Drake has been named global recording artist of 2016 by the IFPI.
The award recognises the biggest-selling act over the course of 12 months, and the Canadian rapper beat artists such as David Bowie, Coldplay and Adele to top spot. He is the fourth recipient of the award, which reflects physical and digital formats, including downloads and streams. The previous winners are One Direction (2013), Taylor Swift (2014) and Adele (2015).
The IFPI Global Recording Artist award and Top 10 chart is the first and only ranking to accurately capture the global sales of artists’ music across streaming channels, as well as sales of digital and physical albums, and digital and physical singles.
Drake’s album Views, which has 409,607 UK sales to date, became the first album to reach one billion streams on Apple Music, while single One Dance was the first song to be played one billion times on Spotify. Follow up tracks Pop Style, Controlla and Too Good went on to perform well around the world.
IFPI chief executive Frances Moore said: “I’m delighted to be able to honour Drake as the IFPI Global Recording Artist 2016. Drake’s phenomenal success reflects how deeply his unique sound appeals to an enormous global audience. The Global Top 10 list features a number of amazing artists, and the variety and vibrancy of their art speaks volumes about the exciting state of music today.”
David Bowie, in second place in the top 10, released Blackstar two days before his death in January 2016. The album reached number one in 24 countries and has sold 421,665 copies in the UK. In third was Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams (1,046,886 UK sales), while Adele’s 25 (3,289,11 UK sales) came fourth and Justin Bieber’s Purpose (1,137,312 UK sales) finished fifth. You can view the Top 10 in full below.
1 Drake
2 David Bowie
3 Coldplay
4 Adele
5 Justin Bieber
6 Twenty One Pilots
7 Beyoncé
8 Rihanna
9 Prince
10 The Weeknd
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