year in music 2022
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Trying to capture what a “queer song” sounds like in 2022 is a lot like trying to explain what the color yellow is — all in all, it’s not possible. That’s because, simply put, songs by queer artists released throughout 2022 run the gamut of popular music, from thundering electro-pop, to sultry R&B, to funkwave, hip-hop, Latin, indie rock, disco and much more. Gone are the days where openly-LGBTQ people — both artists and listeners — were siloed off into one stereotypical genre landscape, now replaced by an audience who are listening to a vast array of musical genres, and a bevy of artists ready to show off their skills in nearly every musical field.
The result of that evolution is not only a diverse landscape of music created by queer artists, but a new frontier of pathways toward success. Along with showing off the musical flexibility of a community trying to survive amidst less-than-ideal circumstances, 2022 also proved that massive mainstream success is not exclusive to a single queer artist at a time. Whether it’s topping the Billboard Hot 100, charting for the very first time as a solo artist, or even successfully reinventing your sound, 2022 was a year defined by queer artists pushing their limits to discover new avenues toward the promised land of “making it” in the music industry.
But which of these songs managed to stand out from the rest this year? Below, check out Billboard‘s picks for the 25 best songs released by LGBTQ artists in 2022 (listed in alphabetical order).
2022 was good for a lot of things — in the music world, artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and more had blockbuster years worthy of recognition. But when it came to the continued fight for LGBTQ rights, 2022 proved to be more of a backslide. In the United States alone, queer and trans folks spent the year working tirelessly against more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures (including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming care for young people), threats towards gender diverse kids and their families, a fatal shooting at a gay nightclub, and countless more tragedies and setbacks. Around the world, people struggled to support the biggest sporting event in the world being held in a country where being queer is a crime, while anti-LGBTQ sentiment and hate crimes continued to rise around the world.
Despite the onslaught of negative sentiment and oppressive ideals, queer artists showed up to represent and support their community in 2022. The methods they employed through their albums were often varied — some aimed for sheer escapism, creating new sonic worlds for their fans to luxuriate in; others looked their circumstances dead in the eye, using their music to channel the rage they felt at a world that was seemingly set against them. Either way, LGBTQ artists made their voices heard through some of their best works to date in 2022.
So, which of those albums stood out among the rest? Below, check out Billboard‘s picks for the 20 best albums by LGBTQ artists released in 2022:
This year brought several multi-week No. 1 hits on Billboard’s country charts, along with a surge of new artists earning solid hits with their first singles. Meanwhile, several established artists delved deep into themes of redemption, heartbreak, nostalgia and even revenge.
On this list, Billboard highlights some of country music’s top songs of the past 12 months, from established artists and upstarts alike.
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 2021 all this week and next. First, a salute to the artist who made the most impressive comeback this year: resurgent (and reinvented) pop star Sam Smith.
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By 2015, Sam Smith’s name was synonymous with global success. The U.K. singer-songwriter achieved hits and acclaim in Britain as early as 2013 — and in 2014, that acclaim built to stateside recognition, after they released a career-defining single in “Stay With Me” and unveiled their debut album In the Lonely Hour. Capping the year off with their first U.S. tour, the star would go on to win four Grammys in ‘15, including a near-sweep the Big Four categories.
While Smith never lost the cultural capital they’d accrued at the outset of their career, the next half-decade saw diminishing returns for the singer. With hits becoming more sporadic and album sales trending in the wrong direction, it seemed as though Sam Smith’s star was dimming.
Yet 2022 proved the opposite — not only is Smith back, but they are reinventing their own fame. With the release of their first Hot 100 No. 1 single – one whichreinvented their tried-and-true sound — and even more new music to come, 2022 may well be as important a year for Smith as their breakthrough year in the mid-‘10s.
Public transformation is perhaps something of a theme for Smith; in 2019, the singer publicly came out as non-binary. Changing their pronouns to “they/them,” Smith quickly captured the attention of the world as the most publicly recognized artist to identify as such.
Their first album after coming out, 2020’s Love Goes, didn’t appear to benefit much from that increased awareness — debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (compared to No. 2 and No. 1 debuts, respectively, for Lonely Hour and The Thrill of It All) and moving a mere 41,000 equivalent album units in its first week, the project was not the triumph that some had hoped it could be.
By the time 2022 had rolled around, the British singer understood that it was time for a change. In April, they unveiled their single “Love Me More,” a self-love anthem that appeared to safely straddle the two musical worlds that Smith has always inhabited — euphoric dance-pop (as in their breakthrough release “Latch” with Disclosure) and brooding ballads (“Stay With Me, “I’m Not the Only One,” etc). The lyrics and vocals of the single sounded like they could have been deep cuts off of their debut album, with Smith’s signature croon placed front and center. But in the background, a groovier, bass-and-drum-focused production hinted at something more.
