It has indeed been a great year for R&B artists but still we find those from Pop leading the fray in this most successful list. We have DJs as well as one girl group and one boy band. From Reggae and Trap to Doo-Wop and Rap this list comprises all those artists who have showcased their talents this year and were rewarded with success. From the accomplishments on the charts, earnings from sales, tours and accolades received. Yes, the most influential artist is also the most successful in the world. Taylor Swift takes the crown as the most successful artist for 2015 and holds this position for the second consecutive year. One thing that is extremely conspicuous from this list is that these artists have their own individuality in terms of their music as well as their genres and have catered well to their particular audiences. So here are the top 20 most successful artists of 2015:
- Taylor Swift
She has it all – appeal, charm, beauty and of course talent
which makes up the ultimate formula for success in the music industry. Like
Madonna, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears before her, Swift knows
how to cater to her fan base in terms of music as well as lyrical content. She
started off the year with Blank Space at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100
whilst Shake It Off was just receding from the summit. Next Style headed to the
top 10 where it peaked at No.6. Then, the much anticipated remix of Bad Blood
featuring Kendrick Lamar shot to No.1 in the US and reaching the top 10 in more
than 13 countries. Its star-studded video broke the then VEVO 24-hour viewing
record held by Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda. The fifth single off 1989, Wildest
Dreams peaked at No.5. All five singles were worldwide hits and the video of
Blank Space broke the long held VEVO record of Justin Bieber’s Baby when it
surpassed its view count. Her 1989 World Tour was extremely successful where
she featured high profile celebrity guests and artists. At the Academy of
Country Music Awards 2015 she was honoured with the 50th Anniversary
Milestone Award. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards she won the Top Billboard
200 Album for 1989. At the 2015 BRIT Awards she won the International Female
Solo Artist. At the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards she won Song of the Year for
Bad Blood and for Best US Act. At the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards she won Best
Pop Video and Best Female Video for Blank Space and the video ended the year as
the second most watched video on YouTube raking over 1.2 billion views. At the
2015 People’s Choice Awards she won Favorite Female Artist and Favorite Pop
Artist and also Favorite Song for Shake It Off. Recently, she won the Song of
the Year for Blank Space and grabbed the Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist and
Favorite Pop/Rock Album for 1989 at the 2015 American Music Awards. The
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of 2015 featured all five of her singles from 1989
Blank Space (7), Bad Blood (15), Shake It Off (18), Style (29) and Wildest
Dreams (57), while her album 1989
finished No.1 in the US Billboard Albums chart and was the 6th
biggest album in the UK.
- Justin Bieber
Bieber was always more influential than successful. However,
with his new album Purpose he proved us all wrong. It’s a good thing that the
Beliebers of this world never lost faith in their prodigal master, who not only
went astray, but also had a colossal breakdown in terms of his career after
drug abuse, drunk driving and even alleged prostitution. During the first half
we saw him being featured on Skrillex & Diplo’s Where Are U Now which was a
massive success worldwide entering the top 10 in more than 10 countries
including the US, UK, Canada and Australia. This was followed by the release of
his worldwide number one hits What Do You Mean? and Sorry. Then his album
Purpose was released which debuted atop the Billboard 200 with all the songs
from the album debuting inside the Hot 100. He then released his third single
from the album Love Yourself which was also a top 10 magnet worldwide; and
eventually replaced himself atop the UK Chart. His collaboration with Skrillex
and Diplo on Where Are U Now gained him an American Music Award for
Collaboration of the Year. At the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards he won Best Male,
Best Canadian Act, Best North American Act and also Best Collaboration for
Where Are U Now. Where Are U Now ended up at No.19 on the 2015 Billboard
Year-End Hot 100 with What Do You Mean? at No.33. Purpose was the 5th biggest
album in the UK.
