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Spotify Announces Bad Bunny As Its Most Streamed Artist In 2020

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Spotify is releasing their annual yearly reports for all of its users that give them a breakdown of their most listened to artists, songs, albums, podcasts, and more for the past year. Before they do though, they release their own stats for the artists and music that has topped their charts for the year. For 2020, Bad Bunny was the world’s most streamed artist with more than 8.3 billion streams of his discography. 

Bad Bunny, also known as Benito Ocasio, is the 26-year-old who was also given the accolade of 2020’s most streamed album, with his sophomore record “YHLQMDLG”, which was released back in February. 

Last week he dropped a surprise album titled “El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo,” and the lead single from the album, “Dakiti,” is currently the most streamed song in the world. For 2020 in general, The Weeknd received the reward for most streamed song with his record-breaking hit “Blinding Lights.” 

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Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and fashion star who is no stranger to charting on some of the world’s most popular streaming services. Last year he was the fifth most streamed artist in the world, so his placement in the top ten this year, let alone as number one, isn’t that shocking. 

In general Bad Bunny has received massive commercial success and critical acclaims within the past year alone. He won the Latin Grammy for Best Reggaeton Performance in October, and is currently nominated for two awards at the 2021 Grammys.

Runners-up for the most-streamed male artists in 2020 are Drake, J Balvin, Juice WRLD, and the Weeknd; whose album “After Hours” broke records on the charts this year and came in as the second most streamed album of the year, despite being controversially snubbed from receiving any Grammy nominations this year. Post Malone, Harry Styles, and Dua Lipa take the other top 5 positions for most-streamed albums. 

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In terms of the artists with the most streamed songs of 2020, The Weeknd received the top spot with “Blinding Lights,” Tones & I followed with their popular TikTok song “Dance Monkey”, then its Roddy Ricch with “The Box”, Saint Jhn with “Roses”, and finally Dua Lipa with “Don’t Start Now.”

The most streamed female artists for 2020 in this order are Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and Halsey. 

The most popular podcast for Spotify this year was the Joe Rogan Podcast, marking a massively successful first year for the production. Rogan is also thought to be the world’s highest-paid broadcaster, however, these claims are unconfirmed. 

Spotify started 2020 with 124 million paid subscribers and by the end of the year they had over 144 million; overall the platform has over 320 million users, the remaining amount of users accounts for those who use Spotify’s free package.

Fashion

Top Fashion Trends Of 2019

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Every year, trends in fashion shift and evolve. Modernization in terms of clothing and fashion is an industry that runs the world and the way in which people choose to present themselves. While some aspects of the industry remain rather timeless, there’s always something new and “in season” that anyone with an Instagram account has seen and wants to own for themselves. This expands beyond just what’s hot off the runway from Paris Fashion Week, we’re talking about what high schoolers are wearing, business individuals, stay at home parents, etc. Fashion is known to break barriers and demographics; there is no one specific type of person who can wear black jeans, knee-high boots, wide-brim hats, etc. 

Every year, Google compiles a list of “most searched for” terms, and they include a multitude of categories regarding style and fashion trends from the past year. In 2018, the Duchesses, and vintage royal fashion in general, dominated the search lists with more refined, classically European styles. This year, however, the trends show a massive amount of diversity in terms of style icons, trends, looks, and outfit inspirations. Many of which are inspired by icons for the younger generations. 

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Speaking of younger generations, the top trending searched for celebrity styles this year involved the looks of Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, and Kylie Jenner, all young women under the age of 26 inspiring hundreds of thousands of individuals fashion choices. Eilish was the number one search and understandably so. The 17 year old singer/songwriter brings her alternative and darkly rooted musical style into her fashion as well. She’s known for wearing over-sized designer clothing with bold patterns/colors, massive amounts of chain link jewelry and diamonds, as well as classic sneakers to complete the looks. Ariana Grande coined her signature over-sized sweatshirt with designer boots look, and Kylie Jenner brings the monochromatic high end sleek looks from the runway into her casual everyday attire. Over-sized clothing and monochromatic ensembles seem to be a common trend throughout these threads. 

In terms of outfit inspiration, the top Google searches revealed that social media has had a major impact in defining style trends this year. The top searches included EGirl/Eboy outfits,VSCO girl outfits, White jeans/Fila/Champion/biker short outfits. If you are unaware of what an Eboy or VSCO girl is, they’re both brands of “personality” based on the social media apps Tik Tok and VSCO. Eboy’s and girls are the modern day “scene” or goth kids but with a major Billie Eilish twist. Black clothing, heavy silver jewelry, haircuts parted down the middle, and dangly earrings. The Eboy is the modern day Magcon boy that birthed internet celebrities like Nash Grier, Cameron Dallas, and Shawn Mendes. VSCO girl’s have a brand that, style wise, is stereotyped by leggings, baggy crew-necks, simple scrunchies, and a puka shell necklace accompanied by a hydro flask water bottle to accessorize.  The other outfit inspirations stem from the growing love of street wear pieces that have become widely popularized within the last five years. 

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For the top searches for “fashion style” in 2019, the list doesn’t stray that far from the outfit inspirations. VSCO and Eboy/girl style were on the list, as well as vintage, preppy, emo, and camp style’s. Vintage styling has long been popularized, with brands like Urban Outfitters who mainstream vintage looks with modern flares. Preppy and emo looks go along with the modern day trends that stem from social media exposure and celebrity wear. Camp is a rather surprising one for the list, however, it also makes perfect sense considering it was the theme of the Met Gala this year, sparking a major interest in the history behind camp and the true meaning of the word in terms of fashion.

