December is upon us and, finally, it looks like 2020 will actually be coming to a close. It's felt like this year has lasted much longer than usual, so it's a relief for us to be heading into a fresh start, where we can hopefully put the global pandemic behind us.
It was a very eventful year with historical events seemingly happening every other week. 2020 started with threats against a World War Three, continued with the coronavirus outbreak, led into months filled with protests against systemic racism, and there was even more along the way. While the world's news was unpredictable, one thing remained consistent throughout the last twelve months: good music.
Sure, album rollouts were pushed back because of the pandemic, but the artists that did release music this year didn't hold back, showing us that they couldn't be stopped by the virus. Every year, Spotify delivers their year-end Wrapped lists, which are officially out today, giving us insight into what people have been listening to on the streaming platform.
The world's leading artist of 2020 was Bad Bunny, racking up over 8.3 billion streams. He also had the most-streamed album of the year with YHLQMDLG, which had over 3.3 billion streams.
The second-most streamed artist on Spotify was Drake, who was followed by J Balvin, Juice WRLD, and The Weeknd.
Billie Eilish took over as the year's most-streamed woman, with Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande following her in the second and third spots.
The most-streamed song of the year was The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights", which spent the entire year on the Billboard Hot 100 and just spent its 41st week in the Top 10. It had over 1.6 billion streams. Tones And I's "Dance Monkey" was in second place, with Roddy Ricch's "The Box" and SAINt JHN and Imanbek's "Roses" remix following.
The Weeknd's After Hours, Post Malone's Hollywood's Bleeding, Harry Styles' Fine Line, and Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia closed out the list for most-streamed albums.
In terms of podcasts, the Joe Rogan Experience took the number one spot for the most popular podcast on the platform.
With the end of the year coming, let us know what you listened to most this year.