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The Queen Bey has officially been crowned.
After slowly revealing its list of the most influential pop stars to take the stage over the last 100 years, Billboard announced Beyoncé as the No. 1 greatest pop star of the 21st century on Tuesday, December 3, beating out fellow musical icons like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Drake and more.
In a post announcing the honor, Billboard noted their editorial staff chose Beyoncé, 43, “based on her full 25 years of influence, evolution and impact.” The outlet went on to praise her “quarter-century of dominance,” writing, “The greatness of Beyoncé as a pop star is both immediately obvious on its surface and worthy of extensive exploration in its vastness. You can watch her on stage for half a minute and instantly recognize that she’s an all-timer; her inherent combination of dazzling beauty, impeccable fashion, captivating staging, otherworldly physicality and simultaneously earthy and skyscraping vocals all speaks for itself.”
Queen Bey securing the top spot is hardly a surprise — the singer is the most-decorated Grammy artist in history with a total of 32 wins. Earlier this year, she also became the most nominated artist of all time after securing 11 Grammy noms for her most recent album, Cowboy Carter, bringing her total to an astounding 99 nominations over the span of her decades-long career.
In February, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country songs chart, courtesy of her No. 1 single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” proving that her music and talent spans multiple musical genres. Two months later, she became the first Black woman to lead the Top Country Album chart as well as the first woman to claim the top three spots on Hot Country Songs.
Despite being snubbed the Country Music Association Awards in November after the release of her eighth studio album and debut country record Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé also secured a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album, Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “II Most Wanted” featuring Miley Cyrus, Best Country Song for her hit “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Best Country Solo Performance for “16 Carriages” and Best Americana Performance for “Ya Ya.”
Beyoncé also won three Grammys during her time with Destiny’s Child alongside group members Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland, including Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for their hit song “Survivor” in 2002.
Late last month, Billboard announced Swift as the second greatest pop star of the 21st century, writing that because the 34-year-old decided to honor “all the traits that made her different” as an artist she was “able to forcefully, gravitationally bend culture to her will and become one of the world’s biggest undisputed pop stars, despite her eight-year late start in country music.”
In the essay announcing Beyoncé as the No. 1 entry on the list, Billboard preemptively addressed critics who may think Swift deserves the honor instead, acknowledging that Swift’s commercial successes cannot be topped by anyone.
“There is zero question who the biggest pop star in the world is right now, and anyone who wanted to make the case for her as the century’s greatest would have a fair and reasonable argument with which to do so,” the outlet opined. “But when you’re talking about greatness, and when you’re talking about greatness for the 21st century specifically, no one has a longer or fuller track record than Beyoncé. It is insanely impressive that Taylor has even made it a discussion after missing the whole first quarter of the period, but only Beyoncé has spent the entirety of the last 25 years exemplifying greatness in every form imaginable. … She has pursued excellence thoroughly and relentlessly, and the number of times where she’s notably fallen short in that pursuit doesn’t even approach double digits.”
Rihanna was named the third greatest pop star of the 21st century, with Drake, Gaga and Britney Spears rounding out the top six, respectively.
