Ed Sheeran edges out Taylor Swift to be the year's most talked about star on Facebook

Ed Sheeran performing at the fourth annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in New York on Sept 25, 2015. PHOTO: AFP

NEW YORK (AFP) - British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran was the most talked about entertainer this year, at least in the world of Facebook.

The social media site said on Wednesday (Dec 9) that Sheeran, best known for his ballad Thinking Out Loud, generated more chatter than any other entertainer among Facebook's 1.5 billion users, edging out pop superstar Taylor Swift.

Following them were Kanye West, the omnipresent rapper who has declared his aspirations to run for president, and then, in a sign of the Spanish-language presence on Facebook, reggaeton artist Nicky Jam.

The fifth most-talked about artist on Facebook was rapper Wiz Khalifa.

He topped a separate list by YouTube, which ranked his See You Again as the top music video of the year.

The ballad, which features singer Charlie Puth and is played in the action film Furious 7, became the second fastest video ever to hit one billion views, YouTube said.

Also high on the year-end list was British singer Adele's Hello, the first track from her blockbuster album 25, even though it came out less than six weeks ago.

Hello was the fastest video to reach 100 million views. It had more than 650 million views by Wednesday.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.