Biggest Songs of 2020
A Rare Pop Song
As hip-hop continued to rule streaming in 2020, it was hard for a pop song to compete. Only five pop songs managed to reach Number One on the RS 100 in 2020, and only one of those managed to make the year-end top 10: “Blinding Lights,” the Weeknd’s glimmering synth fantasy. The single enjoyed two weeks atop the RS 100 in March, and was a mainstay in the top 10 through spring and summer; it saw 618 million audio streams through the end of November. It also ranks fourth in Rolling Stone’s list of the Best Songs of 2020 (see page 58).
The Year in ‘WAP’
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s beyond-raunchy duet about female pleasure was a cultural moment, shaking the world out of its sexless quarantine ennui with so little subtlety that everyone, even right-wing pundits, had to share their thoughts on it. It was a charts behemoth, spending seven weeks at Number One on the RS 100, and a critical darling, too, topping Rolling Stone’s list of the Best Songs of 2020. All told, “WAP” saw 425 million on-demand audio streams — more than four times as much as Cardi’s next-biggest streaming total this year — and 237,000 sales from its August release through November.
A Leak Becomes a Head Start
The origin story of Lil Mosey’s “Blueberry Faygo” isn’t of a single leak, but of uncontrollable cascades coming from every which way. Months before the February release of the official track — which features a sample of Johnny
Gill’s “My My My” — fan-uploaded bootlegs with names like “Blueberry Fweigo” and “Burberry Faygo” kept popping up on Spotify, sometimes reaching the U.S. Viral 50 chart. “It’s like Whac-A-Mole,” said manager Josh Marshall. Mosey got the last laugh: By February, the song was already an established hit and went on to reach the top 10 on the RS 100.