Billboard defends choosing Beyonce over Taylor Swift as greatest pop star of 21st century

Billboard has come out to defend why

it picked Beyonce over Taylor Swift

as the biggest pop star of the century, amid mass backlash from Swifties.

The American music magazine, which has been counting down its list since August, named Swift, 34, the second-greatest pop star of her generation on Nov 26, causing an uproar among her fan base.

On Dec 3, it confirmed that Beyonce, 43, topped its list of the 25 Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century.

Barbadian singer Rihanna (third), Canadian rapper Drake (fourth) and American singer Lady Gaga (fifth) made up the rest of the top five. Beyonce’s rapper-husband Jay-Z was ranked No. 16 on the list.

Mr Andrew Unterberger, a deputy editor on the digital side of Billboard, wrote in an editorial on Dec 3: “While Taylor Swift is the century’s biggest pop star by the numbers, Beyonce tops our staff-chosen editorial list based on her full 25 years of influence, impact and evolution.”

He said Beyonce topped the Billboard Hot 100 on March 18, 2000, for the first time this century as a member of the girl group Destiny’s Child with the song Say My Name.

On March 2, 2024, Beyonce topped the Hot 100 for the 12th time this century with her solo song Texas Hold ’Em, a stomping, banjo-led hoot-along made for – and in tribute to – the dive bars and dancefloors of southern United States.

“She was still a teenager managed by her father when Say My Name hit No. 1; she was a 42-year-old married mother of three by the time Texas Hold ’Em got there – and in between the two, there were precisely zero moments in which Beyonce was not *BEYONCE*,” Mr Unterberger wrote.

“There are no flop eras for Bey, no periods where she disappeared for a half-decade, no clear missteps that were not immediately and emphatically course-corrected. There are only varying degrees of winning for over two decades.”

Mr Unterberger acknowledged that Swift would easily top the list if Billboard went by the numbers and she will reign on many of the chart-based quarter-century rankings it will publish in 2025.

She just added another feather in her cap by taking the crown as Spotify’s Global Top Artiste of 2024 for the second straight year, the streaming giant announced on Dec 4. She was 2024’s most-streamed artiste globally, raking in more than 26.6 billion streams.

He said of Swift, who released her self-titled debut album in 2006: “Even with her late start, she has more No. 1 albums and as many No. 1 singles this century as Beyonce. More pressingly, the statistical heights she’s reached are ones neither Bey nor any other artiste this century can equal.”

However, Mr Unterberger said no one has a longer or fuller track record than Beyonce when the discussion is about greatness – and specifically greatness for the 21st century.

“It is insanely impressive that Taylor has even made it a discussion after missing the whole first quarter of the period, but only Beyonce has spent the entirety of the last 25 years exemplifying greatness in every form imaginable,” he wrote.

Earlier on Nov 28, Billboard apologised to Swift on social media after an attempt to celebrate her second placing went awry and faced major backlash from Swifties.

The publication had put together a video package of some of her achievements and used a clip from American rapper Kanye West’s music video for his 2016 song Famous. The scene features a wax reproduction of a naked Swift and the lyric “I made that b**** famous”. The pair became embroiled in an infamous feud after that.

Billboard’s statement read: “We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.”