Beyoncé has become such an iconic cultural figure over the years that her nickname of “Queen B” isn’t that far from the truth. Her RENAISSANCE World Tour took 2023 by storm, kicking off in May in Sweden and ending in Missouri on October 1. Breaking sales records, it became the highest-grossing tour by a Black artist, and the second highest-grossing tour ever by a female artist after Swift’s Eras Tour. The album (and tour at large) was a celebration of Black and queer artists, who she worked closely with while creating RENAISSANCE.

Beyoncé also teamed up with AMC Theatres for the RENAISSANCE concert film, which made over 22 million dollars at the box office during its opening weekend in early December. The film combined the stunning visuals, elaborate choreography, and countless costumes of the tour with documentary footage showcasing all the labor required behind the scenes to make it succeed. This year, she also became the most-awarded artist in Grammy history with 32 wins and 88 nominations, further cementing her icon status.

If you’re at all up to date on today’s electronic music scene, there’s a likely chance you’ve seen the name “Fred Again..” again, and again, and again.

While the London-based producer has been active since 2018, he truly broke through the mainstream when his Boiler Room set went viral in the fall of 2022. This newfound buzz, alongside the release of his album Actual Life 3 (January 1-September 9 2022), was the perfect mix (pun intended). 

Since then, Fred has grown his Spotify listening by over 50% (corresponding to an additional 5 million monthly listeners) and gone on to collaborate with other EDM legends such as DJ Skrillex and Four Tet, a trio that would sell out Madison Square Garden within a matter of minutes. His 2023 singles “adore u” and “leave me alone” also saw significant success on the global charts, reaching the top 50 in countries like Ireland, Australia, and the U.K.

When thinking of breakout artists in 2023, Bronx rapper Ice Spice is definitely one of the first to come to mind. Over the last year, the Gen Z artist has dropped hit after hit, and there’s no sign that she plans on stopping anytime soon. 

After the release of her 2022 summertime viral single, “Munch (Feelin U)” and the January 2023 drop of her first EP, Like…?,  the rapper soon joined the melodious PinkPantheress track “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2.” Peaking at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100, the hit single became an anthem of the cutecore scene. She followed it up with two collabs with the Queen of Rap herself, Nicki Minaj: an April remix of “Princess Diana” and June’s “Barbie World,” a drill pop single for Barbie: The Album. This year also saw her making a feature on the remix of Taylor Swift’s song “Karma,” which she went on to perform during a surprise guest appearance on the Eras Tour. 

Elsewhere in 2023, she made a drink with Dunkin’ Donuts, won Best New Artist at the VMAs, was honored on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for music, and performed at both Rolling Loud and Gov Ball. Ice Spice has only just begun her career, and her fans and the music industry alike are excited to see what she does next.

Jung Kook of K-pop giant BTS had an impressive year from earning a solo platinum RIAA certification to becoming the first K-pop soloist to debut multiple songs in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. His summer hit “Seven” also exploded after American rapper Latto joined for a feature in July, increasing his Spotify monthly listeners by over 16 million in just a month's time. 

In September, Jung Kook co-headlined the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park, teasing his new song “3D” featuring Jack Harlow. This would be a part of his new project titled Golden, his debut album written in English for international markets. Following its release in November, Jung Kook peaked at a Chartmetric rank of 8th and has remained in the top 100 artists globally since August.

After years of building a cult following for her orchestral and punkish anthems of scalding emotion, Mitski is finally becoming a household name. Her work is a favorite in the “sad girl indie” genre, and since 2022, she’s released two full-length studio albums (Laurel Hall and The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We) and collaborated with David Byrne and Sun Lux on the Oscar-nominated song “This Is a Life” from the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once. ‍

She only found her mainstream breakthrough this October with the unlikely hit “My Love All Mine,” her first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. The track’s ascent was fueled by its popularity on TikTok, where the singer-songwriter had seen an influx of new fans after her songs “Nobody” and “Strawberry Blond” went viral during the pandemic. 

It’s brought fans to engage with her entire catalog, too: in the past three months, she's gained 23.2 million Spotify monthly listeners from all over the world. For many fans, and as stated in a popular meme, “in this life, it’s just you and Japanese-American indie-pop singer Mitski against the world.”

