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Spotify Wrapped reveals biggest tracks of 2020: The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ comes out on top

News comes shortly after the artist was notably snubbed from this year’s Grammy nominations

Annabel Nugent
Tuesday 01 December 2020 05:08 EST
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The Weeknd performs at MTV VMAs

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Spotify has revealed its annual list of data for the most-streamed tracks of 2020.

Globally, the Weeknd scored the biggest song of the year with “Blinding Lights”. The second single off his fourth studio album titled After Hours has been streamed almost 1.6 billion times in 2020.

The news comes only days after the R&B star – real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – called out the Grammy Awards, branding them “corrupt” after the singer walked away with zero nominations despite having multiple hits this year.  

Following behind The Weeknd’s hit song is “Dance Monkey" by Australian singer Tones and I. Released in May 2019, it was the second single from Tone and I’s debut EP The Kids Are Coming. The song reached huge levels of success, topping the singles charts in over 30 countries.

Tones and I told The New York Times that she wrote the phenomenally popular dance track in a “dark closet in not much more than 30 minutes”.

Spotify’s third most-streamed track of 2020 was by Roddy Ricch. The American rapper released “The Box” in January this year from his debut album Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial.

The rap song benefited hugely from social media platform TikTok where it featured in millions of videos that racked up billions of views. It has received three nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammys, including a nod for Song of the Year.

Following on from Roddy Rich, in fourth place is “Roses – Imanbek Remix” by Imanbek and SAINt JHN. The EDM song is another track to have been popularised by TikTok. 

It was initially released by Brooklyn rapper and songwriter SAINt JHN in 2016, but it was the 2019 remix by Kazakh producer Imanbek that made the rounds on TikTok as the soundtrack to numerous mainstream dance challenges on the platform. 

Coming in fifth is Dua Lipa with “Don’t Start Now” from her second studio album Future Nostalgia. The nu-disco track has received nods in three categories at the Grammy Awards in January next year, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Record of the Year – marking the UK artist’s first time being nominated in all three. 

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