Trends come and go, while some live to stand the test of time. Regardless of how much your personal style does or doesn’t fit into these categories, 2019 has taught us that fashion is forever changing and evolving into something new. So wear what makes you comfortable, and don’t be afraid to use Google as an inspiration.

Golden Trophy

The 2020 Grammy Nominations Are Here!

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The 62nd annual Grammy awards are just around the corner and the highly anticipated nominations were finally announced this Wednesday. New artists that have emerged in popularity throughout 2019 have truly taken over; Lizzo being the most nominated artist this year with a total of eight nominations! Swifties were disappointed to see that Taylor Swift only acquired a total of three nominations, Album Of The Year not being one of them. However, the year of the new artist has truly graced all of our ears this year, and the nominations uphold that. 

Following Lizzo, both Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X are two more new artists that are leading the nominations with six each! All three of them are first-time Grammy nominees, making this one of the most new artist nominated awards shows to date. 

Album Of The Year includes all three of those artists with their respective albums from 2019, and additionally includes Ariana Grande for her album “Thank U, Next,” Bon Iver’s “I, I,” Lana Del Rey’s “Norman F***ing Rockwell,” H.E.R.’s “I Used To Know Her,” and finally Vampire Weekend’s, “Father Of The Bride,” making them the only band nominated in the category. 

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Alicia Keys is hosting the Grammy’s again this year after a successful job last year; this also makes Keys the first female to ever host the show twice, she’s also the third woman to ever host the show in general. Which speaks volumes to why the awards this year are so heavily saturated with newer and more diverse nominees. In the past, all of the major award shows have been highly criticized for being extremely white washed and male dominated. While improvements have been made within the past decade, there’s still plenty of room to go and grow. 

Everyone remembers in 2017 when Adele won Album and Song of the Year over Beyoncé Knowles, who dominated with her “Lemonade” album that year. Adele herself said in both of her acceptance speeches that she felt Knowles was more deserving of the awards, sparking a massive online debate over the integrity of a group of individuals deciding what music they deemed to be award worthy every year. Frankly, they’ve lost their credibility. 

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The ratings have shown it to, this year both the VMA’s and the Emmy’s saw a record low rating of viewers, for reasons similar to those listed above. People aren’t as interested in seeing people awarded for accomplishments based off one groups opinions. For this reason, many major award shows are trying to base their ranking system based on public reaction and reception. With social media being as powerful as it is now, it’s easy to get a large focus group digitally to come together and tell the academy what worked, and what didn’t. 

While this year may have been dominated by the new artists, it seems as though the public is still bothered by the fact that those newcomers knocked out more established artists in categories they felt they were more than qualified to be nominated for, such as Taylor Swift, BTS, and Bruce Springsteen, who released a live Broadway album this year. 

“The Grammy’s have long been accused of not keeping up with the times and ‘playing it safe’ by honoring the tried and true artists in the industry. But this year it appears to be mostly about the new blood, with some of the more established performers actually being snubbed,” (CNN).

While the public may never be fully satisfied by the system in which these award nominations are chosen, the Grammy’s are always one of the most viewed award shows and this year it most likely won’t be any different. 

For the rest of the Grammy nominations for 2020; click here. 

Silhouette of Singer

Suffering from Sinus Infection, Ariana Grande Cancels Performance

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Recently, pop singer Ariana Grande took to social media to share that she is undergoing an illness serious enough to force her to cancel an upcoming show. The artist has been suffering from a sinus infection for a few weeks, and her condition has worsened over time. While Grande opted not to cancel her performances in the earlier stages of her illness, instead opting to power through despite feeling unwell, she recently posted on her Instagram Story that she is “still very sick” and that she “really [doesn’t] know what’s going on with [her] body right now and need[s] to figure it out.” She added that she was taking medication and was on an IV drip in the hope of feeling better for the following day’s concert, but that she couldn’t make any promises. Additionally, she posted a video of herself using a steamer to help her breathe properly.

The next day, Grande took to Instagram again to announce that she would have to cancel a show. Despite this unfortunate news, however, Grande emphasized her gratitude for having the opportunity to perform for her fans and thank them for their support. She apologized to her fans and promised they would be refunded. Grande was met with an outpouring of well-wishes and support during her illness, and Barbra Streisand advised her to “take a strong Vitamin C drink with some Manuka honey and of course get some chicken soup!”

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Although she ultimately decided to cancel her Lexington, NY performance, the singer didn’t want fans to be disappointed. As such, she paid for the lunches of dozens of fans who attended a spontaneous meet-up at Rupp Arena organized by the Grande Tour News Twitter account. Many of the fans who attended the meet-up had traveled across the country to see Grande perform, so her paying for their lunches was a gesture of kindness towards her loyal and dedicated fans. Grande’s next show is scheduled to take place on Sunday in Kentucky, but it’s unclear whether the singer will feel well enough to attend.

Grande is no stranger to health issues. The 26-year-old singer has previously shared her battles with PTSD, brought on by traumatic events including the presence of a suicide bomber at one of her shows in Manchester in 2017, who killed 22 people and injured hundreds more. On Instagram, she posted an image of a scan of her brain purportedly showing how it had been affected by the trauma she experienced. Though the presence of Grande’s PTSD is likely genuine, experts argue that it is impossible to determine whether somebody has PTSD by looking at a scan of their brain. The singer has also been open about her struggles with anxiety and depression, and has spoken frequently about her years-long therapy practice, which she considers to be tremendously valuable. As such, Grande has used her platform as a celebrity to work as a mental health advocate, as her openness about her psychological conditions helps to destigmatize mental illnesses and encourage more people who need help with psychological problems to seek treatment.