Smith made it clear what their intention was when speaking to their fans about the song. In an Instagram post for the video — which celebrates chosen family, as Smith and a group of queer friends go out clubbing in London — Smith said the song marked “the beginning and the end of something.” The rest of their year would prove that sentiment right; gone was “the old Sam Smith,” now replaced by a newer, truer self with more confidence, a keener eye for trends, and the ability to follow-through with major results.
“Love Me More” performed largely the same way that their last few singles had — it reached a peak of No. 73 on the Hot 100 almost three months after its release, while growing a steady Top 40 radio audience, peaking at No. 34 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart. It wasn’t the smash hit success that they may have hoped for, but “Love Me More” managed to put Smith’s name back in the pop conversation.
Speaking to Billboard for our August cover story, Smith revealed that the slow-burn, transitional appeal of “Love Me More” was, in fact, the point. “People sometimes come out the gate in such a big way,” they said, revealing that their fourth studio album was on its way. “This album, for me, is the best album I’ve ever made, and it’s the most excited I’ve ever been about [my work]. So, I really wanted to start things off in a kind way, because there’s some big messages on the record.”
Smith would go on to reveal that they had gotten involved on the production side of their new album, working with a team of producers to tweak their sound to create what they would go on to call their “first non-heartbreak album.” The defining theme of their upcoming work, they said, was “me doing exactly what I want to do,” and having a ball while doing it. “I think joy for me, and for a lot of queer people, is quite a dangerous place. We’re all masters of pain, and I think it’s actually a very courageous act to step into the queer joy of it all.”
It didn’t take long for them to follow through on their promise of “queer joy.” In a TikTok post midway through August, Smith showed themself in the studio with rising pop singer Kim Petras, playing a snippet of something new; a clanking industrial beat punctuated their voice as they wailed, “Mummy don’t know Daddy’s getting hot/ At the body shop/ Doin’ something unholy.”
For the first time in their career, Sam Smith went viral. In a matter of days, the chorus of their single “Unholy” was circulating TikTok, as users soundtracked their videos of everything from glow-ups to cosplay to thirst traps with it. In the four months since it was first shared, the sound has been used over 500,000 times.
“Unholy” naturally caught fans off guard — while dabbling in dance-pop was not necessarily new for Smith, the implicit eroticism of the lyrics signaled a complete tonal shift from the superstar. The innuendo and subtlety of past dance-adjacent hits like “Dancing With A Stranger” or “How Do You Sleep?” were gone, replaced by brazen sexuality and unbridled confidence.
Enjoying more buzz than they had ever experienced around an unreleased track, Smith finally unveiled “Unholy” in its entirety in September, complete with a gloriously queer, cabaret-inspired music video. The result of reinventing their image and sound was suddenly clear as day — “Unholy” debuted at No. 3 on the Hot 100, eventually overtaking Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” for the No. 1 position on the chart dated Oct. 29. The song even earned Smith their first Grammy nomination since their big night in 2015, for best pop duo/group performance.
Not only was this moment monumental for both Smith and Petras’ personally — the song marked both artists’ first No. 1 single — but it demonstrated a key milestone for queer performers; “Unholy” was the first song by publicly transgender or non-binary solo artists to go No. 1.
Breaking that record with “Unholy” also meant more than personal victory for Smith; by having the biggest hit of their career release after they’d been publicly out as non-binary for over three years, Smith effectively dispelled any dormant ideas of the “marketability” of queerness from label boardrooms of ages past. The song definitively proved that audiences aren’t turning away from LGBTQ art – if anything, they’re interested in hearing from voices that have often been left out of our pop milieu.
With a sudden burst of career momentum from a surprise smash-hit, Smith finally announced their new album Gloria in mid-October. Citing “emotional, sexual and spiritual liberation” as the album’s primary inspiration, Smith set a Jan. 27 release date for the LP. The project has already garnered plenty of attention, thanks in large part to Smith capitalizing on the viral success of “Unholy” by sharing short teasers of songs off the project in a series of TikTok clips.
It’s no small feat to become a near-overnight success at the outset of your music career; to replicate that success nearly a decade after your debut is practically unheard of. Yet Sam Smith proved that they are more than just the heartbroken balladeer persona that was pushed onto them after smash hits like “Stay With Me.” They are a preeminent voice of pop stardom, one who isn’t going anywhere any time soon
In 2020, Billboard‘s staff revealed its picks for the greatest pop star of every year dating back to 1981 (the first year of MTV, essentially the birth of the modern pop era), with essays making the case for each as the biggest, brightest and most important star in their solar system that calendar year. After adding BTS as the greatest pop star for 2020, we decided to expand the project a little bit. Last year, we counted down our picks for the 10 greatest pop stars of the year, with full essays for everyone from No. 10 (Bad Bunny) to No. 1 (Taylor Swift), as well as bonus write-ups for our picks for Rookie (Olivia Rodrigo) and Comeback (WILLOW) of the year, and even 10 close-but-not-quite honorable mentions.
