Story by Carlos Hernandez, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Pixabay 

2016 has been an interesting year for the pop charts. Not in the sense that interesting music came out (not much of it anyway), but in the sense that the two gentlemen at the center of chart dominance for the year are two Canadian superstars: Justin Bieber and Drake.

For the Year-End 100, the showdown was determined at the halfway point of the year, when both artists had two astronomically big hits, each that were projected to mark their place in history as the most successful song of a calendar year for pop music: For Justin, these songs were “Sorry” (3 weeks at #1) and “Love Yourself” (2 weeks at #1.) For Drake, they were a guest appearance on Rihanna’s “Work” and his first solo at #1, “One Dance” (both spent 9 weeks at #1.) So, how did they stack up?

1. “Love Yourself”: If anyone were to look at the archives of the pop charts (the main page shows what songs have been number one at any point in the year), this would be the last song anyone would expect to be the biggest song of the year, but like Faith Hill and Lifehouse, Justin has claimed the top spot by virtue of the fact that “Love Yourself” absolutely refused to go away. It has the record for longest run in the top 10 from at top 10 debut (debuted at #5, 24 weeks in top 10.) It also has the distinct advantage of having started its time on the Hot 100 towards the final month of 2015, giving it an edge to its predecessor, “Sorry”, despite leaving the charts earlier.

2. “Sorry”: Taking second place is LV’s predecessor, which was so close behind that I feel like had 2016 started in September of last year, I imagine “Sorry” would have been ahead, having spent its first 10 weeks on the charts tailing Adele’s “Hello.” I expect both of those songs to fare better than LV in the decade-end countdown. The All-Time charts have not yet been updated, so I will not be able to make any distinct predictions, if any of those three songs even left that much of a dent, that is.
3. “One Dance”: 2016 wasn’t a pinnacle year for just Bieber. Former Degrassi cast member Drake owned the summer with his first-ever solo #1 single “One Dance”—a song which I will admit I was surprised got this big. Being the only song in the year-end top 10 without an official music video, “One Dance” is the shortest #1 this year, clocking in at less than three minutes. This song spent 9 non-consecutive weeks at the top with one deviation from Justin Timberlake’s #1 debut “CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!” back in May.

4. “Work”: Also a pretty good year for Rihanna with the release of “Anti,” the lead single     from this album, is a peak year for the insanely successful Barbados-born singer. “Work” is tied as her second-longest running #1, behind Calvin Harris’s 2011 smash hit “We Found Love,” a song featuring Rihanna’s vocals that stayed at the top for ten weeks.

Further down the list are the following:

5. “Stressed Out” by twentyøne piløts
6. “Panda” by Desiigner
7. “Hello” by Adele
8. “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers feat. Daya
9. “CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!” by Justin Timberlake
10. “Closer” The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey 

    About the writer…

    Carlos “Eddie” Hernandez is a fifth-year student at Aquinas and has been writing for the newspaper for a year and a half. He is an Acting and Music Major and is also a member of AQPB. His hobbies include ponies and Pokèmon. Other hobbies include eating and sleeping.