From Zach Bryan to Luke Combs, several country stars have contributed to the genre’s massive comeback in 2023. Still, none have succeeded in shattering as many records as Morgan Wallen and his 36-track album One Thing at A Time.

On January 31, Wallen teased three singles from the project, one of which was “Last Night,” Wallen’s most popular song that currently sits at 672 million streams on Spotify. Building on the traction, the country star later released the full album on March 3 before reaching his peak Chartmetric rank of 61st on April 8. Currently in the midst of a world tour that is selling out stadiums globally, Wallen has overcome prior controversies and seems to have successfully rebranded himself into becoming one of America’s top country artists.

2023 was the year of Regional Mexican music and leading the way was Peso Pluma. The Guadalajara native had a few thousand Spotify monthly listeners at the beginning of 2022 but skyrocketed to international fame and over 50 million monthly listeners this year thanks to "Ella Baila Sola" with Eslabon Armado, which would become Rolling Stone’s best song of the year and the first regional Mexican song to ever hit 1 billion Spotify streams. The track belongs to the growing genre of corridos tumbados, which takes elements from traditional Regional Mexican music and mixes them with trap beats appealing to younger listeners. It became the first Regional Mexican song to become No.1 on Spotify’s Global charts, spending 51 days in that spot and 54 days on the U.S. Charts.

His latest album, "Genesis," peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 this July, and its most popular track, "TULUM" with Grupo Frontera, reached a Spotify popularity score of 93 out of 100. Following the success of "Ella Baila Sola," the Mexican artist landed collaborations with top-charting Latin music acts including Colombian singer-songwriter Karol G, Argentine producer Bizarrap, and Brazilian pop star Anitta.

At only 23 years old, Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema has taken the world by storm. Dropping his debut album Rave & Roses in March of 2022, the project established him as a rising name within the genre’s rapidly growing international scene. Four months later, just as “Calm Down” began its ascent on the charts, Rema capitalized on the track’s momentum by remixing the song with Selena Gomez. Eventually, it would go on to surpass the popularity of the original in a true testament to the power Western artists have on breaking non-English genres. The remix, the first ever track led by an African artist to reach 1 billion Spotify streams, would go on to earn Rema awards at the VMAs and Billboard Music Awards and set the record for the longest reign at the top of the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats chart. 

This past year also saw Rema release a new EP entitled Ravage and collaborate on tracks with Feid and Ice Spice. The star closed out 2023 as the No. 1 Afrobeats artist by Chartmetric score, peaking at a global rank of 72nd in May.

After seven decades, the Rolling Stones are, in fact, still rockin’ and rollin’! 2023 saw the release of Hackney Diamonds, their first original album release in 18 years. In its first week, it reached No.1 in 12 countries and earned the band 1.4 million new Spotify monthly listeners. The album featured collaborations with Lady Gaga, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney, among others. 

While it’s difficult to compare the digital success of a classic rock band to that of today’s biggest pop superstars, the Rolling Stone’s presence in the social and streaming ecosystem is not a feat to be dismissed. The band spent every day of 2023 ranked in the top 20 of all legendary artists globally and their most popular track “Paint It, Black” also crossed the milestone of 1 billion Spotify streams in October.

‍

Between the Eras Tour and the release of her re-recorded albums, Taylor Swift has had an astronomical year. She has been the top-ranked artist on Charmetric since May 31, 2023 (excluding a few days in October when Drake took the top spot after releasing a new album) and reached a peak of over 111 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

While 2022 saw the great Ticketmaster debacle and the debut of her 11th studio album, Midnights, 2023 was officially the year of the Eras Tour. Quickly, the tour turned into a global cultural phenomenon which saw crowds of fans of all ages exchange friendship bracelets and dress up in outfits representing their favorite Swift “era,” each corresponding to one of her albums. Engagement for Swift rose significantly from the time her U.S. tour started until it ended, as well as for her openers. 

As we head into 2024, it’s clear the Swiftie fever shows no signs of slowing down, especially as the Eras tour has now become the first tour in history to gross over one billion dollars.