Scoreboard: Year In Review, George Michael

This week Scoreboard tallies up the year-end scores for 2016 and pays tribute to the late, great George Michael.

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated January 7, 2017

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

As Scoreboard closes 2016 and opens 2017, there are some big chart moves during this transition week. Pentatonix go to #1 on the Artist 100, capitalizing on Christmas week sales and airplay. Their album A Pentatonix Christmas also takes #1 on the Billboard 200, though their a cappella dominance will be limited due to the seasonal nature of Christmas. Beyond Pentatonix, The Weeknd and Bruno Mars have been battling it out for #1 over the last month with @theweeknd mostly having the upper hand. His 2017 is off to a strong start as “Starboy” feat. Daft Punk takes #1 on the Hot 100. It is Abel’s third #1 on the Hot 100 and the first for Daft Punk (2013’s “Get Lucky” peaked at #2 behind another Pharrell smash “Blurred Lines“).

@ptxofficial have earned their income this holiday season, they’ll be back in November ’17

2016 Scoreboard In Review

The year-end brings with it many lists. Critics’ lists take into account the merit of an artist’s work and in music the biggest recognition comes with the Grammy Awards, which are scheduled for February 12, 2017. The biggest Grammy prize is the Album of the Year and in the weeks leading up to the Grammys Scoreboard will feature artists and albums nominated for this award, as well as for other Grammys. When it comes to commercial success, the results are in, though the year in review is a bit of a misnomer for Billboard – the year-end charts actually capture the 12 month period from mid-November to mid-November. This explains why “Black Beatles,” a recent six week #1 hit for Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane is absent from the year-end Hot 100 and why current #1 “Starboy” is only at #58. Let’s take a look:

Artist 100: Billboard’s big winner is Adele, whose 25 is also the best-selling album of the year. Since its November 20, 2015, release 25 has sold over 9 million equivalent albums in the U.S. And while Drake has dominated the Artist 100 since May, he has not been able to match the sales achieved by Adele over the 2015 holiday season. Since its May release, Views has sold nearly 4 million equivalent albums, an impressive feat, but still below half of what Adele sold. In the end, @champagnepapi finishes with the #2 album of the year and at #3 on the year-end Artist 100.

Adele’s 107 shows in 10 months helped her secure Billboard’s #1 Artist spot; the year-end chart also accounts for touring revenues

Drake’s prolific output got him the title of Billboard’s #1 Artist on the Hot 100, one of the charts that feeds the overall Artist 100

Hot 100: Justin Bieber‘s 2016 was one marked by a hugely successful transformation with Purpose, which came out a week before Adele’s blockbuster 25 and sold about 2 million equivalent albums since its release. Purpose finishes at #3 for the year and lands Bieber at #2 on the year-end Artist 100. His biggest victory is on the year-end Hot 100 as he takes both #1 and #2 for the year with “Love Yourself” and “Sorry,” two #1s from January and February. While having the top 2 songs of the year is impressive, it is a feat that has been achieved before, most recently by Bieber’s mentor Usher back in 2004.

A few more days to get your tickets to the hottest poolside party with @justinbieber this NYE! #JustinBieber #NYE https://t.co/n73ECGVFqP pic.twitter.com/J17mOF12pG

— Fontainebleau (@Fontainebleau) December 29, 2016

Justin Bieber will ring in 2017 at the Fountainebleau Miami Beach

Billboard 200: Beyond @adele, @champagnepapi, and @justinbieber, we have Beyoncé, who has the #4 album of the year with Lemonade and also takes #4 on the year-end Artist 100. @beyonce had the year to remember first with a spectacular Super Bowl appearance (the headliners were supposed to be Coldplay who let Queen Bey rule the Super Bowl once more) and then with the surprise release of Lemonade in April. In the fall she hit the trail on behalf of Hillary Clinton‘s Presidential campaign and also supported her sister Solange who had her own critically-acclaimed #1 album with A Seat At The Table, which came out in September. Finishing the top 5 on the year-end Albums chart is Rihanna‘s Anti, which came out in January and got @badgalriri her fourteenth #1 on the Hot 100, “Work” ft. @champagnepapi.

Beyonce literally supported her sister on the SNL stage in November

Rihanna finishes the year at #6 on the Artist 100

Other Scoreboards: In touring Bruce Springsteen showed that he still has what it takes, with $268 million hauled in globally by The River 35th Anniversary Tour. That alone put him at #14 on the year-end Artist 100 and his tour earned more than either Adele or Beyoncé, both of whom finished in the top 5 along with Coldplay…and Guns N’ Roses who proved that you did not need to be Bruce Springsteen to make $188 million off of 1980’s nostalgia.

When it comes to social media Selena Gomez gained the most followers on Instagram and now sits as the #1 celebrity on the ‘gram. She finishes at #11 on the year-end Artist 100 and at #4 on the year-end Social 50, where Justin Bieber is the chart topper. On the British charts, Drake’s “One Dance” took #1 single of the year award (it finished at #3 on the year-end Hot 100) and Adele had the top album. Adele was also victorious in Canada, where Bieber’s “Sorry” was the top single.

Twenty One Pilots are the biggest duo or group of 2016, finishing at #5 on the Billboard’s year-end Artist 100

R.I.P. George Michael (1963-2016)

Too many musical icons were lost in 2016 and George Michael‘s sudden death on Christmas day came as another shock and led Madonna to tweet this. The British singer born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou brought fire to 1980’s Pop, first as half of boy-band-duo Wham! and later as a solo star. Billboard ranked him as the #5 singles artist of the 1980’s and his career stat line is impressive – 11 #1s in the UK, 10 #1s on the Hot 100, 100 million albums sold globally, and two Grammy awards, including 1988 Album Of The Year for Faith. Among his hits was Wham’s “Last Christmas,” a holiday staple from 1984 that was featured on Scoreboard a few weeks ago, and came back to the charts this week, landing at #50 on the Hot 100 and at #7 on the British Singles Chart.

Michael’s impact went beyond music. In his early career he was a fashion icon, first as a teen idol with Princess Diana hair, then as a sunglasses and leather-clad sex symbol, and finally as a behind-the-scenes performer hiding from the spotlight and instead filling his music videos with supermodels. In 1998, following an unfortunate public-lewdness arrest in Los Angeles, Michael went public revealing his homosexuality and has since been an ardent advocate for LGBTQ rights and AIDS causes. Though his musical output has been limited over the last two decades, he sold out stadiums every time he went on tour and a 2011 skit with James Corden turned into Corden’s first “Carpool Karaoke.” To pay tribute to @georgemofficial, check out “Everything She Wants,” a Wham #1 that gave Michael license to further experiment with R&B sound on Faith and highlighted his ability to move seamlessly between pop, dance, and blue-eyed soul: