Via: EURweb.com
Music trade publication Billboard has announced that its “Artist of the Decade title belongs to Eminem, based on activity from the magazine’s two charts: the Billboard 200 albums list and the Billboard Hot 100 songs tally.
More than 10 years after he made his Billboard Hot 100 debut, Eminem is officially the best-performing act from Dec. 4, 1999, to Nov. 28, 2009. He is also the top male artist of the decade. The female honor goes to Beyoncé.
Beyoncé’s solo career began in the ’00s, notching 23 Hot 100 singles and five No. 1s. On the Billboard 200, she’s racked six entries, including three studio efforts that all went to No. 1.
While Eminem is the decade’s top artist, he was never the top performer for any single year as reported in Billboard’s annual Year in Music issue. In 2000 and 2001, Destiny’s Child netted the prize, followed by Nelly in ’02, 50 Cent in ’03 and ’05, Usher in ’04, Chris Brown in ’06 and ’08, Akon in ’07 and Taylor Swift in ’09.
The reigning best-selling digital song of all time, Flo Rida’s “Low” (5.2 million and counting), ranks No. 3 on the decade-end Hot 100 songs recap, behind Usher’s 2004 single “Yeah!” at No. 2 and Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” at No. 1.
Usher takes the title of the Top Hot 100 Artist of the Decade. He racked up 13 consecutive top 20 singles, with seven of them reaching No. 1. And, those seven chart-toppers collectively spent 41 weeks at No. 1-the most weeks atop the list for any act in the decade.
With Carey’s crowning of the decade-end Hot 100 songs list with “We Belong Together,” she now owns the most popular songs of the ’90s and the ’00s, as her duet with Boyz II Men, “One Sweet Day,” was No. 1 on the ’90s-end recap. “We Belong Together” spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart during the decade, tying the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” for the most weeks atop the list in that span.
The Peas’ anthem is at No. 5 on the decade-end Hot 100 Songs retrospective, one step below the duo/group of the decade, Nickelback, with “How You Remind Me.”
On the Hot 100 Songwriters decade-end tally, Timbaland finishes atop the list, courtesy of the performance of the 63 charted hits he wrote or co-wrote in the decade. Directly below Timbaland at No. 2 on the list (viewable in full at Billboard.biz) is Pharrell Williams, one-half of the production duo the Neptunes. On the Hot 100 Producers recap, the Neptunes come out on top while Timbaland is at No. 2.
