Year-end review of 2020 (Overall and artists)

 Hi music lovers!

In the season finale of John Oliver's "LastWeekTonight" he blew up 2020 with a massive explosion.

2020 definitely has done everything to become a masterpiece in history lessons for the 21st century, but beside "Corona" it has also been a good year in music, at least for me. I really enjoyed songs from artists I'm not a fan. And it has been a good year for songs in German too. LEA had a massive amount of singles and hits from her sophomore album "Treppenhaus" ("Stairwell"). Then there is Elif. She had been part of my chart since 2011, but only in 2020 she had placed five singles on my chart. Unfortunately I didn't like every single she released in 2020. If I liked every single she could have had entered the chart in 2020 for about ten times. These two artists are outstanding in 2020, but there are many more German and of course Austrian artists who had hits.

Back in 2019 I had 18 chart topping songs. With the last week for this year's review "Tsunami" by Annalisa became the 17th #1 song. Among the #1 artists are core artists as Alanis Morissette, Anouk, Emma or Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift released not one, but two surprising albums with "Folklore" and "evermore" which are both more indie pop and indie folk then her other albums in the years before and very far away from her country albums at the beginning of her career. In the end I charted songs from three different albums by her which is definitely a record!

Three songs topped the chart for a single week and four topped the chart for five or more weeks. "I love you" by Anouk had the longest run at the top with six weeks. Since 2011 Anouk finished three times at #2 in the year-end charts. In 2012 she reached #2 with "Little did I knew" which peaked at #1 for three weeks. The year-end #1 had been Matt Cardle's "Starlight". In 2014 she also finished 2nd with "I won't play that game (live)". This song stayed for six weeks at the top, but missed #1 against Emma's "L'amore non mi basta" ("Love isn't enough") which spent 9 weeks at the top. 2017 Anouk's "If I knew" (spent 8 weeks in 2016 at the top, but finished only at #18 in that year because of only charting 14 weeks in total) lost against German's Wincent Weiss with "Nur ein Herzschlag entfernt" ("Only a heartbeat away"). So the big questions is: Can Anouk finish in 2020 at #1 with "I love you" or is some other song doing better?"

In 2020 I've charted 701 songs which is a plus of 30 songs. These songs are by 554 artists (three less than in 2019) from 48 countries. Back in 2019 it had been 41 countries. And as always I'm going to present you now the national ranking for 2020.

National ranking 2020:

1. (1.) USA
2. (3.) Germany
3. (2.) England
4. (6.) Austria
5. (4) Canada
6. (5.) Sweden

Since the start in 2011 the USA won the national ranking and 2020 isn't an exception. It only had been a tough race for the spots #4 to #6. Austria placed 27 acts on my chart while Canada and Sweden had 26 acts on my chart. Sweden is only ranked 6th because of the fact that act #25 and #26 reached the chart with the last counting week. So let's have a closer look at my most played artists for 2020:

1. (3.) Taylor Swift with 822 plays
2. (5.) Emma with 707 plays
3. (30.) Alanis Morissette with 564 plays
4. (4.) Pink with 469 plays
5. (79.) Selena Gomez with 450 plays
6. (2.) LANY with 396 plays
7. (23.) Aitana with 388 plays
8. (52.) Kygo with 383 plays
9. (72.) María Parrado with 363 plays
10. (7.) Annalisa with 333 plays

Looking over this chart I've the feeling that there has been a little earthquake. Last year's #1 Avril Lavigne dropped out of the Top 10 (she finished at #13). The half of this year's Top 10 came nearly out of nowhere. Selena Gomez sprinted up the chart with a win of 74 spots and Spanish singer María Parrado climbed up 63 spots. María Parrado is only the 2nd highest ranked Spanish singer. Aitana, who recently released her 2nd album "11 razones" ("11 reasons"), did a little bit better and finished 7th. In total 4 out of 10 artists are not singing or producing songs in English. So let's see how the plays influenced my personal chart and which are my Top 10 artists based on my charts.