This year, we’re doing it all over again. Over the next week and a half, we’ll be revealing our top 10 with one or two new year-in-review essays daily, until we name our No. 1 next Friday (Dec. 16). And just like last year, we’ll also make our picks for Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year, which we’ll unveil tomorrow (Dec. 9) before launching into the proper countdown.
But first, a reminder that unlike with our Year-End Charts, we don’t use hard numbers or chart positions to determine these Greatest Pop Stars. They’re important to our determinations, of course — but so are more intangible factors like cultural importance, industry influence and overall omnipresence. (And of course, playing the whole season helps: If you took some months off to start or end of the year, or had a long break in the middle, that’s not helping your MVP argument.)
If you’re joining us for the first time and still don’t quite get what we mean, you’ll understand better once we start counting down. Before that, though: the honorable mentions. These 10 artists still all had huge years, but for whatever reason couldn’t quite get over the hump — because they didn’t cross over quite far enough, because their impact was too contained to the chart metrics, or simply because they didn’t hang around for enough of the year. Here they are, presented in alphabetical order:
21 SAVAGE
21 Savage
Prince Williams/Wireimage
Their Year in Pop: Talk about a late-season surge. 21 Savage had an OK first half of 2022, with fun guest appearances on Latto’s “Wheelie” and Pharrell Williams’ “Cash in Cash Out,” and even a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 thanks to his well-received appearance on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind closer “Jimmy Cooks.” But none of us would’ve considered 21 Savage a Greatest Pop Star contender until November, when he teamed up with Drake for the blockbuster Her Loss album, briefly feuded with Nas (and then quickly reconciled via a collab single), and then stole the show in early December on Metro Boomin’s star-studded Heroes & Villains, with a gleeful verse playing Diddy to The Weeknd’s Mario Winans on breakout cut “Creepin’.”
Why Not Top 10? As many big moments as he had this year, the great majority of them were featured assists or alongside bigger names, without Savage having to do much of the heaviest lifting. If we had a Best Supporting Pop Star distinction, though, it’d be Savage’s to lose — pretty much every year, really.
BLACKPINK
BLACKPINK
YG Entertainment
Their Year in Pop: The biggest girl group in the world had another triumphant year in 2022, topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time in their career with their BORN PINK album, besting the Global 200 songs chart twice (with advance singles “Pink Venom” and “Shut Down”), storming the VMAs stage and continuing to break nearly every YouTube record possible.
Why Not Top 10? Their stateside resumé is still lacking That One Single — the unavoidable hit that lingers around streaming and radio forever, ensuring that even your local librarian knows who they are — but given how little they seem to need that kind of stateside crossover support to keep making pop history, it’s doubtful they’re sweating it much.
ED SHEERAN
Ed Sheeran
Jamie McCarthy/GI
Their Year in Pop: Sheeran didn’t release a new album in 2022, but that didn’t stop him from having two of the top 15 songs on our Year-End Hot 100 — with 2021 holdovers “Bad Habits” (No. 13) and “Shivers” (No. 5). But Sheeran’s year was arguably more impressive for the way he spread himself around as a special guest, scoring Hot 100 hits alongside artists from the worlds of rap (Russ’ “Are You Entertained?”), reggaetón (J Balvin’s “Sigue”) and Afrobeats (Fireboy DML’s “Peru”), all while trekking the globe on yet another impossibly lucrative world tour. And lest it be lost to time, let’s not forget there was a Pokémon song in there somewhere, too.
Why Not Top 10? Though Sheeran remains unmissable on radio and one of the world’s biggest live attractions, he doesn’t quite have the same culture-wide impact he did at his mid-’10s peak — particularly during an in-between year, album-wise.
ENCANTO CAST
Encanto
DISNEY
Their Year in Pop: If we cut these rankings off in April, you can bet you’d be seeing Mirabel, Abuela, Luisa, Pepa, Félix, Bruno, and the rest of the Family Madrigal in the top 10. For those three months, they were everywhere — including on the charts, where Stephanie Beatriz and Diane Guerrero were suddenly as unavoidable as Dua Lipa and Doja Cat. But also on TikTok, at award shows (with Megan Thee Stallion at the Oscars!), and most of all, at your little cousin’s birthday party, where you’d better believe they had memorized all six parts of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and were just dying to act them all out at once for you.
Why Not Top 10? While the Encanto cast helped fill the void left by the absence of most of our major pop stars early in 2022, eventually those stars returned, and we didn’t hear much from the Family Madrigal again after that.
