The Guinness World Records (GWR) has claimed that Canadian singer The Weeknd is officially the most popular artist in the world.
According to the GWR, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, or commonly called as 'The Weeknd' is the 'king of Spotify' and has set two new world records. The 32-year-old Canadian popstar has 111.4 million monthly listeners on the music streaming app as of March 20, the most for any artist, as per NDTV report.
He is also the first artist to reach the feat of 100 million monthly users on the app.
According to Guinness, American pop icon Miley Cyrus is the Canadian's closest competitor with 82.4 million monthly users, while Shakira (81.6 million), Ariana Grande (80.6 million), Taylor Swift (80.2 million), Rihanna (78.5 million) followed. Ed Sheeran is his closest male challenger with 77.5 million monthly listeners.
"The Weeknd's surging streaming figures come on the back of the release of his Die For You remix featuring Ariana Grande, which went viral on TikTok," a statement from GWR read.
"The track peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the seventh number-one hit for both The Weeknd and [Ariana] Grande respectively," it added.
This is not the first time The Weeknd has claimed accolade from GWR. Back in 2016, he bagged an award for the most streamed album on Spotify, owing to the success of his third studio album, Starboy. He also bagged an award for the most consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 by a solo male artist.
Published 26 March 2023, 10:51 IST