TOP ARTISTS OF 2021

YEAR-END ARTISTS

2021

After taking the No.3 spot in both 2018 and 2020 – while ranking at No.27 in 2017 and No.5 in 2019 – Ariana Grande logs a fourth appearance in the Year-End Artists Top Ten. She wins her place thanks to the enduring success of her catalogue efforts. While none of Grande’s albums rank inside the Top Twenty on the Year-End Albums Chart, her sales total just over 1.02 million, making her the 11th bestselling artist of the year.

Positions – her best performing album, at No.24 – improves on its 2020 rank where it placed at No.34 following its October release. However, this means Positions will likely become Grande’s first major release since the inception of L.dK Weekly not attain a Top Ten position… last year’s live album k bye for now would climb as high as No.17.

Sweetener & thank u, next both continue to experience success long after their respective releases. The former is on its fourth appearance on a Year-End Chart; No.2 (2018); No.16 (2019); No.23 (2020); and now No.44 (2021). next meanwhile logs its third appearance; No.9 (2019); No.42 (2020) and now No.67 (2021).

Supported entirely by the huge success of 2020’s Plastic Hearts, Miley Cyrus pays her first visit to the Top Ten of the Year-End Artists Chart. With 1.25 million sales from Plastic, Cyrus is 2021’s 8th bestselling artist.

Plastic – her sole album present on the Year-End Albums Chart – ranks at No.6 after making the cut at No.50 last year from just four weeks of activity!

Paramore’s front-woman began her solo career in 2020 with Petals for Armor – that album peaked at No.3 and would eventually become the 15th biggest album of the year. This year, she followed that with another hefty success: February’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos. It debuted at No.2 – a new high for Williams – and has since sold over 700,000 copies (Petals is on over 1.4 million to date).

In 2021, 1.29 million copies of Williams’s solo work were sold, the 7th highest total among all artists. Her two solo albums both finish inside the Top Twenty-Five spots on this year’s albums ranking, with Petals two spots ahead at No.21. FLOWERS finishes at No.23, despite selling over 120,000 copies more than its predecessor.

No.9 is the best rank to date for Williams, who finished 2020 at No.18 thanks to the success of Petals for Armor.

British singer Birdy is the youngest artist (at twenty-five) to rank inside the Top Ten. Like Cyrus and Williams, Birdy is a newcomer to the region, having previously peaked at No.17 in 2017, and then raking at No.21 in 2018. Spearheaded by Young Heart – released in April – the singer places three projects on the Year-End Albums Chart.

As previously mentioned, Young leads the pack at No.10. Although it did not make the Top Ten for sales, it still sold an impressive 793,000 units. The four-track EP Piano Sketches was released in November 2020 and climbed the lists slowly over the course 2021, achieving its peak position of No.10 in its twenty-eighth charting week. It sold 309,000 over the year and lands at No.42. Birdy’s 2016 LP Beautiful Lies comes in at No.85 after selling 89,000 units. Beautiful was the 25th biggest hit of 2017.

With total sales of 1.24 million, Birdy is the 9th bestselling star of 2021.

Joni Mitchell’s first year on L.dK Weekly has been a big one. Her 1971 masterpiece is at No.3 on the Year-End Albums Chart, and with sales of 1.59 million, the Canadian singer-songwriter is the 5th bestselling artist of 2021.

Besides the enormous success of Blue, Mitchell also appears at No.96 on the Year-End Albums Chart with her 1967 debut album Song to a Seagull.

Aided by the enduring success of her 1986 compilation album The Whole Story, British prog-rock icon Kate Bush ranks at No.5 on the Year-End Artists Chart; her best-of collection snares the No.8 rank on the Year-End Albums Chart, achieving its best rank to date, and is Bush’s best showing since The Red Shoes landed at No.7 for 2019.

Bush also drew healthy sales – around 550,000 – from her catalogue of studio albums, the bestselling of which is 1989’s The Sensual World, which takes the No.62 position on the Year-End Albums Chart. 1993’s The Red Shoes – the singer’s bestselling studio record – is up next at No.72, followed closely by her wintery 50 Words for Snow at No.76. Her critically acclaimed Hounds of Love takes the No.86 spot for the year.

Having sold a total of 1.30 million albums in 2021, Bush is the sixth bestselling act of the year. No.5 is also Bush’s best showing since 2019 when she hit No.2!

2021 initially seemed as if it would be another dormant year for Adele, other than the ten-year anniversary of 21 (which saw the album re-enter the Top Ten); until 30, the singer had yet to release an album since the inception of L.dK Weekly. Despite this career haitus, Adele’s 25 (released in late 2015) was one of the bestselling albums of all time, and had ranked among the Top 20 Artists of the Year consistently since 2017 when she reached a high of No.5.