GUNNA
Gunna
Jamie McCarthy/GI
Their Year in Pop? If you didn’t spend the opening months of 2022 not talking about Bruno, chances are good you instead spent it pushin’ P, as Gunna’s Hot 100 top 10 smash (alongside Future and Young Thug) gave the year its first great pop catchphrase. Acclaimed parent album DS4Ever also debuted at No. 1 — even beating out Dawn FM, the much-anticipated new set from 2021’s sixth-greatest pop star — and earned Gunna a music guest spot on SNL in April.
Why Not Top 10? Unfortunately, what was looking like a true level-up year for the rapper born Sergio Kitchens was cut short in May, when he was arrested (along with Young Thug) on a controversial RICO indictment — for which he’s still in jail, as he awaits his January trial.
KAROL G
Karol G
Pablo Escudero
Their Year in Pop: Every year, Latin pop star Karol G burrows her way a little further into the U.S. pop mainstream. Though she didn’t release an album in 2022, she did release three singles — “MAMIII” with Becky G, “Provenza” and “Gatúbela” with Maldy — all of which debuted in the Hot 100’s top 40, with “MAMIII” becoming her highest-peaking hit to date (No. 15). That song also won hot Latin song of the year, vocal event at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards — one of three awards Karol picked up on the night. And you know an artist has reached a level of true stardom when they can make headline news merely by changing the color of their hair.
Why Not Top Ten? A big album to cash in on her crowing pop clout would certainly help her case, as would a crossover single on American top 40 radio — though as a Latin star you’ll see in our top 10 has shown, the latter’s not necessarily a pre-requisite for stateside superstardom anymore.
KENDRICK LAMAR
Kendrick Lamar
Renell Medrano
Their Year in Pop: For about two weeks in May, the country belonged to Kendrick, as his long-awaited comeback (following the twin triumphs of 2017’s DAMN. and 2018’s Black Panther soundtrack) was trumpeted first with the release of “The Heart Part 5,” a Marvin Gaye-interpolating one-off with an jaw-dropping, deepfaking music video that instantly took over the internet. Then five days later, he made his full return with fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, drawing rave reviews and debuting atop the Billboard 200 (while simultaneously charting each of its 18 tracks on the Hot 100).
Why Not Top 10? Neither Mr. Morale nor any of its cuts stuck around the culture the way Lamar’s last two efforts and their accompanying hits did. But it’s hardly been forgotten about — Lamar earned eight nominations for the 2023 Grammys, while Mr. Morale and its lead single “N95” finished in the top 10 of our staff’s year-end albums and songs lists, respectively.
LIL BABY
Lil Baby
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Their Year in Pop: Lil Baby notched a staggering 39 titles on the Hot 100 this year — a tally that nonetheless basically registers as light work for one of the most prolific major rappers of the 2020s. Most of those of course came from his Billboard 200-topping October effort It’s Only Me, though he also scored big hits in support of DJ Khaled (“Stayin’ Alive”), SleazyWorldGo (the “Sleazy Flow” remix) and even Ed Sheeran (the “2step” remix), while also notching a pair of big debuts alongside Nicki Minaj early in the year — including the No. 2-bowing “Do We Have a Problem,” tying for the highest Hot 100 peak of his career.
Why Not Top 10? Despite the dozens of Hot 100 visits, Lil Baby didn’t have a single quite as unavoidable as his My Turn-era 2020 hits “Emotionally Scarred,” “The Bigger Picture” or “We Paid” this year, as the buzz around It’s Only Me faded much quicker than for its predecessor.
TEMS
Tems
Jeff Spicer/GI for BMI London Awards
Their Year in Pop: One of the breakout stars of 2021, thanks largely to her star-marking turn on Wizkid’s global smash “Essence,” Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems defied the odds by having an even bigger 2022 — without even releasing any new music of her own outside of a Bob Marley cover for the Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Still, she appeared on one of the year’s biggest hits when Future sampled her 2020 From Broken Ears cut “Higher” for his own Hot 100-topping “Wait for U” — even scoring her an artist credit on the track — and also earned her first major solo hit when TikTok (and eventually R&B radio) resurrected her “Free Mind,” from the same 2020 EP. You know you’ve got the juice when Queen Bey is calling you in as one of just a handful of featured guests on her new album, with the legendary Grace Jones as a co-star, no less.
Why Not Top 10? She’s still yet to even release an official full-length debut — so we’ll have to see how the Afrobeats sensation fares when all eyes are on her for actual brand-new music of her own.
