The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing songs in the United States. Its data, published by Billboard magazine and compiled by MRC Data, is based collectively on each song's weekly physical and digital sales, as well as the amount of airplay received on American radio stations and streaming on online digital music outlets.
During 2020, twenty singles reached number-one on the Hot 100, making 2020 the year with the most number-one hits on the Hot 100 since 1991, which had twenty-seven. In addition, two other number-one singles in 2020, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and "Circles" by Post Malone, had each previously hit number one in 2019. Twenty-five artists reached the top of the Hot 100 in 2020, with thirteen—Roddy Ricch, Kid Cudi, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, 6ix9ine, Harry Styles, BTS, M.I.A., Jawsh 685, 24kGoldn, and Iann Dior—achieving their first number-one single. Ariana Grande and BTS scored three number ones each. Ricch's "The Box" was the longest-running number-one of the year, leading the chart for eleven weeks, whereas the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" was the year's best performing song on the chart, topping the Billboard Year-End Hot 100.
For the first time since 1990, six songs topped the Hot 100 in six consecutive weeks, namely "The Scotts" by The Scotts (Travis Scott and Kid Cudi), "Say So" by Doja Cat featuring Minaj, "Stuck with U" by Grande and Justin Bieber, "Savage" by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé, "Rain on Me" by Lady Gaga and Grande, and "Rockstar" by DaBaby featuring Ricch. Billboard highlighted this unusual amount of turnover for the number-one spot on the chart, and cited many reasons to this phenomenon—song remixes, organized fan buying/streaming activities and the release of numerous collectible physical copies (CDs and vinyls) and bundles by artists to encourage their fans to purchase multiple copies of a song. This made the Hot 100 chart "more of a first-week factor than usual", explaining the drop in sales units of a song after it peaked at the number-one spot. [1]
In July 2020, Billboard announced that the Hot 100 chart would "no longer allow" the sales of physical/digital bundles (physical singles that are clubbed with digital downloads) to be reported as digital sales, which is a "widespread" industry practice of not manufacturing and shipping the vinyls, CDs and other physical copies to consumers for weeks or months, but making the bundled digital download instantly redeemable, a tactic generally used by artists like Grande, Bieber and 6ix9ine to boost their chart positions; Billboard asserted that those physical singles would only be counted when they are shipped to the consumer, making the tactic "ineffectual". [2]
The year 2020 broke the record for the calendar year that spawned the most number-one debuts on the Hot 100, with twelve songs debuting atop the chart: Drake's "Toosie Slide", "The Scotts" by Scott and Cudi, "Stuck With U" by Grande and Bieber, "Rain On Me" by Gaga and Grande, "Trollz" by 6ix9ine and Minaj, Taylor Swift's "Cardigan", Cardi B's "WAP" featuring Megan Thee Stallion, BTS's "Dynamite", Scott's "Franchise" featuring Young Thug and M.I.A., Grande's "Positions", BTS's "Life Goes On", and Swift's "Willow", in that order. [3] 2020 further marked the first calendar year in Hot 100 history to have more than one all-female collaboration reach the number-one spot, with four. [4]
† | Indicates best-performing song of 2020 [5] |
No. | Issue date | Song | Artist(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1095 | January 4 | "All I Want for Christmas Is You" | Mariah Carey | [6] [7] |
re | January 11 | "Circles" | Post Malone | [8] [9] |
1096 | January 18 | "The Box" | Roddy Ricch | [10] [11] |
January 25 | [12] [13] | |||
February 1 | [14] [15] | |||
February 8 | [16] [17] | |||
February 15 | [18] [19] | |||
February 22 | [20] [21] | |||
February 29 | [22] [23] | |||
March 7 | [24] [25] | |||
March 14 | [26] [27] | |||
March 21 | [28] [29] | |||
March 28 | [30] [31] | |||
1097 | April 4 | "Blinding Lights" † | The Weeknd | [32] [33] |
April 11 | [34] [35] | |||
1098 | April 18 | "Toosie Slide" | Drake | [36] [37] |
re | April 25 | "Blinding Lights" † | The Weeknd | [38] [39] |
May 2 | [40] [41] | |||
1099 | May 9 | "The Scotts" | The Scotts, [lower-alpha 1] Travis Scott and Kid Cudi | [42] [43] |
1100 | May 16 | "Say So" | Doja Cat featuring Nicki Minaj | [44] [45] |
1101 | May 23 | "Stuck with U" | Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber | [46] [47] |
1102 | May 30 | "Savage" | Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé | [48] [49] |
1103 | June 6 | "Rain on Me" | Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande | [50] [51] |
1104 | June 13 | "Rockstar" | DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch | [52] [53] |
June 20 | [54] [55] | |||
1105 | June 27 | "Trollz" | 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj | [56] [57] |
re | July 4 | "Rockstar" | DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch | [58] [59] |
July 11 | [60] [61] | |||
July 18 | [62] [63] | |||
July 25 | [64] [65] | |||
August 1 | [66] [67] | |||
1106 | August 8 | "Cardigan" | Taylor Swift | [68] [69] |
1107 | August 15 | "Watermelon Sugar" | Harry Styles | [70] [71] |
1108 | August 22 | "WAP" | Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion | [72] [4] [73] |
August 29 | [74] [75] | |||
1109 | September 5 | "Dynamite" | BTS | [76] [77] |
