ABG's 2018 Top 100

2018 wrap-up.

Before counting down the top 20 hits of the year from #20 all the way up to the top spot, some facts about the lower regions of the chart:

- Still in "Love" with Rih: Rihanna's "Love on the Brain" makes the Year-End chart for the third time, at #100. The track is easily the biggest 2016 hit, having ranked #2 on that year end chart, but having surpassed Drake's "One Dance" in longevity, but in terms of Rihanna hits it still trails "Disturbia" and all-time-champion "We Found Love" by a sizable margin. While several 2017 tracks re-appear, "Brain" is the only track to appear after two whole years. 

- "Bloom" indeed: Troye Sivan appears for the first time on the chart, and lands three tracks: "Bloom" is this year's #77, while "My My My!" is all the way up at #49. His biggest hit yet? "Dance to This" with Ariana Grande, which ranks at #24. 

- Scorpion update: While he might have ruled the US charts, Drake makes a comparatively smaller impact here. His three Billboard Hot 100 #1s appear, with "Nice for What" leading the way at #26, while "God's Plan" ranks #37. His only #1 hit on the weekly chart this year, "In My Feelings", feels the pain of poor longevity and ranks at #45. While not bad, it's a far cry from his 2016 showing, when "One Dance" ranked #1.

- Collaboration king: Khalid also appears for the first time, at #43 with his Normani collab "Love Lies", #57 with Marshmello's "Silence", solo at #66 with "Young Dumb & Broke", with Benny Blanco and Halsey at #79 on "Eastside" and finally at #86 with Martin Garrix's "Ocean".

- bentleys and hits : Post Malone doesn't quite crack the top 20, as "Better Now" tops out at #23 this year, but it's still a great showing for him. "rockstar" from last year, appears at #63.

- "Perfect" drop: after landing multiple entries last year, including #3 with "Shape of You" and #7 with "Castle on the Hill", Ed Sheeran lands a total of zero entries this year.

And now for the top 20:

#20: Halsey's biggest hit as a solo artist, "Without Me" cracks the top 20 without having finished it's run yet. The song managed to outpeak "Bad at Love" (#80 this year, #31 in 2017) and even reached #1 for two weeks, which is the second time for Halsey after "Closer" with The Chainsmokers.

#19: Camila Cabello had a great year, with "Havana" starting the year in the middle of a monster run that included 11 weeks at #1, a record only surpassed by a song coming up on the list later. "Havana" makes the top 20 again, after ranking at #9 last year. Amongst 2017 tracks it ranks at #3.

#18: Surprisingly never made a single, but still a great song: "She Loves Control" by Camila Cabello sounds exactly like the type of song that rules the charts during the summer. Why it was never made a single, we don't know, but it still snatches #18 on this chart. One more Camila Cabello song coming up though.

#17: After smashing with Clean Bandit and Sean Paul on "Rockabye" (#16 in 2017), it's been a long journey for Anne-Marie to get another all-around smash. She delivered with the Ed Sheeran penned "2002", which outpeaked and outlasted her other 2018 smash, "FRIENDS", with Marshmello. That collaboration barely misses top 20 at #21.

#16: Marshmello again here, this time with Bastille and their #1 hit "Happier". The track marks Bastille second appearance after "Pompeii" ranked #6 in 2014.

#15: One of the year's earliest hits, this collaboration between Bruno Mars and Cardi B became the biggest Bruno Mars hit on the weekly chart in ages, finally giving the 24K Magic album a #1 hit. "Finesse" also proved Cardi B could work well on Pop songs, so don't be shocked when she appears below again. 

#14: Selena Gomez had a pretty quiet year, delivering a few tracks but no album in sight yet. This 13 Reasons Why track quietly worked it's way up the charts, and delivered a lot of longevity despite peaking "only" at #4. "Back to You" ranks as Selena's biggest song in terms of points, even above her Kygo collaboration "It Ain't Me", which actually reached #1 on the weekly chart last year (and ranked #21 overall for the year).

#13: Selena's Disney pal Demi Lovato here, with Clean Bandit on "Solo". Demi manages two more entries, "Sober" at #88 and "Tell Me You Love Me" at #89. Clean Bandit ranks #52 with Julia Michaels on "I Miss You" and #73 with Marina and Luis Fonsi on "Baby".