THE WEEKND
The Weeknd
Brian Ziff
Their Year in Pop: While The Weeknd’s March 2020 LP After Hours was such a blockbuster that he was still enjoying its victory lap well into 2021, this January’s Dawn FM did not have quite the same reach or endurance. But critics were kinder to the album than the masses (it finished in the top 10 of the Billboard staff’s year-end ranking), and we still saw plenty of Abel this year between his long-awaited After Hours til Dawn stadium tour, a series of typically eye-popping Dawn FM visuals, and the TikTok and radio resurrection of 2016 Starboy cut “Die for You,” a bigger chart hit than anything he actually released in 2022. (And his year’s not over yet: Next week, he’ll debut “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength),” his Swedish House Mafia-co-produced theme to the much-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water.)
Why Not Top 10? After a year where you play the Super Bowl and celebrate having the biggest Hot 100 hit of all-time, there might just be nowhere to go but down.
It was a refrain heard throughout the Billboard offices in the first half of 2022: Where are the hits? The slow start for new entries really impacting the Billboard Hot 100 had us all looking left and looking right for the sort of songs we usually take for granted — the kind that slowly (or not-so-slowly) spread to all corners of the culture, connecting every kind of music fan and becoming unavoidable parts of a given year’s experience. With 2021’s biggest singles refusing to go away and this year’s listenership seemingly too spread out to elect new consensus hits to replace the incumbents, it was starting to look like we might go the whole calendar subsisting on nothing but reruns.
Luckily for us, the hits showed: first from some of pop’s biggest returning heroes, then from some artists taking the next step towards stardom, some longtime hitmakers we hadn’t heard from in a bit, and some new names we hope to be hearing a lot more from in the years to come. And of course, it wasn’t just the big songs that enraptured us in 2022; we found plenty of smaller favorites to save to our streaming playlists and inspire our vinyl orders in between those. But the year just wouldn’t have felt complete without those late-arriving, chart-crashing smashes, particularly since we ended up getting a handful who proved more than worthy of their position.
Here are our 100 favorite songs of 2022, a year that once again proved that no matter the time or context, pop music always finds a way. (Songs were considered eligible for the list if they either came out in 2022, were first released as an official single in 2022, or peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 — though sorry, Stranger Things heads, we still couldn’t quite justify including “Running Up That Hill” or “Master of Puppets.”)
While every year of the streaming era — maybe every year of the post-Napster era — has brought with it concerns about the health of the full-album format, 2022 ended up making a pretty convincing argument that the LP could still be just as vital in the culture as it was during Tower Records’ heyday. Huge stars came through with enormous albums this past year, dominating discussion, drawing rave reviews, changing careers, and (in at least one or two cases) putting up numbers that previously seemed close to impossible at this point in pop history. (And thanks to a renewed interest in CD packaging and the continued growth of the vinyl market, fans were spending money on actual physical copies of many of these albums, a practice that seemed to be going nearly extinct not that long ago.)
But it wasn’t just the already-big going (and getting) bigger in 2022. Some new and still-rising artists found their voices in unexpected and thrilling ways, scoring breakout hits and connecting with new audiences. Some veteran artists continued to hone their trademark craft, making satisfying and well-received comebacks that made us wish they hadn’t left us for so long beforehand. And some of our preeminent hitmakers continued to evolve and challenge audiences with unexpected shifts in their sound and vision, resulting in returns that were less commercially explosive but even more artistically rewarding.
Here are our 50 favorite albums from this year — sets which both made us nostalgic for the format’s past, and excited about its future.
Christian music in 2022 showed off its welcoming aspect to diversity with multiple women leading the charts and offering many collaborations between Christian and gospel artists.
The Top Christian Artist of 2022 is Kanye West, who concurrently reigns as the top male artist of the year. It marks two years straight that West leads both categories. His Donda album is No. 1 on the year-end Top Christian Albums tally for a second year in a row.
The hip-hop superstar is also the Top Gospel Artist of 2022. West wins the day on the strength and longevity of his second faith-based album, Donda, which is No. 1 on the Top Gospel Albums recap for a second year running.
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.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
Let Us Recap: On the Billboard charts in September 2021 Donda debuted atop the all-genre Billboard 200 with 309,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. according to Luminate. It marked West’s 10th Billboard 200 leader. It simultaneously hit No. 1 on the Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums charts.
Donda followed West’s first spiritual LP, 2019’s Jesus Is King, which was his ninth No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Donda has spent all of 2022 at Nos. 1 or 2 on Top Christian Albums.
Plus, the year’s rundown of the top tracks on the streaming-, airplay and sales based Hot Christian Songs ranking includes two songs by West inside the top 5.
“Praise God,” which dominated the survey for seven weeks starting last December is at No. 2 and “Hurricane,” which ruled for 12 weeks beginning in September 2021 is the No. 4 title on the year-end list.
