Variety’s 2021 Hitmakers and Hitbreakers Revealed

Adele’s 30 holds steady for a fourth consecutive week at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOlivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen topped the RIAA’s 2021 gold and platinum awards, the organization announced on Wednesday, with both artists’ latest albums attaining double-platinum status and Rodrigo’s blockbuster “Drivers License” single being certified four-times platinum.A total of 16 albums and 98 singles released this year achieved gold or platinum status; highlights appear below.RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said: “With another year of Gold & Platinum

Variety‘s critics celebrate in these two top 10 lists, most of which made interior feel like the best possible frame of mind to be and stay in.Deep introspection was a hallmark of albums at the highest superstar levels, whether it was Adele saying “This is 30” or Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish singing the late-teenage blues. From divorce albums to barely-post-learner’s-permit laments, confessional pop seized the moment.

Lady Gaga's Poker Face had the most googled lyrics of any song in the UK of 2021, Google has revealed. 

Lady Gaga's Poker Face had the most googled lyrics of any song in the UK of 2021, Google has revealed. 

Chris Willman Music WriterThe Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande were the three most-played artists across radio formats in 2021, followed by Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo, according to a year-end report from Mediabase.Rounding out the top 10 radio artists in Mediabase’s ranking were Pop Smoke, Doja Cat, 24kGoldn, Ava Max and Drake.Although she was only the fourth-biggest artist at radio overall, Dua Lipa had the No.

Google released its 2021 “Year in Search” list today, with Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” landing on the top trending searches for songs in Canada and “NBA”, the No. 1 search for our homeland.

Social media platform TikTok announced its “Year on TikTok 2021”.

Billboard has revealed its annual year-end charts, with Drake taking the honour as 2021’s top artist. Drake was also named overall top male artist.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorJack Harlow told tales of being in second grade. Lil Nas X admitted he “had a lot of fun pissing people off” this year.

Lil Nas X had so much fun with his celeb friends while attending the Variety Hitmakers Brunch!

Olivia Rodrigo spent time mingling with all of the celebrities at the Variety Hitmakers Brunch!

Selome Hailu editorVariety‘s annual Hitmakers event, presented by Peacock and comedy series “Girls5eva,” takes place Dec. 2, returning to an in-person red carpet and invite-only brunch after last year’s virtual event.A red carpet pre-show hosted by Variety‘s Marc Malkin, Angelique Jackson, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Clayton Davis begins at 11:30 a.m.

William Earl Variety’s “On the Carpet” pre-show from its fifth annual Hitmakers event, presented by Peacock and “Girls5eva,” will be streamed exclusively on Variety.com and on Amazon Music’s Twitch page starting at 11:30 a.m. PT on Saturday.

2021 was a big year for music.

Spotify has shared details of its most-streamed acts in the period January 1 to November 27, 2021, with Bad Bunny topping the list for the second year running.The Puerto Rican artist’s songs were streamed a total of 9.1billion times compared with 8.3billion in 2020.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify has unveiled its annual 2021 Wrapped campaign — where users can see the music they listened to the most all year — and with that comes the top artists, albums, songs, playlists and podcasts on the world’s largest streaming service, with more than 381 million total users.The full charts are below, but first, some stats:Globally speaking, with more than 9.1 billion streams this year, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2021,