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Music March 21, 2023
Randall Williams
Randall Williams

The Weeknd Statistically Crowned ‘Most Popular Musician on the Planet’

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 11: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been processed using digital filters.) The Weeknd performs onstage during his "After Hours Til Dawn" tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 11, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Last Updated: July 1, 2023
According to Guinness World Records, the “Creepin'” singer continues to break records as he becomes the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

The Weeknd has reached more ears worldwide than any other artist on Earth, according to Guinness World Records.

Born Abel Tesfaye, the Toronto native became the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify for the month of March with 111.6 million as of March. 21. Tesfaye has a wide gap between him and everyone else. He’s trailed by Miley Cyrus (82.3m), Shakira (81.7m), Ariana Grande (81.1m), Taylor Swift (80.3m), Rihanna (78.2m) and Ed Sheeran (77.5m).

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The Weeknd released his fifth studio album Dawn FM last year and received widespread critical acclaim. Despite the praise, big first-week sales and chart-topping hits, he did not submit his album for Grammy consideration after his previous release After Hours was shut out from being nominated at the 2021 awards. But judging by the success of a global tour and the amount of monthly listeners he has, The Weeknd is winning even without adding to his his award show trophy case.

On the music front, he and Ariana Grande released the remix to his 2016 song “Die For You” in February, the song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The song marked both artists’ seventh number one hit. The original song has over 1 billion streams on Spotify, whereas the remix has 161 million in under a month. Grande originally teased the song on TikTok where it then went viral. The Weeknd and Grande have collaborated on a number of previous songs such as “Love Me Harder”(2014), “Off the Table” (2020) and “Save Your Tears (2021).

This will be the Weeknd’s third Guinness World Record title. He was awarded two in 2016 for the most streamed album on Spotify in 2015 and most consecutive weeks in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 by a male solo artist.

MORE THE WEEKND BUZZ

Randall Williams

Randall Williams is a former Staff Writer at Boardroom specializing in sports business and music. He previously worked for Sportico, Andscape and Bloomberg. His byline has also been syndicated in the Boston Globe and Time Magazine. Williams' notable profile features include NFL Executive VP Troy Vincent, Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim Hamad, BMX biker Nigel Sylvester, and both Shedeur and Shilo Sanders. Randall, a graduate of "The Real HU" -- Hampton University — is most proud of scooping Howard University joining Jordan Brand nearly three months before the official announcement.

MusicSpotifyStreamingThe WeekndTaylor SwiftAriana GrandeGuinness World Record
About The Author
Randall Williams
Randall Williams
Randall Williams
Randall Williams is a former Staff Writer at Boardroom specializing in sports business and music. He previously worked for Sportico, Andscape and Bloomberg. His byline has also been syndicated in the Boston Globe and Time Magazine. Williams' notable profile features include NFL Executive VP Troy Vincent, Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim Hamad, BMX biker Nigel Sylvester, and both Shedeur and Shilo Sanders. Randall, a graduate of "The Real HU" -- Hampton University — is most proud of scooping Howard University joining Jordan Brand nearly three months before the official announcement.