West was not absent from the weekly Christian charts in 2022. His featured role on DJ Khaled’s “Use This Gospel (Remix),” which also featured Eminem, arrived at the Hot Christian Songs apex in September, awarding West with his fifth leader and the first for Khaled and Eminem.
The top female Christian artist for 2022 is Katy Nichole, who records for the Franklin, Tenn.-based Centricity Music. Nichole is also Billboard’s Top New Christian artist.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Mesa, Ariz. owns the No. 1 Hot Christian Songs title of the year with her launch single “In Jesus Name (God of Possible).” The song concurrently leads the Christian Airplay Songs year-end ranking. Nichole co-wrote “Name,” with Ethan Hulse, David Spencer and Jeff Pardo, the latter of whom also produced it solo.
“I’m blown away and so incredibly honored,” Nichole tells Billboard. “It is such a gift to be able to use music to bring the love of Jesus to so many. I’m beyond grateful for everything that God has done in this past year and for the impact of the songs and stories I’ve shared.”
Plus, Nichole is one of the first successful Christian artists to come from social media. She currently boasts over 450,000 TikTok followers and before she was signed to Centricity she first gained traction by posting videos on TikTok as well as Instagram.
“Name” led the weekly Hot Christian Songs chart for 20 weeks and Christian Airplay for nine frames. Her sophomore hit “God is In This Story” reigned the lists for three and two weeks respectively.
A full studio album from Nichole is expected in early 2023.
Meanwhile, for King & Country is crowned as Billboard’s top Christian duo/group of 2022. The sibling duo comprised of Luke and Joel Smallbone ranks second among all Christian acts.
“For God Is With Us,” which became the pair’s second of two No. 1s on Hot Christian Songs, is the No. 5 top song of the year. It led for one week on the Aug. 6 dated chart and for three frames on Christian Airplay beginning in July.
The pair’s first Hot Country Songs leader, “Relate” which dominated Hot Christian Songs for three weeks in February finishes as No. 11 on the year-end tally.
“Relate” also led Christian Airplay for three frames starting February 12.
In July “For God Is With Us” topped the survey for its first of three frames and gave the duo its 11th No. 1.
The act also extended its record streak to eight consecutive Christian Airplay leaders (encompassing songs in lead roles promoted as proper, non-holiday radio singles, unless seasonal songs contribute to that run).
The duo began its run of eight straight No. 1s on the Aug. 18 dated tally when “joy.” commenced a four-week domination.
Billboard’s Top Gospel Artist of 2022 is Kanye West, who concurrently reigns as the top male artist of the year. West repeats, marking two years straight that he leads both categories.
The multi-genre superstar is simultaneously the Top Christian Artist of 2022. West reigns again mostly due to the staying power of his second faith-based album, Donda, which is No. 1 on the year-end Top Gospel Albums list.
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.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
On the Billboard charts dated Sept. 11, 2021, Donda started with a splash. It debuted in the penthouse on the all-genre weekly Billboard 200 plus Top Gospel Albums and Top Christian Albums with 309,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S., according to Luminate.
It marked West’s 10th Billboard 200 leader and his second No. 1 on Top Gospel Albums (as well as Top Christian Album).
Donda followed his first spiritual LP, Jesus is King, which crowned both lists as well as the Billboard 200. King started with 264,000 weekly units in November 2019, which was a record at the time on the two faith-based tallies.
On the weekly Top Gospel Albums chart, Donda has held the summit every week during 2022. Donda is second to only Jesus is King on the list for the longest reigning titles in the history of Top Gospel Albums which started in 1983. Both sets are north of 65 frames each.
As for the top albums of 2022 Donda is No. 1 while Jesus is King ranks at No. 5.
Plus, West holds the Nos. 1 and 2 positions of the year on the year-end streaming-, airplay and sales based Hot Gospel Songs tally with “Praise God” at No. 1 and “Hurricane” at No. 2.
The top female gospel artist of the year is CeCe Winans, who is No. 4 among all acts. Winans was also the leading woman of 2021.
Winans’ LP Believe For It: A Live Worship is No. 3 on the Top Gospel Albums’ year-end tally. The set entered at No. 1 in March 2021 becoming her ninth No. 1. It ruled for seven weeks and has spent all of 2022 in the top 10.
The LP’s title track is the No. 8 song of 2022 on Hot Gospel Songs.
“Believe” dominated the weekly version of the multi-metric ranking for 12 weeks beginning in June and led Gospel Airplay for two frames starting on Jan. 29.
Winans’ “Goodness of God,” is the No. 2 track of 2022 on Gospel Digital Song Sales. The song rang up 13 weeks atop the list after it reached the penthouse in February, giving Winans her third leader.
“Goodness” reached No. 6 on Hot Gospel Songs in October, her fifth top 10.