- Ed Sheeran
Sheeran had a great year in 2014 with his second studio album
x which maintained its success during 2015. The year began with his second
single off the album Don’t receding from the charts while Thinking Out Loud was
climbing up the Billboard Hot 100. Thinking Out Loud had already peaked in the
UK but was gaining ground everywhere else. It was stuck at No.2 in the US
behind Mark Ronson’s titanic hit Uptown Funk. For 8 consecutive weeks Thinking
Out Loud held on to the No.2 spot and remained in the US top 50 for more than a
year a feat he also equaled in the UK top 40 with the same song. The fourth
single off the album was a remix of Bloodstream by Rudimental which peaked at
No.2 in the UK and No.7 in Australia. Photograph released as the fifth single
off the album reached No.10 in the US and No.15 in the UK and reached the top
10 in more than 10 countries. He was also featured in Rudimental’s Lay It All
On Me which peaked at No.12 in the UK and No.48 in the US. At the 2015 BRIT
Awards X won the Album of the Year and he won for Best Male Solo Artist and at
the 57th Grammy Awards it was nominated for Album of the Year and
Best Pop Vocal Album. At the 2015 American Music Awards he won the Favorite
Pop/Rock Male Artist and Thinking Out Loud has been nominated for Record of the
Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 58th
Grammy Awards. He also received the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for
Songwriter of the Year. The Billboard Year-End Hot 100 placed Thinking Out Loud
at No.2, Photograph at No.34 and Don’t at No.92 and the Biggest Songs of UK for
2015 placed Thinking Out Loud at No.12, Photograph at No.29, Bloodstream at
No.33 and Lay It All On Me at No.93. His album x ended up in the top tier in
most year-end charts including No.2 in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
- Adele
After a three year break, she is back and her music is better
than ever. If she had released her music early in the year she would have
probably topped this list. Hello, the lead single from her third studio album
25 was released in the final quarter of 2015 reaching the top in over 30
countries including US and UK. The music video for Hello broke the Vevo Record
by achieving 27.7 million views over a 24-hour period surpassing the record
held by Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood. Hello went on to become the fastest video to
hit one billion views on YouTube, which it achieved after 88 days. Her third
studio album, 25 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the
fastest selling album in UK chart history and the album debuted at number one in
the US where it achieved the largest single sales week for an album since
Nielsen began monitoring sales. 25 became the best-selling album of 2015 in a
number of countries, including Australia, the UK and the US where it spent
seven consecutive weeks at number one in each country. Her second single When
We Were Young peaked at No.29 in UK and No.22 in the US even before its
scheduled release in 2016. Hello ended up at No.35 in the Billboard Year End
Hot 100 and in the UK at No.6 in the year end singles. 25 ended up in the top 5
in more than 15 year-end charts including No.1 in UK and Australia.
- The Weeknd
He first arrived in the mainstream music scene being featured
on Ariana Grande’s Love Me Harder, which peaked at No.7 in the US in 2014. This
was followed by Earned It which climbed all the way to No.3 in the US featured
in the Fifty Shades of Grey original soundtrack and peaked inside the Top 10 in
more than ten countries. Thereafter, in mid-2015 he released The Hills which
became a sleeper hit in late 2015, but it was his next single Can’t Feel My
Face which became his first No.1 single in the US. It reached the top 10 in
more than 20 countries including No.1 in his home country Canada and No.3 in
the UK. This made him the first artist in the history of that chart to earn
this distinction. His second studio album Beauty Behind the Madness debuted
atop the Billboard 200 and also reached the top 10 in over ten countries and
topped the charts in Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK. He then replaced
himself at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with The Hills which ruled at the
top for six consecutive weeks in the US and reached the top 10 in about seven
countries. His next single In The Night peaked inside the top 15 in more than 5
countries including the US, Canada and Australia. At the 2015 American Music
Awards he won the Favorite Male Artist - Soul/R&B and his album won the
Favorite Soul/R&B Album. He has top spots on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100
of 2015 with Earned It at No.09, The Hills at No.10, Can’t Feel My Face at
No.12 and also Love Me Harder at No.56. His album was within the top 20 of more
than 10 year-end charts including the US and Australia.
- Mark Ronson
This relatively unknown musician had his initial success with
the likes of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen but I doubt he ever thought his
single Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars would become a pop phenomenon. Released
in late 2014, the single topped the UK charts once in December and then again
took over in 2015 and stayed at the top for six consecutive weeks. In the US it
dethroned Taylor Swift’s Blank Space and held on for 14 consecutive weeks
becoming the second longest running No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped
the charts in over 20 countries and entered the top 10 in over 12 countries. It
also crowned the 2015 Year-End charts in Australia, US, UK and Canada and also
entered the US Billboard All Time Chart at No.12. His fifth studio album Uptown
Special was released in early 2015 and topped the UK Album Chart and reached
No.2 and No.5 on the Australian Album Chart and US Billboard 200 respectively. Ronson
won the Best Single at the 2015 Brit Awards. It ended the year as the 27th
biggest album in the US.
