Taylor Swift Named Greatest Pop Star of 2021

Billboard just named their greatest pop stars of 2021 list, with Taylor Swift occupying the top spot.  Take a look at the top 10 below.

1.  Taylor Swift

“Taylor Swift is making the type of moves within and outside of her music that elevate an artist from superstar to legend. Those moves are often very hard to execute, but no one who had been paying attention was the least bit surprised when she stuck each landing. Wind in her hair, Swift is here, and making it look all too easy.”

 

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2.  Lil Nas X

“He conquered 2021 by being his most authentic self, smartly utilizing his innate understanding of the Internet, and making songs that were simply undeniable. The crazy thing is, at 23 with just one full-length album under his belt, he’s clearly just warming up.”

 

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3.  Adele 

“Instead of buckling under the pressure of high expectations, Adele more than thrived in 2021, releasing one of her best albums while charming the world one press appearance at a time. If she’s not breaking records and making history with each new album anymore, she’ll simply have to settle for trouncing the available competition instead.”

 

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4.  Doja Cat

“Doja Cat hardly lost steam by the end of 2021, closing the year with a whopping eight Grammy nominations — tied for second most — including nods for album (Planet Her), song and record of the year (both “Kiss Me More”). The achievement marks a rare level of mainstream industry approval for a female pop-rap star, and makes Doja one of the faces of all of popular music as we enter 2022.”

 

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5.  The Weeknd

“No artist of the past decade has seemed as motivated as Abel Tesfaye to prove that he could get there, and given his continually prolific output in the 21 months since After Hours was first released, no artist seems as motivated to stick around once there. Hopefully his fans will finally get to congratulate him in person next summer.”

 

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6.  BTS

“On. Dec. 5, HYBE released a statement announcing BTS’ much-deserved vacation for the first time since 2019. In the same release, the label made sure to tease the fans with the promise of a new album upon BTS’ return whenever that may be. And given what RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook gave us in 2021, one thing’s for certain: There will surely be a place waiting for them on the main stage of American pop music  upon their comeback.”

 

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7.  Drake

“Despite whatever doubts lingered about his continued preeminence going into the new decade, 2021 ended for Drake as simply another headline-dominating year, with copious amounts of commercial success and more life lived until 2022. So it goes for The Boy.”

 

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8.  Justin Bieber

“His career arc has been built on his ability to weather the storm, navigate changing audience interests, and get back in everyone’s good graces time and time again. The latest journey from Changes to Justice never required an image-altering haircut or apology tour to the general public tis time. It needed something that perhaps nobody has pulled off as often as Justin Bieber in the past decade: a pop smash that absolutely nobody can deny. He gave us two in 2022. And he sure as hell has a lot more left in him.”

 

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9.  Dua Lipa

“In a streaming era where album cycles are becoming shorter and more compact, Lipa has proved that her star power is only increasing as her Future Nostalgia era enters yet another phase, over two years after she released its lead single. Lipa’s masterful workings of her latest album cycle should make her next album one of the most anticipated pop eras in recent memory.”

 

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10.  Bad Bunny

“2021 was the year in which Bad Bunny demonstrated to the world once and for all that he is in a league of his own, immune to the fickleness of the market. He’s charted so much, he is now the artist with the most top 10 hits in the history of Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.”

 

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