Guinness World Records has crowned The Weeknd the world’s most popular artist, statistically — and further states “no one else even comes close.”
The singer just notched two new streaming records, which see him boast the most monthly listeners on Spotify with 111.4 million, in addition to becoming the first artist to reach over 100 million monthly listeners.
For the record, Miley Cyrus boasts the second-highest number, with 82.4 million monthly listeners.
Guinness also notes The Weeknd has produced several albums that spawned multiple number-one songs — becoming only the second solo male artist behind Michael Jackson to do so. For the record, his Starboy, After Hours and Beauty Behind the Madness albums all produced #1 hits.
Speaking of After Hours, the song “Blinding Lights” is the most-streamed track on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion listens as of February 2023. Ed Sheeran‘s “Shape of You” was the previous record holder.
In other news about The Weeknd, the BBC reports he settled the copyright case over his 2018 song, “Call Out My Name.” He was sued in 2021 by artists Suniel Fox and Henry Strange, aka the EDM duo Epikker, who claimed The Weeknd ripped off their song “Vibeking.” They claimed both songs shared similar “lead guitar and vocal hooks.” The Weeknd denied the accusations.
No details about the settlement have been made public, with lawyers for Fox and Strange saying, “The parties are still in the process of formalizing, executing, and consummating [the deal].”
Fox and Strange had previously asked for a share in royalties for “Call Out My Name” as well as reimbursement for legal fees.
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