- Jess Glynne
Being featured on Clean Bandit’s global smash hit Rather Be laid
the foundation for Glynne to be one of the most sought after featured artists.
Rather Be won the Grammy Award for the Best Dance Recording in 2015. Her
talents as a solo artist was soon showcased with the release of Hold My Hand in
early 2015 where it reached the top of the UK charts and remained there for
three weeks. It also reached No.1 in more than 6 countries and also peaked
within the top 20 in over 8 countries. It was shortlisted for Song of the Year
at the BBC Music Awards and is also nominated for British Single of the Year at
the 2016 Brit Awards. Thereafter, she was featured on Tine Tempah’s Not Letting
Go which also reached No.1 in the UK and reached the top 10 in four other
countries. Next she released Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself which gave Glynne her
fifth number-one single in the UK, making her the second British female solo
artist to reach this feat after Cheryl Cole. Her debut album I Cry When I Laugh
was released to critical acclaim and reached No.1 in the UK and No.25 on the
Billboard 200 and finished at No.7 in the biggest albums in the UK for 2015.
She then released the final single for the year Take Me Home which peaked at
No.6 in the UK and served as the BBC Children in Need single of 2015. In the
year end charts in the UK, Hold My Hand and Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself ended
up at No.14 and No.39 respectively.
- Fetty Wap
He may be singing about trap queens but he is definitely the
king of trap. Wap whose real name is Willie Maxwell II released Trap Queen in
early 2014. Although it did not get enough attention at that point, the single
became a sleeper hit after it was re-released in late 2014 and reached No.2 on
the Billboard Hot 100 and remained in the top 10 for over 25 weeks. It also
reached No.8 in the UK and No.11 in Canada. With several nominations at the MTV
Video Music Awards 2015, Fetty Wap grabbed the Artist to Watch for Trap Queen.
His second single 679 featuring Remy Boyz rose to No.4 in the US and No.20 in
the UK. His third single My Way featuring Monty peaked at No.7 in the US and
fourth single Again peaked at No.33. He became the first male rapper with three
songs occupying the top 20 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Eminem
did so in 2013. He also became the first male rapper in four years to have
concurrent singles reach the top 10 of the same chart since Lil Wayne did so in
2011. His self-titled debut album debuted atop the US Billboard 200. He was
featured in Natalie La Rose’s Around the World which peaked at No.14 in the UK
and David Guetta’s Bang My Head alongside Sia which was released just before
2015 ended. He ended up with his singles Trap Queen, 679 and My Way at No. 4,
21 and 44 respectively.
- Selena Gomez
Gomez entered 2015 with her break up hit The Heart Wants What
It Wants receding from the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at
No.6. It also peaked within the top 10 in around six countries. Next she was
featured in Zedd’s dance hit I Want You To Know which peaked within the top 20
in more than ten countries including the US, UK and Canada. Then in the summer
she released Good For You featuring A$AP Rocky which was to serve as the lead
single from her second studio album Revival. It has since peaked at No.5 on the
Billboard Hot 100, becoming her highest placement on the chart. Internationally,
the song has become her most commercially successful single, charting in 23 countries
and reaching the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Greece, Norway,
Slovakia and Spain. Next came Same Old Love which also reached No.5 in the US
and charting worldwide. Her second studio album Revival debuted atop the
Billboard 200 in the latter part of 2016 and also entered the top 10 in more
than 20 countries. She ended the year with Good For You and The Heart Wants
What It Wants at No.27 and 62 on the Billboard Year End Hot 100 and received
the Chart-Topper at the Billboard Women in Music Awards 2015. At the Radio
Disney Music Awards The Heart Wants What It Wants won for Best Breakup Song
while at the Kids’ Choice Awards 2015 she won for Best Female Singer.
