Drake, Adele, Bieber, Beyoncé Dominate Billboard Year-End Charts

Billboard has released its year-end charts for 2016’s top artists, songs, albums, and more. Finishing as the year’s top artist is Adele, who released 25 back in November 2015. Justin Bieber follows Adele at No. 2, with Drake and Beyoncé at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. Adele’s 25 also topped Billboard’s 200 Albums chart, with VIEWS at No. 2, Purpose at No. 3, and Lemonade at No. 4. See all of Billboard’s year-end charts here.

Bieber dominated the year-end Hot 100 Songs chart: “Love Yourself” and “Sorry” placed at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Drake took the next spot with “One Dance,” and Rihanna’s “Work” (featuring Drake) earned the No. 4 spot. Adele entered the Hot 100 chart three times: “Hello” at No. 7, “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” at No. 26, and “When We Were Young” at No. 83. Despite placing high on the album and artist year-end charts, Beyoncé’s only track to place in the 2016 Hot 100 is “Sorry” at No. 71.

Billboard’s year-end charts include various streaming and genre-specific categories. Drake is listed as the most streamed artist of 2016, which is not particularly surprising, considering he topped Spotify’s charts. In total, Drake finished at the top of 24 of Billboard’s charts, including Rap Albums, Rhythmic Songs, and more; for good measure, “Work” led R&B Streaming Songs.

Adele took eight of Billboard’s charts in total. Beyoncé finished atop R&B Albums, R&B Albums Artists, and R&B Digital Songs Artists. Other notable year-end results include Radiohead leading Independent Artists, with A Moon Shaped Pool taking Independent Albums; Frank Ocean placed No. 2 in both categories.

Drake, Beyoncé, Adele, and Justin Bieber’s Billboard year-end dominance follows their various Grammy nominations. All four artists (and Sturgill Simpson) are competing against each other for Album of the Year. In total, Beyoncé received nine Grammy nominations; Drake got eight; Adele got five; and Bieber got four.

Read “6 Takeaways From the 2017 Grammy Nominations” on the Pitch.

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