September 12 | [78] [79] | |||
re | September 19 | "WAP" | Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion | [80] [81] |
September 26 | [82] [83] | |||
re | October 3 | "Dynamite" | BTS | [84] [85] |
1110 | October 10 | "Franchise" | Travis Scott featuring Young Thug and M.I.A. | [86] [87] |
1111 | October 17 | "Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)" | Jawsh 685, Jason Derulo and BTS | [88] [89] [90] |
1112 | October 24 | "Mood" | 24kGoldn featuring Iann Dior | [91] [92] |
October 31 | [93] [94] | |||
1113 | November 7 | "Positions" | Ariana Grande | [95] [96] |
re | November 14 | "Mood" | 24kGoldn featuring Iann Dior | [97] [98] |
November 21 | [99] [100] | |||
November 28 | [101] [102] | |||
1114 | December 5 | "Life Goes On" | BTS | [103] [104] |
re | December 12 | "Mood" | 24kGoldn featuring Iann Dior | [105] [106] |
re | December 19 | "All I Want for Christmas Is You" | Mariah Carey | [107] [108] |
1115 | December 26 | "Willow" | Taylor Swift | [109] [3] |
Position | Artist | Weeks at No. 1 |
---|---|---|
1 | Roddy Ricch | 18 |
2 | DaBaby | 7 |
3 | 24kGoldn | 6 |
Iann Dior | ||
5 | Megan Thee Stallion | 5 |
BTS | ||
7 | The Weeknd | 4 |
Cardi B | ||
9 | Ariana Grande | 3 |
10 | Mariah Carey | 2 |
Travis Scott | ||
Nicki Minaj | ||
Taylor Swift | ||
14 | Post Malone | 1 |
Drake | ||
Kid Cudi | ||
Doja Cat | ||
Justin Bieber | ||
Beyoncé | ||
Lady Gaga | ||
6ix9ine | ||
Harry Styles | ||
Young Thug | ||
M.I.A. | ||
Jawsh 685 | ||
Jason Derulo |
The Radio Songs chart is released weekly by Billboard magazine and measures the airplay of songs being played on radio stations throughout the United States across all musical genres. It is one of the three components, along with sales and streaming activity, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Streaming Songs chart is released weekly by Billboard magazine and lists each week's top streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services in the United States. The chart represents one of the three components, along with airplay and sales, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the most popular songs in the United States.
The following is a list of events and releases that happened in 2020 in music in the United States.
"The Box" is a song by American rapper Roddy Ricch, released as the fourth single on December 6, 2019 from his debut studio album Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial (2019). Prior to the song being released as a single, it became Roddy Ricch's highest-charting song worldwide, spending eleven weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping the charts in Canada, New Zealand, Hungary, and peaking at number two in both the UK and Ireland. The song received critical acclaim, with praise for Ricch's vocal delivery. Its popularity on social media apps is credited to Ricch's iconic "eee err" ad-lib. A music video was released on February 28, 2020, directed by Ricch.
"Rockstar" is a song by American rapper DaBaby, featuring fellow American rapper Roddy Ricch. The song was released on April 17, 2020, as the second single from DaBaby's third studio album Blame It on Baby (2020). It was written by the two rappers. "Rockstar" spent seven non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Outside of the United States, "Rockstar" topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Its music video is set in a zombie apocalypse.
"Mood" is a song by American rapper 24kGoldn featuring fellow American rapper Iann Dior. It was released on July 24, 2020, through Records and Columbia Records, as the lead single from 24kGoldn's debut studio album, El Dorado (2021). The pop rap and rap rock song is built around a guitar riff inspired by indie rock and post grunge music and also features hi-hats and snare drums in the style of trap music. On the song, 24kGoldn and Dior sing-rap about their toxic relationships in which their lovers are always in a "mood".
The Billboard Global 200 is a weekly record chart published by Billboard magazine. The chart ranks the top songs globally and is based on digital sales and online streaming from over 200 territories worldwide. First announced in mid-2019, it officially launched in September 2020.
The 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards is a recognition ceremony that was held on October 27, 2020 as the 15th instalment of the BET Hip Hop Awards. The nominations were announced on September 29, 2020. Hosted by Wild 'N Out cast members and hosts of 85 South Comedy Show podcast: Chico Bean, Karlous Miller and DC Young Fly.
The 48th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 22, 2020, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, recognizing the most popular artists and albums of 2020. Nominees were officially announced live on October 26, 2020, on Good Morning America by Dua Lipa. Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber were the most awarded artists with three awards each. Roddy Ricch and the Weeknd were the most nominated artists with eight nominations each, followed by Megan Thee Stallion with five. Taraji P. Henson hosted the ceremony.
Blake Slatkin is an American record producer and songwriter. He has produced songs for high-profile music industry artists including Justin Bieber, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, The Kid Laroi, Sam Smith, and SZA. Slatkin has produced seven Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles, four of which peaked at number one.