- One Direction
The group began 2015 backed by the highest grossing concert
tour of 2014 after their fourth studio album Four from which its second single Night
Changes was receding from the charts. The band then faced their ultimate test
with Zayn Malik’s sudden departure in March 2015. The band decided to stay
together and with no promotion whatsoever released Drag Me Down which reached
the top in more than 10 countries including the UK, Australia and France and
reached the top 10 in almost all the other countries it charted. This was to
serve as their first and lead single off their fifth studio album Made in the
A.M. and the first as a quartet. Perfect was released as the second single
which also reached the top 10 in more than 13 countries. Then came the much
anticipated Made in the A.M. which debuted atop the UK Album Chart and at No.2
on the Billboard 200. It also reached the top 3 in more than 20 countries. The
group announced a hiatus at the end of 2015 and ended the year with Drag Me
Down at No.65 and Night Changes at No.98 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100. They
won the Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards 2015, Top Duo Group at
the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, Video of the Year for You & I at the 2015 BRIT
Awards and Best Pop Act at the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards.
- Sam Smith
He had a mammoth year in 2014 and the remnants seemed to have
trickled down to 2015. He began the year with his titanic hit Stay With Me
still within the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 even after 37 weeks. His I’m
Not The Only One had peaked at No.5 and was still in the top 10 in the US. He
was the big winner at the 57th Grammy Awards with Record of the Year
and Song of the Year for Stay With Me and Best Pop Vocal Album In The Lonely
Hour and Best New Artist. At the 2015 Brit Awards he won British Breakthrough
Act and Global Success. Next Lay Me Down was released which peaked at No.8 in
the US and a re-release with John Legend for charity purposes propelled it to
No.1. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards he received Top Male Artist, Top New
Artist and Top Radio Songs Artist. He was featured in Disclosure’s Omen which
charted within the top 40 of more than 15 countries. In late 2015, Sam Smith
was picked to sing the coveted James Bond theme and his Writing’s On the Wall
composed for the film Spectre and became the first Bond song to reach No.1 in
the UK. He entered the Guinness World Records for scoring the most consecutive
weeks within the UK top 10 by a debut album. His In The Lonely Hour Tour which
began in January 2015 ended in December 2015 with monumental sales. He ended
the year with In The Lonely Hour at No.3 in both the year end charts in the US
and UK and I’m Not The Only One, Stay With Me and Lay Me Down at No.26, 58 and
81 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of 2015.
- Meghan Trainor
Rejuvenating a bygone genre is not easy, especially in this
era of music. But Trainor managed to do just that. With her global smash hit
All About That Bass, she brought Doo-Wop back into the mainstream. The success
of her follow-up single Lips Are Movin’ released late in 2014 continued in
2015. She started off the year with Lips Are Movin’ at No.5 in the US and reaching
the top 10 in more than ten countries in 2015 where it peaked at No.2 in the UK.
She followed this with the release of her major label debut studio album Title
in January which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 and also peaked at No.1
in many countries including UK, Canada and Australia. Dear Future Husband was
released as the third official single from Title and entered the top 20 in more
than 10 countries including No.14 in the US and No.20 in the UK. Like I’m Gonna
Lose You was released as the fourth single from the album during the latter
half of 2015 where it reached the top 10 in more than five countries including
the US, Canada and Australia. She was also featured in Charlie Puth’s global
hit Marvin Gaye which reached the top in UK and France and also entered the top
10 in more than ten countries. Title ended up at No.5 on the Billboard Year-End
Albums of 2015. She along with Taylor
Swift and Nicki Minaj are the only three artists to have 5 entries each on the
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of 2015 with Lips Are Movin’ (22), All About That
Bass (28), Dear Future Husband (74), Marvin Gaye (75) and Like I’m Gonna Lose
You (76). At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards she won Top Hot 100 Song and Top
Digital Song for All About That Bass and the song was nominated for Song of the
Year and Record of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards.
- Calvin Harris
With back to back hits in 2013 and 2014 with Under Control,
Summer and Blame, Harris established himself as a EDM force to reckon with.
Outside featuring Ellie Goulding was released as the fourth single off his
fourth studio album Motion in the latter part of 2014. The success of Outside
continued into 2015 where it reached the top 10 in more than ten countries and
reached No.29 in the US. Pray To God featuring HAIM was released in early 2015
which reached the top 20 in more than 6 countries. At the 2015 BRIT Awards he
was nominated for the Best British Single and British Artist Video of the Year
for Summer. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards he won Top Dance/Electronic
Artist and at the 2015 American Music Awards won Favorite EDM Artist. He then released How Deep Is Your Love? a
collaboration with the Disciples which soared to the top 10 in 22 countries
including the top in Australia and No.2 in UK. It also peaked at No.27 in the
US. He ended the year with How Deep Is Your Love at No.20 and Outside at No.85
on the Biggest Singles in the UK and the former at No.100 on the Billboard
Year-End Hot 100.
