Year-End
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Tems tops the first-ever year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Artists ranking, representing the best-performing acts on the genre’s song charts for 2022. The singer-songwriter’s victory parade extends to the year’s Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs recap, where she shares top honors with Wizkid for “Essence” and claims three more songs in the year-end top 10.
The Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart launched for the chart dated April 2, 2022, and ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the U.S., ranked by a weighted formula incorporating official streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers, as compiled by Luminate.
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Behind Tems, Burna Boy finishes second on the year-end artist recap, spurred by 27 charting songs during the chart year, the most of any act. Among the haul is the genre giant’s “Last Last,” which became his first No. 1 on the U.S. Afrobeats chart in July. The song’s appeal, though, crossed barriers: It also topped the U.S.-based Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and was likely familiar to listeners thanks to its sample of “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” a 2001 hit for Toni Braxton. “Last,” meanwhile, is far from that on the year-end songs recap, where it places at No. 5.
Rounding out the top five artists, CKay comes in third, with Wizkid next in line and Asake taking fifth place.
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.
Crossover Hits Capture Songs Crown: As mentioned, Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, is the first year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs champ. In a testament to its endurance, the smash ruled for two weeks in July this year, despite a 2021 release and peak on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October 2021. The global hit bowed at No. 3 on the first edition of the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart and spent its first 34 weeks inside the top five.
Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran’s “Peru” ranks second on the year-end songs recap. Like “Essence,” the popular remix too became a crossover smash stateside, with a No. 7 peak on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and No. 53 high on the Hot 100.
Crossover hits fill out the remaining top spots on the inaugural songs recap, with CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” – the first No. 1 hit on the weekly chart upon its April launch – at No. 3. The tune rolled to a No. 26 best on the Hot 100 and captured the No. 1 perch on both the weekly Rhythmic Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay lists in the year.
Tems’ “Free Mind” wraps 2022 in fourth place on year-end U.S. Afrobeats Songs. The track, which originally appeared on the singer’s For Broken Ears EP in 2020, found a renewed audience and buzz in 2022 in the wake of “Essence” and she and Drake’s featured spot on Future’s “Wait for U,” a No. 1 Hot 100 hit this year. Thanks to that revival, “Mind” climbed to No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart this year and No. 46 on the Hot 100.
In addition to “Essence” and “Free Mind,” Tems lands two more tracks in the year-end top 10: “Higher” at No. 7 and “Found,” featuring Brent Faiyaz, at No. 10. She, Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran are the only acts with multiple entries in the top tier. In addition to his “Last Last” smash, Burna Boy closes at No. 10 with “For My Hand,” featuring Ed Sheeran.
For a second straight year, Republic Records is No. 1 on all three of Billboard’s leading year-end label rankings: Top Labels, Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels. The company achieved the triple for the first time in 2021.
Republic has triumphed on the year-end Top Labels tally in six of the last eight years, and as the top Hot 100 Label in nine of the last 11 years.
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During the 2022 tracking year, Republic placed 72 albums on the weekly Billboard 200 chart, including the most that reached the top 10 (23) and top 40 (40) of any label. Among those were five No. 1s: Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights, Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind (released via OVO Sound/Republic) and Stray Kids’ ODDINARY and MAXIDENT (JYP/Imperial/Republic).
Billboard’s year-end music Top Labels chart represents aggregated metrics for labels’ performance on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart combined during the 2022 charts tracking year: Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022-dated charts. Any activity registered before or after an album or song’s chart run isn’t considered in this ranking. The individual Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels rankings represent the same measurement, but for each specific chart, during the same tracking period.
For a second consecutive year, and third time in the last four years, Republic lays claim to half of the year-end top 10 Billboard 200 Albums. Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (Big Loud/Republic) is No. 3, Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Red (Taylor’s Version) are Nos. 4 and 5, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (OVO Sound/Republic) is No. 9 and The Weeknd’s The Highlights (XO/Republic) is No. 10.
On the weekly Hot 100 during the chart year, Republic placed more chart entries (119), top 40 hits (60), top 10s (21) and No. 1s (five) than any label. The company also boasts the year-end No. 1 Hot 100 Song in Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” (Wolf Tone/Polydor/Republic). It’s the third time in the last five years where the year’s top Hot 100 Song is from Republic, following The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (XO/Republic, 2020) and Drake’s “God’s Plan” (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic, 2018).
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.
Apple Music has released its revamped listening roundup, called Replay, which allows users to access a highlight reel of insights into their listening habits for 2022. This includes their total listening time, as well as their top songs, artists, albums, genres, playlists (both editorial and personal) and radio stations.
Released Tuesday (Nov. 29), Replay is rolling out with an updated color design and shareable assets for the top five of each user’s categories and will include a playlist of each user’s 100 most-played songs of the year. The most dedicated fans will also be clued in if they’re among the top 100 listeners for an individual artist or genre. Despite the fact that it rolls out before December hits, each user’s Replay will continue updating throughout the end of the year.
Apple has also released four year-end charts: Top 100 Global Songs, Top 100 Shazams, Top 100 Most-Read Lyrics and Top 100 Fitness Songs. The top songs for those respective playlists on the platform are The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay”; Elton John & Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)”; “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Encanto soundtrack; and Joel Corry’s “Head & Heart” feat. MNEK.
Among the Top 100 Songs, hip-hop still leads the way with 32 entries, though that’s down considerably from the 45 it had on that chart last year; with Apple surpassing 100 million tracks on its platform earlier this year, there is a more even distribution among genres than in years past. Pop came in second with 23 songs on the list, followed by R&B/Soul with 11, Latin with eight and J-Pop with six. Meanwhile, the top 10 Shazams list includes a number of African artists for the first time, including Rema (“Calm Down”) and Ckay (“Love Nwantiti”) in the top 10, while the lyrics chart includes four J-Pop songs. Perhaps predictably, the fitness songs chart was dominated by dance releases and remixes.
Earlier this month, Apple announced that Bad Bunny was its artist of the year, with his Un Verano Sin Ti the most-streamed album on its platform in 2022 and the most-streamed Latin album of all time. His ascension to that spot highlights the growing trend of non-English-language songs succeeding on the platform: overall, 21 non-English songs landed on the year-end Global Top 100, up from just nine last year.