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It’s official: The Weeknd is the most popular artist in the world

He recently scored 2 new Guinness World Record titles

LiFTED | Marcus Aurelius | 27 Mar 2023


Sorry Justin Bieber. It’s not you, Taylor Swift. No way, Bad Bunny. Can’t do it, Ed Sheeran. Drake, you’re streaming numbers are decent, but…It’s over. The battle for the most popular artist of right now is done.

The Weeknd, real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, is head and shoulders above the competition and it’s not even close. The Canadian R&B artist has the most monthly listeners on Spotify with just over 111 million. That’s a record. And he was the first artist to break 100 million. Those are his two Guinness World Records.

When I mentioned it wasn’t even close, I wasn’t lying. Second place for monthly listeners is Miley Cyrus. How many does she have? 82 million. By any other standard that’s amazing, but compared to The Weeknd, she’s 29 million behind. That’s 35 percent less.

Up next is Shakira [81.6 million], Ariana Grande [80.6 million], Taylor Swift [80.2 million], and Rihanna [78.5 million]. The closest male competitor to The Weekend is Ed Sheeran with 77.5 million monthly listens.

The Weeknd’s rise is because of ‘Die for You,’ a remix with Ariana Grande of a song from his 2016 album Starboy, that recently went viral on TikTok. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was his seventh number one of his career.

Check out The Weekend’s ‘Die for You’ remix below.