- Nicki Minaj
She entered 2015 with a monumentally successful year behind
her with Only, Bang Bang and Anaconda receding from the charts at No.15, 22 and
48 respectively. Her third studio album The Pinkprint had just been launched in
December, 2014. Early 2015 saw her collaborations Feeling Myself with Beyonce
and Bed of Lies with Skylar Grey peaking at No.39 This was followed by the
singles Truffle Butter featuring Drake and Lil Wayne and The Night Is Still
Young which peaked at No.14 and No.31 in the US. She was next featured on David
Guetta’s global dance hit Hey Mama alongside Bebe Rexha and Afrojack. It
reached the top 10 in more than 20 countries including No.8 in the US and No.9
in the UK. She was also featured on Madonna’s Bitch, I’m Madonna which peaked
at No.84 in the US, Rae Sremmurd’s Throw Sum Mo alongside Young Thug which
peaked at No.30 in the US and Meek Mill’s All Eyes On You alongside Chris Brown
which peaked at No.21 in the US. She was part of a remix of The Weeknd’s The
Hills which propelled it to No.1 in the US. She began her Pinkprint Tour in
March, 2015 which has been extremely successful and will conclude in March,
2016. At the American Music Awards 2015 she won Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist, at
the BET Awards 2015 she won the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist and won Best Hip-Hop
Video for Anaconda at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. The Pinkprint finished
off at No.7 on Billboard Year-End Albums chart whilst she had five on the
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 with Hey Mama (30), Only (61), Truffle Butter (66),
and All Eyes on You (69) and Bang Bang (80).
- Ellie Goulding
Goulding entered 2015 with her second collaboration with
Calvin Harris on Outside which was a moderate hit worldwide. She trumped this
by her next single Love Me Like You Do which is her biggest hit to date from
the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. It ruled the charts worldwide in early
2015 soaring to No.1 in more than 25 countries including UK and Australia and
reaching No.3 in the US. She was next featured in Major Lazer’s hit Powerful
alongside Tarrus Riley which was moderately successful. On My Mind, her first
and lead single preceded her third studio album Delirium in late 2015 which
peaked in the top 20 in more than 25 countries and peaked at No.5 in the UK and
No.3 in Australia. Delirium was released in November 2015 with significant
first week sales, reaching the top 10 in more than 15 countries including
peaking at No.3 in UK and US. Love Me Like You Do was nominated She ended the
year with Love Me Like You Do at No. 13 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of
2015 and No.4 on the Biggest Hits of UK 2015.
- OMI
It was way back in 2008 that Omar Pasley composed Cheerleader
and he only released it in 2012 with a low budget video in Jamaica and a
limited release in the US. The song’s revival came when the label Ultra Music
liked the song and foresaw it becoming a dance hit if remixed. Felix Jaehn’s
remix was chosen for the re-release in 2015 as it maintained much of the song’s
original instrumentation. The song was a massive global success during the
summer of 2015 reaching No.1 in more than 20 countries including spending six
non-consecutive weeks at the top in the US and four weeks atop the UK Charts.
It was named as the coveted Billboard’s Song of the Summer and was also the
most streamed song of 2015 in the UK. His second single Hula Hoop was
moderately successful reaching the top 20 in more than ten countries. His debut
studio album Me 4 U peaked at No.51 on the Billboard 200 and No.37 in
Australia. Cheerleader was nominated for Choice Summer Song at the 2015 Teen
Choice Awards and Song of Summer at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. OMI ended
the year with Cheerleader within the top 20 of almost all the year-end charts
where it was ranked No.2 on UK’s Biggest Hits of 2015 and No.11 on the
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of 2015.
