The Weeknd named the world’s most popular artist

The Weeknd has been named the world’s most popular artist in terms of Spotify statistics.

• READ MORE: The Weeknd – ‘Dawn FM’ review: soulful star meets a new day with hope and hindsight

That’s according to a new report by Guinness World Records in which the Spotify data of some of the biggest acts in the music industry has been analysed.

The number of monthly listeners on the streaming platform is a key metric in Guinness‘ report. Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd has 111.4million monthly listeners.

It comes weeks after Tesfaye became the first artist and so far the only act in Spotify history to hit 100million monthly listener milestone [via Billboard].

The next artist on the list is Miley Cyrus, who currently tallies 82.4million monthly listeners. Other artists behind The Weeknd include Shakira (81.6million), Ariana Grande (80.6million), Taylor Swift (80. 2million), Rihanna (78.5million) and Ed Sheeran (77.5million).

In January The Weeknd’s song ‘Blinding Lights’ overtook Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’ to become Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time.

Towards the end of 2021, ‘Blinding Lights’ was also officially crowned the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time. The song, which appeared on Tesfaye’s ‘After Hours’ album and was released at the end of 2019, had spent over 100 weeks in the charts.

Meanwhile, The Weeknd has this week reportedly settled a copyright infringement case relating to his 2018 track ‘Call Out My Name’. The song featured on his first EP ‘My Dear Melancholy’ and saw the star singing over a minimal, melancholy R&B backing.

In 2021, Suniel Fox and Henry Strange – who make up the electro duo Epikker – filed a lawsuit against The Weeknd and producers Frank Dukes and Nicolas Jaar, claiming that ‘Call Out My Name’ plagiarised their unreleased song ‘Vibeking’. The pair claimed that his track pulled from their vocal hook and lead guitar part.

Now, a new filing in the case states that all parties have reached a settlement – read more about it here.

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