Grammy nominations ahead of next year’s awards, including for best new artist. 

While closing out her massive breakout year, Ice is already plotting an even bigger 2024. She posted a photo of her new tramp stamp on Instagram while potentially teasing a Y2K project for next year. It could align with her 24th birthday, since the star was born on January 1, 2000. Ice’s arrival at the turbulent turn of the millennium foreshadowed how much the rapper would shake things up in such a short time. The world just wasn’t ready for her, and it still isn’t.