- Major Lazer
Anticipating the summer of 2015 Major Lazer consisting of
Diplo, Jillionaire and Walshy Fire released Lean On, collaborating with DJ
Snake and Danish recording artist MØ. The song was a titanic hit reaching the
top 10 in more than thirty countries including No.1 in more than ten countries
with a peak of No.2 in the UK and No.4 in the US. Their third studio album
Peace is the Mission was released in June, 2015 reaching the top 30 in more
than ten countries peaking at No.12 on the Billboard 200. Their second single
Powerful featuring Ellie Goulding and Tarrus Riley released simultaneously
alongside the album achieved moderate success. The song became the most played,
listened and streamed song of 2015 breaking records on Spotify and YouTube
coupled with a video that went viral inclusive of a quirky dance routine. They
ended the year with Lean On inside the top 10 of most of the year-end charts
and reaching No.7 on the Biggest Hits of UK of 2015 and No.16 on the Billboard
Year-End Hot 100 of 2015.
- Wiz Khalifa
Khalifa entered 2015 after the moderate success he had with
his fifth studio album Blacc Hollywood, although it did manage to debut atop
the Billboard 200. In early 2015 he was featured in the Boys of Zummer Remix of
Fall Out Boy’s Uma Thurman which peaked at No.22 in the US and No.71 in the UK.
Next he released See You Again featuring Charlie Puth which was the theme song
for the action film Furious 7 paying tribute to Paul Walker who died in a
tragic car crash in 2013. It was a global commercial as well as a critical
success. Soaring to the top of the charts in more than 25 countries it stayed
atop the US Billboard Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks tying with Eminem’s
Lose Yourself for the longest reign by a rap song and stayed atop the UK Charts
for 2 weeks. Blacc Hollywood and its lead single We Dem Boyz were nominated for
Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song respectively at the 57th Grammy
Awards 2015. Its video is the third most watched video of all time on YouTube
garnering over 1.48 billion views and second only to Psy’s Gangnam Style and
Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. His second song on the Furious 7 soundtrack Go Hard
or Go Home, a collaboration with Iggy Azalea did not experience the same
success reaching only No.86 on the Billboard Hot 100. He ended the year with
See You Again within the top 10 of most year-end charts including No.3 on the
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 and No.5 on the Biggest Hits of UK.
- Little Mix
They are the second coming of flower power after the Spice
Girls but this time they come with talent. As the only group to ever win the X
Factor UK, this girl group take on the reigns from the likes of Girls Aloud but
their popularity and success is much more. Many called their decision to cancel
the North American leg of their tour to focus on their next album stupid and
naïve but these girls proved them wrong. During the summer of 2015 they
released their highly anticipated new single Black Magic which debuted atop the
UK Charts and remained there for three weeks. It also peaked within the top 10
of more than six countries and reached No.67 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was
followed by their second single Love Me Like You which peaked at No.17 during
2015. Their third studio album Get Weird was released to global success
reaching No.2 in the UK and the top 20 in more than 15 countries including US
and Australia. They ended the year with Black Magic at No.27 on UK’s Biggest
Hits of 2015 and Get Weird at No.11 on UK’s Biggest Albums of 2015.
- Kendrick Lamar
Considered as the best rapper to have emerged during this
decade, Lamar started off 2015 with his song i winning Best Rap Song and Best
Rap Performance at the 57th Grammy Awards. His single The Blacker
The Berry enjoyed moderate chart success reaching No.66 in the US and No.83 in
the UK. This was followed by his much anticipated third studio album To Pimp A
Butterfly which reached the top 10 in over 14 countries including reaching No.1
in the US, UK and Australia. His third single off the album King Kunta was also
successful, but it was his fourth single Alright which although did not enjoy
chart success, propelled to fame amongst the African-American community and
soon became renowned as a modern Black National Anthem during the times of
police brutality towards the community. He won Best Direction for Alright at
the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards and also Best Hip Hop Video and Impact Track at
the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards. In the summer he was featured in Taylor Swift’s
Bad Blood remix which reached the top 10 in more than 13 countries including
No.1 in the US, Australia and Canada. The next single These Walls featuring
Anna Wise, Bilal and Thundercat reached No.77 in the UK and No.94 in the US. He
ended the year with Bad Blood at No.15 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 of
2015 and his album at No.16 Billboard 200 Year-End chart.
Honorable Mentions:
- Drake
- Years & Years
- Hozier
- Tove Lo
- Shawn Mendes
(All images used in the posts unless otherwise mentioned are drawn from https://images.google.com/ and the author does not hold copyright over the photos used.)
Till the next beat...
At Ease!!!