#12: A name that will appear several more times here, but Dua Lipa just had a killer year all-around, with this Silk City collaboration giving her one last #1 hit this year. At #12, "Electricity" is also Mark Ronson and Diplo's biggest hit of the year. Diplo appears again at #39 (LSD's "Thunderclouds") and #94 ("Close to Me" by Ellie Goulding). Ronson, meanwhile, is probably going to have a huge hit with Miley Cyrus next year.

#11: Another name you'll read a lot: Ariana Grande. This track was her first of three #1 hits this year, and barely missed top 10 mostly because it had to compete with other Ariana releases through it's entire time charting. "God is a Woman" spent two weeks at #1 on the weekly chart.

#10: Maroon 5 earns their biggest hit in several years thanks to "Girls Like You", the second pop collaboration Cardi B made this year, and easily the biggest. The track topped out at #2 on the weekly chart but showed some impressive legs.

#9: Speaking of Cardi, this year she released her first studio effort, the entertaining Invasion of Privacy. While singles "Bartier Cardi" (#72) and "Ring" (#78) did well, it was this Bad Bunny and J Balvin smash that gave her a second #1 hit. "I Like It" is the year's biggest song not entirely in English on the chart.

#8: Sweetener really proved that Ariana Grande was a phenomenon, giving her three more hits, with this pop song becoming it's third hit after a huge number of streams and radio plays forced the label's hand. "breathin" subsequently became the projects second #1 hit on the weekly chart. A potential fourth single that might not happen appears at #42, "everytime", proving the album was packed with hits.

#7: After finally breaking out with "New Rules", Dua Lipa faced the difficult task of picking another single from an album that was already on it's seventh one by that point. "IDGAF" subsequently worked it's way up the charts, in no small part due to an inspired music video released early in the year. The track gave her another #1 hit on the weekly charts.

#6: "Havana" finally proved she could hit in a big way as a solo artist, so it was no surprise that "Never be the Same" quickly raced up the charts and became Camila Cabello's second #1 hit on the weekly chart. Camila also appears at #38 with "Real Friends", #46 with "Beautiful",  #51 with "Consequences" and #90 with "Crown", proving that she's probably here to stay.

#5: Finally giving him a #1 hit on the weekly chart, "Lost in Japan" raced the charts twice, once as it was released as a promo single for Shawn Mendes' self-titled third album, and then again with Zedd remix that finally propeled it to the top spot. Mendes' "In My Blood", which also landed a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year, ranks #22 this year, while "Nervous" ranks #93.

#4: While "thank u, next" (#31) might be the big thing everyone's talking about right now, "no tears left to cry" was Ariana's first new song this year, and it didn't fail to meet expectations. While the year's biggest song blocked it from the top spot, it has delivered impressive legs, and it has quietly become Grande's second biggest song in terms of points, behind "Into You".

#3: One of the year's biggest films yields one of the year's best songs, as Kendrick Lamar and SZA delivered with the Black Panther release "All The Stars". The song is both acts first chart topper as leads, following Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" for Kendrick Lamar, while SZA had made it as high as #2 with the "Homemade Dynamite" remix from Lorde's last album. SZA ranked #22 last year with Maroon 5's "What Lovers Do". Lamar and Black Panther appear again at #41 this year with The Weeknd's "Pray for Me".

#2: Finally giving the reputation project a second #1 hit, "Delicate" marked a return to form for Taylor Swift on the US charts after earlier singles failed to deliver her usual leggy runs. The track also had massive longevity and it's on track to eventually beat lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" in overall points. Swift appears again at #34 with album cut "Getaway Car" and #99 with "I Did Something Bad".

#1: No surprise, considering it spent 15 weeks at #1, "One Kiss" by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa crowns the Year-End chart. The song, which has yet to leave the chart since it's April debut, is Harris' biggest song as a lead, surpassing "This is What You Came For" featuring Rihanna. Including features, "One Kiss" still has a long way to go before catching up to Harris' biggest song, another Rihanna collaboration, "We Found Love".

Harris has three more songs in the year-end chart with his Sam Smith collaboration, "Promises", which peaked at #6 on the weekly chart, leading the way at #64. Down in the 90s, collaborations with Benny Blanco and Normani also appear.

For Dua Lipa this marks the second year in a row she tops the Year-End chart, following 2017's "New Rules", which manages to chart again this year at #25. Lipa also mantains the overall longevity record in the chart with "Be The One", last year's #2 song, which spent three weeks at the top of the weekly chart, and manages to be the 70th biggest song this year, after celebrating 75 weeks charting.