Spotify users are anxiously waiting for the annual Wrapped event, which tells subscribers about their most-streamed artists and songs of the past 12 months, along with the overall biggest musicians and tracks on the platform.
Spotify Wrapped was first launched in 2016 with the intention of providing music fans with a collated list of their favourite music, allowing them to share with their friends and family.
In past years, Wrapped has been released after Thanksgiving, between 30 November and 6 December, leading fans to believe the 2024 version could drop this week.
While Spotify users wait, it’s worth taking a look at the data from 2023, which revealed the top five artists in the UK as well as the biggest global artists.
The fifth most-streamed song of the year among UK music fans was “Escapism” by Raye, who undoubtedly enjoyed one of the biggest breakthroughs of that year thanks to her critically adored debut album, My 21st Century Blues. Featuring 070 Shake, “Escapism” became a viral sensation on TikTok and made its way onto the charts around the world.
At number four was “Boy’s a Liar Pt 2” by PinkPantheress featuring US rapper Ice Spice, which racked up more than 700 million streams on Spotify in the space of a year.
Next up was “Kill Bill”, the Grammy-nominated single from R&B star SZA’s second album, SOS, and Miley Cyrus’s Grammy-winning track “Flowers”, which broke a Spotify record by accumulating more than 96 million streams in its first week.
Ruling over Spotify’s biggest tracks in the UK, though, was Dave and Central Cee’s runaway hit “Sprinter”, which also debuted at No 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
When it came to the biggest artists on Spotify, it was unsurprising that pop star Taylor Swift managed to knock Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny off his three-year reign to become the most-streamed global artist of 2023.
Swift’s triumph came after a bumper year that saw the release of her album Midnights along with the re-recorded versions of Speak Now and 1989, along with the launch of her record-breaking Eras tour and accompanying concert film. She achieved an eye-watering total of 26.1bn streams on Spotify.
Bad Bunny came in second but also claimed the most-streamed album of 2023 with Un Verano Sin Ti. The third most-streamed global artist was The Weeknd, followed by Drake in fourth place and Mexican singer and rapper Peso Pluma in fifth.
There was a similar trend in the UK, as Swift, Drake and The Weeknd placed first, second and third respectively, followed by Sheffield-formed rock band Arctic Monkeys in fourth, and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran as the fifth most-streamed artist of the year.