Billboard’s top duo/group of 2022 and No. 2 among all acts is the Atlanta-based worship collective Maverick City Music.
Old Church Basement, the collaborative project with popular Christian act Elevation Worship, ranks as the Top Gospel Albums No. 2 LP of 2022. Basement, which opened at No. 1 on Top Gospel Albums in May 2021 with 19,000 units, has been in the top 3 for the entirety of 2022.
Maverick City Music posts two of its songs inside the top 5 on Hot Gospel Songs’ top tracks of 2022: “Promises,” featuring Joe L. Barnes and Naomi Raine is at No. 3, and “Jireh,” a collaboration between Maverick City Music and Elevation Worship is the No. 4 title for 2022.
“Jireh” also crowns the year-end ranking on Gospel Digital Song Sales.
Gospel music’s top new act of 2022 is E. Dewey Smith, whose rookie single, “Your Presence Is a Gift,” topped Gospel Airplay on the survey dated April 30. It peaked at No. 18 on Hot Gospel Songs.
Smith is based in Macon, Ga., and serves as the senior pastor and teacher at The House of Hope church in Atlanta.
Smith also released the holiday-themed album Let Praises Ring which arrived and peaked at No. 7 on Top Gospel Albums last December.
Nobody has been able to unseat Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio as the year’s Top Latin Artist for the last three years, and 2022 is no different as Bad Bunny crosses the finish line at No. 1 for a fourth consecutive year.
Notably, 2022 marks the eighth straight year that a male finishes atop the ranking (since Jenni Rivera’s 2013 domination). Before Bad Bunny’s four-year rule, Ozuna was the 2018 champ, preceded by Daddy Yankee in 2017, the late Juan Gabriel in 2016, and a back-to-back command by Romeo Santos in 2014-15.
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.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2022 Year-End Charts
Bad Bunny upholds his ‘YHLQMDLG’ (short for “I do whatever I want”) stance releasing all-Spanish-language tunes to global audiences without reservations. He’s secured a global fanbase thanks largely to his knack for melding rhythmic melodies with elements from multiple genres, zigzagging from one format to another within the same song, which translated into a provoking shift in Latin music. Thanks to his solid chart performance, in addition to completing the year at No. 1 on the year-end Top Latin Artists chart, the Puerto Rican adds more achievements to his resumé in 2022, taking home the trophies for Top Latin Artist – Male, Hot Latin Song, and Top Latin Album.
Bad Bunny continues as the No. 1 Top Latin Artist for a fourth straight year thanks to his extraordinary success during the 2022 chart year on both the weekly Top Latin Albums chart and Hot Latin Songs chart, as well as his blockbuster concert earnings as reported to Billboard Boxscore.
His latest album, Un Verano Sin Ti, arrived at No. 1 on the weekly Top Latin Albums, Latin Rhythm Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 charts (dated May 21, 2022). On both Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums, it spent the rest of the 2022 chart year at No. 1. On the Billboard 200, it notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks in the lead.
The set opened with 274,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week in the U.S., according to Luminate, the largest weekly sum by a Latin album during the 2022 chart year. Concurrent with the album’s debut, mammoth streaming numbers (356.66 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks) yielded a Bad Bunny monopoly of the entire top nine on the Hot Latin Songs chart the same week. In addition, he broke the record for the most simultaneous titles on the chart in the same week, placing a total of 24 on the list (23 from the album).
Benito also takes the year’s No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs recap, with “Me Porto Bonito,” a co-billed collaboration with Chencho Corleone. It hovered at No. 1 for 20 weeks on Hot Latin Songs after the superstar ceded the throne to one of his own in October: “Titi Me Preguntó.” “Bonito” concurrently earned Corleone his first champ on the multi-metric ranking.
Bad Bunny has seven of the year-end top 10 songs on the Hot Latin Songs roundup – all from his Un Verano Sin Ti album.
Karol G’s Still Got It: Karol G is No. 1 on the year-end Top Latin Artists – Female chart for a fourth consecutive year. She’s also No. 2 on the overall Top Latin Artists chart – the only female act in the top 10. The success comes after her strong showing in 2022 with her fusion of Colombian rhythmic tunes with pop and Afrobeats – and some big collaborations.
Her 2021 chart-topping album KG0516 spent nearly the entire 2022 chart year in the weekly top 10 of the Top Latin Albums chart, while she notched multiple new hits on the Hot Latin Songs chart, including two No. 1s in “Mamiii,” with Becky G, and “Provenza” (“Mamiii” also marked Becky G’s first No. 1 on the tally).
