The Chainsmokers charged to No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart three times in 2016, sparking the DJ duo’s (Drew Taggart and Alex Pall) coronation as Billboard‘s top Dance/Electronic artist of 2016.
In the 2016 chart year (covering charts dated Dec. 5, 2015, through Nov. 26, 2016), The Chainsmokers held the top spot on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for a tremendous 39 weeks over the course of three songs. Not surprisingly, all three of those tunes finish the year in the top five, with “Don’t Let Me Down,” featuring Daya, ranking at No. 1; “Closer,” featuring Halsey, concluding at No. 2; and “Roses,” featuring Rozes, placing at No. 5.
On the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart dated Jan. 9, The Chainsmokers’ “Roses” hit No. 1, amassing 14 weeks in the lead through April 9. A month later, on May 7, “Don’t Let Me Down” began its 12-week reign that would last through late July. The Chainsmokers then charged back to No. 1 on Sept. 3 with “Closer.”
Now in its 16th week atop Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (dated Dec. 17; although only its first 13 weeks on top count for the 2016 chart year), “Closer” is The Chainsmokers’ longest-running leader of four, the most No. 1s in the chart’s nearly four-year history. The act first led for two weeks in 2014 with its breakout novelty hit “#SELFIE.”
The Chainsmokers’ trio of 2016 Hot Dance/Electronic Songs No. 1s also topped component lists Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Songs during the year, with “Closer” ending 2016 atop both charts.
That’s not all: although they have yet to release a full-length album, The Chainsmokers scored their first No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums with their EP Collage. Its debut-week sales of 9,000 copies (reflected on the chart dated Nov. 26), according to Nielsen Music, marked the strongest one-week sales of any EP on the chart in 2016. Meanwhile, The Chainsmokers’ previous (and first) EP, Bouquet, spent the entire year on the survey, peaking at No. 2 for two weeks.
A MAJOR YEAR: Major Lazer locks in the No. 4 title of 2016 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, “Cold Water,” featuring Justin Bieber and MO. The Diplo-fronted Lazer also lands at No. 10 with durable “Lean On,” with DJ Snake (after it ranked No. 1 for 2015).
Speaking of DJ Snake, he joins The Chainsmokers as the only acts with as many as three songs in the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10. Snake appears at No. 7 with “Let Me Love You,” featuring Bieber; No. 9 with “Middle,” featuring Bipolar Sunshine; and No. 10 with “Lean On.”
FLUME ZOOMED: Flume (aka, Australian DJ Harley Streten) found his way onto Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for the first time in 2016, a year highlighted by his hit “Never Be Like You,” featuring Kai. The track spent three weeks peaking at No. 3 and 33 weeks in the top 10 during the year and lands at No. 8 on the year-end list.
That performance, along with seven other charted titles, helped Flume end the year as the No. 1 Dance/Electronic new artist and overall No. 5 top Dance/Electronic artist. Also contributing: on Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Flume earned the year’s second-biggest week: 18,000 first-week copies sold of Skin (June 18).
ZARA, TOO: Another emerging star in 2016 was Sweden’s Zara Larsson, the No. 1 new female top Dance/Electronic artist and No. 8 overall top Dance/Electronic artist of the year. Her track “Never Forget You,” with MNEK, completes 2016 at No. 6 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (while her feature on David Guetta‘s “This One’s for You” earned Larsson another spot in the year-end top 50, at No. 33).
‘THIS IS’ NO. 1: Calvin Harris boasts the No. 1 song of 2016 on both Dance/Mix Show Airplay and Dance Club Songs, “This Is What You Came For,” featuring Rihanna. Co-written with Harris’ ex Taylor Swift (under the nom de plume Nils Sjoberg), the track spent 12 weeks atop the airplay chart and two atop the Club tally.
On Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, “This” finishes 2016 at No. 3, having spent three weeks at No. 1 and 28 in the top five. Harris ends the year as the No. 2 top Dance/Electronic artist of the year, having scored three top 10s on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. In addition to “This,” Harris’ “How Deep Is Your Love,” with Disciples, ranks at No. 17 for 2016 and his solo hit “My Way” is No. 19.
“This” was the second of four toppers in 2016 for Rihanna on Dance Club Songs, where the singer finishes as the No. 1 artist. Rihanna’s other leaders during the year: “Work” (featuring Drake), “Kiss It Better” and “Needed Me.” In the 40-year history of Dance Club Songs, only four acts have scored four No. 1s in a calendar year, with Rihanna the only one to have accomplished the feat four times (2016, 2011, 2010, and 2007). In 2016, Rihanna upped her total to 27 Dance Club Songs No. 1s, second only to Madonna’s 46.
STIRLING, & KYGO, SHINED: Lindsey Stirling created a stir atop the Sept. 10 Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, where Brave Enough started with sales of 45,000, the best week for a title on the ranking this year. Stirling ends 2016 as the No. 6 top Dance/Electronic artist.
Right behind Stirling, at No. 7, is Norwegian DJ Kygo (real name Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll), whose Cloud Nine scored the third-highest week on Top Dance/Electronic Albums of 2016 (17,000). Kygo is also the year’s No. 2 top Dance/Electronic new artist.
STILL ‘SUPER’: Pet Shop Boys returned to Billboard‘s dance/electronic charts in 2016, scoring their third No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Super, and achieving their 29th and 30th top 10s on Dance Club Songs, including the duo’s first No. 1 in seven years, “The Pop Kids.” In May, the track became the 11th leader for the pair (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe), 30 years to the week that its first, “West End Girls,” led in 1986.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps are based on chart performance between the Dec. 5, 2015 and Nov. 26, 2016 charts. Data registered before or after a title’s chart run are not considered in these standings. That methodology detail, and the December-November time period, account for some of the differences between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are compiled independently by Nielsen Music.
This article was found on billboard.com