In October, Adele made her comeback with single “Easy on Me”. Her three studio albums – 19, 21 & 25 – nabbed the top three spots on L.dK Weekly and 21 soared to No.1 for the first time. In November, Adele released 30, her first album in six years; it sold 650,000 copies in seven days and became the fastest-selling album of all time; it sold a million in just three weeks (another record) and as of New Year’s has sold 1.31 million, while logging five straight weeks at No.1.

30 ranks as the 12th biggest album of the year, while her three previous studio albums all find a home inside the Top 50. She is the only artist, other than Lana Del Rey to have her entire discography rank within the upper half of the Top 100.

Overall, Adele sold 2.26 million albums this year, becoming the 4th bestselling artist of the year, with almost a million of those sales coming from her catalogue albums!

No.4 also marks the best showing for Adele on a Year-End Chart; she previously reached a high of No.5 in 2017.

Stevie Nicks scores her fifth straight appearance in the Top Five among Year-End Artists, following a four-year stint at the No.1 spot. Her extensive catalogue drew hefty sales of 2.45 million units this year, marking Nicks’s third biggest year to date, following 2019 (3.11 million) and 2017 (2.85 million).

Nicks picks up nine spots on the Year-End Albums Chart, ranging from Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks at No.7 to Trouble in Shangri-La at No.94. With Crystal at No.7, 2021 is the fourth year in which Nicks has scored one of the ten biggest hits of the annum.

• 2017: No.4 (Bella Donna); No.7 (The Other Side of the Mirrror); No.8 (The Wild Heart); and No.10 (The Other Side of the Mirror)
• 2018: No.3 (Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks); and No.4 (Street Angel)
• 2020: No.7 (Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks)
• 2021: No.7 (Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks)

Nicks’s first four solo studio albums – Bella Donna, The Wild Heart, Rock a Little & The Other Side of the Mirror – all rank inside this year’s Top 100, nabbing rare fifth appearances on Year-End Charts!

Bella Donna ranks the highest, at No.17, achieving its highest rank since 2017 when it sat at No.4; Rock a Little follows at No.31, improving from last year’s No.57; The Wild Heart is at No.60, dipping slightly from 2020 where it finished at No.57; finally, The Other Side of the Mirror takes the No.71 spot after finishing at No.84 in 2020.

Street Angel logs a third year on the ranking as it slots at No.80; Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks is at No.82 in its fourth showing; Live in Concert: 24 Karat Gold Tour lands at No.92, down from its No.65 debut last year; finally, Trouble in Shangri-La records its fourth appearance, taking the No.94 spot.

• Bella Donna: No.4 (2017); No.20 (2018); No.24 (2019); No.27 (2020); No.17 (2021)
• The Wild Heart: No.8 (2017); No.23 (2018); No.28 (2019); No.57 (2020); No.60 (2021)
• Rock a Little: No.10 (2017); No.38 (2018); No.31 (2019); No.49 (2020); No.31 (2021)
• The Other …: No.7 (2017); No.31 (2018); No.38 (2019); No.84 (2020); No.71 (2021)
• Timespace: No.65 (2018); No.63 (2019); No.7 (2020); No.82
• Street Angel: No.4 (2018); No.43 (2019); No.80 (2021)
• Trouble in …: No.15 (2017); No.32 (2018); No.62 (2019); No.94 (2021)
• Crystal Visions …: No.3 (2018); No.21 (2019); No.7 (2021)
• Soundstage Sessions: No.68 (2018)
• In Your Dreams: No.19 (2018); No.70 (2019)
• 24 Karat Gold …: No.11 (2019)
• Stand Back…: No.15 (2019)
• Live in Concert…: No.65 (2020); No.92 (2021)

Taylor Swift was actually the bestselling artist of the year, nabbing the record for the greatest sales figure in a single year by selling an incredible 6.05 million albums since January. Swift claimed the same title last year when she sold 3.17 million units in 2020.

4.70 million of those sales stem from evermore and folklore, the two biggest hits of both 2021 and Swift’s career. Her two albums released in 2021, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) sold a combined 1.19 million units. Just over 150,000 sales are derived from her earlier catalogue.

No.2 marks Swift’s highest rank to date on the Year-End Chart Artists; she previously ranked at No.8 in 2017, and then reached a new high in 2020 when she hit No.4.

Overall, Swift sold a record-breaking 6.05 million albums in 2021, and spent a total of sixteen weeks at No.1 – evermore was the second-longest-running number-one album of the year, spending eleven weeks at the top spot!

Lana Del Rey was the second bestselling artist of 2021, with monstrous sales of 5.34 million copies – 2.80 million stemming from her catalogue and the remaining 2.54 million derived from her 2021 releases. 5.34 million is the second-greatest sales figure in history achieved in a single year!

It seems that Del Rey has long been waiting to claim the title as Top Artist on a Year-End Chart, after previously finishing inside the Top Ten for the past consecutive years, ranking at No.3 in 2017, No.7 in 2018, No.4 in 2019, and reaching a then-highpoint of No.2 in 2020. She is currently the only artist to reach No.1 on both the Year-End Artist & Albums Chart, nabbing the biggest hit of 2020 with Norman Fucking Rockwell!.