TY	LY		Artist	Info
10.	(6.)		Annalisa	Back in 2018 she had her 1st #1 with "Le parole non mentono" ("Words don't lie") and with the last counting chart she reached #1 with "Tsunami". So "Tsunami" isn't her 1st #1 as I just wrote in that post, because I totally forgot that she had done it past too. On the other hand Emma is still dominating with multiple #1's, but this can't be a good excuse. I should have looked over the statistics before writing such a misinformation. All in all it had been a good year for her although dropping four spots.
9.	(---)		María Parrado	Next in line is 19 year old Spanish singer María Parrado. I discovered her via YouTube late in 2019 and I really like her 2018 album "Alas" ("Wings") which is her 3rd album overall. So far I charted nine songs of this album and two of these reached the Top 10. Up to date "Si me dejas" ("If you let me") did best with peaking at #7.
8.	(---)		Shawn Mendes	The same YouTube algorithm brought me to another young Spanish singer who did also very well on chart. I'm speaking of Aitana who had one Top 10 hit with "Me quedo" ("I stay"). On this song with Lola Indigo another young Spanish artist from the TV show "Operación Triunfo" is singing. Both, María Parrado and Aitana are representing a little trend in Spanish songs on my chart since autumn 2019.
7.	(3.)		Pink	As I've charted most of her songs from "Hurts 2B human" it can't really be a surprise that Pink dropped four spots from last year. She still had a good year placing three songs in the year-end Top 100. Her song "Love me anyway" did best with a peak at #5.
6.	(---)		Kygo	For the first time in this last Norwegian Kygo can be found. Over the last two years he is significantly known for remixing hits from the past. It started with his monster hit (for me) "Higher love". With this song Whitney Houston got her 1st chart appearance. He also helped Tina Turner and Donna Summer to reach my chart for a 1st time. I hope that he is continuing with these cool remixes for a while.
5.	(1.)		LANY	Last year LANY went all the way up to #1. This year I charted songs form their album "Malibu nights" too. And of course I've charted songs from their new album "Mama's boy". This album is still good, but from my point of view it isn't as outstanding as "Malibu nights". So this lead them to a "massive" drop in this ranking, but they are still the highest ranked band.
4.	(re)		Selena Gomez	Back in 2016 and 2017 she had been on this list too. Now she returns very strong with songs from her album "Rare". This album isn't really a favourite of mine, but there are some strong songs on it as "Dance again" or "Crowded room". These song and especially "Lose you to love me" lead her back into my favourite artists of the year.
3.	(re)		Alanis Morissette	Back in 2012 Alanis Morissette released her album "Havoc and bright lights". Several songs reached #1 or at least the Top 10. Since that we had to wait until 2020 when she released her latest album "Such pretty forks in the road". Due to Covid-19 we had to wait a little bit longer, but I personally like this album too. So far she reached #1 with "Smiling" and "Reasons I drink". She also peaked at #2 with "Diagnosis" and "Reckoning". All these songs are candidates for a top spot in this countdown.
2.	(5.)		Emma	Back up three spots is Italian Emma. Over the past years she "struggled" a little bit, but this year she had multiple #1's. "Luci blu" ("Blue lights"), "Quando l'amore finisce" ("When love ends") and recently "Mascara" reached #1. This brings her into a comfortable position when it is about reaching the year-end Top 10 with her songs. It is absolutely possible that she has several songs within the Top 20 at least and maybe she has some Top 10 hits too.
1.	(4.)		Taylor Swift	The most played artist is also my favourite artist of the year. Taylor Swift climbed up three spots the reach the year-end #1 spot. Clearly releasing two surprise albums with "Folklore" and "evermore" helped to get this spots. In the end I've charted songs from three different albums and songs from two different albums peaked at #1. Sure for the "evermore"-album and the 1st single "Willow" it had been too late to reach #1, but in 2021 Taylor Swift could continue this trend.