“Mamiii” spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs and also topped the weekly Latin Airplay, Latin Pop Airplay, Latin Rhythm Airplay, Latin Digital Song Sales and Latin Streaming Songs charts. The song was soon overtaken by its follow-up “Provenza.” As it debuted at No. 2 on Hot Latin Songs, Karol G became only the second woman, after Selena, to hold Nos. 1 and 2 at the same time since 1995.
“Mamiii” and “Provenza” close 2022 at Nos. 4 and 5 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs recap – the only two songs in the top five that are not by Bad Bunny.
Eslabon Armado & Ivan Cornejo Makes Waves for Regional Mexican Music: In a notable showing for the regional Mexican genre during the year, two regional Mexican acts snag the No. 1 spots on key overall Latin recaps. Eslabon Armado is the Top Latin Artist – Duo/Group, while Ivan Cornejo is the Top New Latin Artist.
Eslabon Armado hit its stride in 2022. As the group’s fifth studio album Nostalgia was released, the California-based group made a historic debut across Billboard’s albums charts: it bowed atop Regional Mexican Albums (ruling for six weeks), in the top 10 on Top Latin Albums, while becoming the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the all-genre Billboard 200. Meanwhile, “Te Encontré,” a collab with Ulices Chaidez, topped Regional Mexican Airplay for one week — its first ruler there.
On Hot Latin Songs, Eslabon Armado charted more hits during the 2022 chart year than any other duo/group – 11.
Ivan Cornejo quickly rose as a favorite among Latin artists fueled by his popularity on TikTok. He took a first shot uploading a requinto cover of regional Mexican artist Esteban Gabriel’s “Hay Niveles” with instant credit from the singer. The 18-year-old crashed in the Latin charts in Oct. 2021, scoring his first top 10 on Hot Latin Songs with single “Está Dañada.” In addition to becoming a fixture on TikTok, the track became just the second title by a regional Mexican act to snatch an entry on the Billboard Hot 100, a list devoid of regional Mexican tunes until the arrival of Gera MX and Christian Nodal’s “Botella Tras Botella” in May of 2021.
Cornejo, who captures the Top New Latin Artist honors, saw his sophomore album Dañado open at No. 1 on the weekly Regional Mexican Albums chart (and spend most of the rest of the 2022 chart year atop the list). On the Top Latin Albums tally, it reached No. 3 and spent months in the top 10.
Further, Cornejo visited the all-genre Billboard 200 for a second time, becoming the fourth regional Mexican act to secure an entry there in 2022 (trailing Junior H, Yahritza y Su Esencia and Eslabon Armado).
Yahritza y Su Esencia’s Youthful Takeover: The regional Mexican genre, meanwhile, caps off the year with a mounting presence on the Billboard charts, thanks in part to the younger generations of singer-songwriters who are setting new rules as they experiment with different sounds. Such is the case of Yahritza y Su Esencia, who finish at No. 2 on the year-end Top New Latin Artists recap.
The Mexican American outfit burst out of the gate earlier in the year with unprecedented speed as its debut single, “Soy El Único,” went viral upon its release thanks to TikTok. The momentum yielded a No. 1 start on the weekly Hot Latin Songs and a top 20 debut on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart (making the sibling trio the highest-ranked regional Mexican act in the 64-year-old chart).
“Soy El Único” closes 2022 at No. 34 on the year-end Hot Lating Songs recap while Yahritza y Su Esencia also places at No. 5 on the Top Latin Artists – Duo/Group roundup.
Dance Genre Growth: Dance generated a big impact in Latin music this year. The genre grew at a lightning-fast pace among Latin heavy hitters. A clear example is Farruko and his ubiquitous “Pepas” which led Hot Latin Songs for 14 weeks during the tracking period (a total of 26 weeks in command). The song earned the Puerto Rican – who first reached the chart in 2014 – his first No. 1 on the weekly Hot Latin Songs chart. The track closes 2022 as the No. 9 title on the year-end Hot Latin Songs recap and at No. 3 on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs roundup.
Other Latin powerhouses dabbling with EDM include Karol G, whose team-up with Tiesto, “Don’t Be Shy,” reached No. 4 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (it’s No. 35 on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs recap), while Skrillex’s partnership with Jhayco on “En Mi Cuarto” and with J Balvin on “In Da Getto” also nabbed a space on the tally (the latter is No. 37 for the year).
Further, Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez’s “Dakiti” remained in the top 10 on Hot Latin Songs for 25 weeks during the tracking frame (previously topping the list for 27 weeks). It’s No. 13 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs chart.
On a global level, Bizarrap and Quevedo’s “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52” became a major hit. The club anthem translated into the former’s first top 10 on Hot Latin Songs and the latter’s first career entry there. Plus, both acts made their first trips to the top of the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts. On the year-end charts, it’s No. 33 on Hot Latin Songs, No. 12 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, No. 38 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 21 on the Global Excl. U.S. recap.