Del Rey released two studio albums this year, Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters; the former spent a whopping nine weeks at No.1, beginning in late March and has sold 1.63 million to date. It is Del Rey’s most successful album of the year, coming in at No.4 on the Year-End Albums Chart. The latter commanded the weekly chart for three terms, starting in October, and finishes as the 18th biggest hit of 2021! It sold just over 900,000 units to rank as the 9th bestselling album of the year.

She also places a second album inside the Top Ten; her enduring juggernaut Norman Fucking Rockwell! (at No.5) which has maintained a chart presence throughout the entire year, and sold 1.14 million since January. NFR! is the first album to finish inside the Top Five of three seperate Year-End Charts; it ranked at No.3 for 2019 and then topped the 2020 rundown.

Her catalogue also drew in huge sales, and she places her entire discogprahy inside the Top Fifty. Other than her new releases, Born to Die: the Paradise Edition lands highest at No.25. Honeymoon, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass & Lust for Life are all clustered at No.38, No.39 and No.40 respectively. Her 2014 sophomore record Ultraviolence nabs the No.48 position.

Overall, Del Rey sold 5.34 million albums in 2021 and spent a combined twenty weeks at No.1 across the Weekly Top Fifty, and the discontinued Contemporary & Catalogue Albums Charts – she spent more weeks at No.1 this year than any other artist!

Bestselling Artists of 2021

1. Taylor Swift – 6.05 million
2. Lana Del Rey – 5.34 million
3. Stevie Nicks – 2.45 million
4. Adele – 2.26 million
5. Joni Mitchell – 1.59 million
6. Kate Bush – 1.30 million
7. Hayley Williams – 1.29 million
8. Miley Cyrus – 1.25 million
9. Birdy – 1.24 million
10. Halsey – 1.06 million

Halsey, the 10th bestselling artist of 2021, still ranks inside the Top 20 of the Year-End Chart, landing at No.17.

Bestselling Artists of the Decade (So Far)

1. Taylor Swift – 9.22 million
2. Lana Del Rey – 7.98 million
3. Stevie Nicks – 4.62 million
4. Ariana Grande – 3.19 million
5. Dua Lipa – 3.18 million
6. Adele – 2.82 million
7. Alanis Morissette – 2.77 million
8. Lady Gaga – 2.67 million
9. Kate Bush – 2.23 million
10. Hayley Williams – 2.22 million

YEAR-END ARTISTS

INDUSTRY SALES

2021 – The Biggest Year in Music History!

Since the beginning of 2021, a record-breaking 41.65 million albums have been sold, making it the biggest year since L.dK Weekly launched in 2017, and marks a fourth consecutive year of growth. The previous biggest year in music was 2020, when 40.25 million albums were consumed.

In addition, eight months of 2021 were the biggest on record in terms of albums sold, with November experiencing an all-time sales high of 4.71 million units!

Helping to swell this year’s record figures: the seven top-selling albums of the year each moved over a million units. In 2017, the first year of L.dK Weekly, three albums topped a million, while two did so in 2018. 2019 saw six LP’s cross the mark, while 2020 holds the record with seven million-selling albums.

2021 – Monthly Sales

• January – 3.03 million
• February – 2.94 million
• March – 4.13 million
• April – 3.36 million
• May – 4.11 million
• June – 3.29 million
• July – 2.65 million
• August – 3.64 million
• September – 3.18 million
• October – 2.61 million
• November – 4.71 million
• December – 3.95 million

Biggest Months on Record

• January 2021 – 3.03 million
• February 2021 – 2.94 million
• March 2021 – 4.13 million
• April 2020 – 3.93 million
• May 2021 – 4.11 million
• June 2020 – 4.65 million
• July 2020 – 3.82 million
• August 2020 – 4.05 million
• September 2021 – 3.18 million
• October 2021 – 2.61 million
• November – 4.71 million
• December – 3.95 million

Music Industry Year by Year

• 2017 – 20.63 million (adj.)
• 2018 – 21.22 million (adj.) [+2.8%]
• 2019 – 26.14 million [+23.1%]
• 2020 – 40.25 million [+53.9%]
• 2021 – 41.65 million [+3.4%]

Notably, this year’s music totals are just over double the adjusted figure for 2017, the first year of L.dK Weekly. 2021 needed just twenty-six weeks to surpasses 2017’s haul of 20.6 million; the following week it topped 2018’s draw of 21.22 million. In its thirty-fourth week, 2021 surpassed the entire year of 2019 (26.14 million), and in its fifty-first week it topped 2020’s total!

To date, L.dK Weekly has recorded total industry sales of 135.77 million units, dating to the chart’s inception in 2017.