Entertainment

Taylor Swift crowned Apple Music’s artist of the year for 2023

Miley Cyrus topped the Apple Music song chart in the UK (Aaron Chown/PA)
Miley Cyrus topped the Apple Music song chart in the UK (Aaron Chown/PA)

Taylor Swift has been crowned Apple Music’s artist of the year for 2023 after a record-breaking year for the pop superstar.

The US singer, 33, has sold out stadiums across the Americas, won a host of awards and continued to dominate the charts with the re-release of her albums Speak Now and 1989, this time as Taylor’s Version.

More Apple Music subscribers listened to Swift in 2023 than any other artist in the world, setting a new record for the most listeners for any act in a single year on the platform, according to the streamer.

MTV Video Music Awards 2023 – Show – New Jersey
Taylor Swift has won a host of awards this year alongside storming the charts (Doug Peters/PA)

The platform has also said the singer had more songs in Apple Music’s global daily top 100 than any other artist across the first 10 months of the year as 65 landed on the list.

Two Swift songs, Anti-Hero and Cruel Summer, also secured places on Apple Music’s top 20 songs of the year globally as they come in at number six and 15 respectively.

Anti-Hero also reached number two in the top 20 songs for the UK, just beaten to the top spot by Miley Cyrus’ hit Flowers.

Raye and 070 Shake’s viral track Escapism took third place while Dave and Central Cee’s Sprinter placed fourth and Rema and Selena Gomez’s Calm Down came fifth.

Miracle by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding took sixth place, Venbee and Goddard’s Messy In Heaven took seventh and Switch Disco’s track React with Ella Henderson placed eighth.

Glastonbury Festival 2019 – Day 5
Miley Cyrus topped the Apple Music song chart in the UK (Aaron Chown/PA)

Rounding off the top 10 for the UK is David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s I’m Good (Blue) placing ninth and Harry Styles As It Was taking tenth, after the hit by the former One Direction star was the most streamed song of 2022 in the UK.

This year has also seen a rise in a number of international genres including J-pop (Japanese pop) with two songs making the top 10 globally – Yoasobi’s Idol coming in seventh and Official Hige Dandism’s Subtitle placing tenth.

African music has also experienced a surge in popularity this year as the remix of Nigerian star Rema’s Calm with Selena Gomez reached number 12 in the global songs chart – the highest entry ever for an African song.

Meanwhile, four musica Mexicana songs have landed in the final global 100 songs chart having never done so before, with Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado’s hit Ella Baila Sola coming in at number 18.

Country music also continues to maintain its popularity as US singer Morgan Wallen’s Last Night secured the top spot in Apple Music’s song of the year for 2023 globally, marking the first country song to do so since Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road in 2019.