AMERICAN TOP 40 Top 40 of 2021 - December 25, 2021

[MitchWolf: Super Chart Genius]

On AT40 this week, we took a look at the 40 biggest hits of 2021!

This year, while we are still in a pandemic, music community is starting to get back to somewhat of normalcy, like live concerts and studio being used again, but still some effects are still being felt and still artists making music in their homes ... plus Taylor Swift, like The Beatles and The Monkees b4 her, had release 3 albums in a calendar year, including reworks of her previous albums, like "Fearless" and "Red".

The highest debut of the year going to "Bad Habits" by Ed Sheeran (July 17th) and "Easy On Me" by Adele (November 6th), both debuted at #14

The largest riser of 2021 belongs to both Olivia Rodrigo's "drivers license" (February 13th) and Lil Nas X' "THAT'S WHAT I WANT" (October 23rd) as they move up 15. . While Dua Lipa's "Love Again" was 2021's greatest fall as she drop 21 in November 6th.. 2021's biggest dropoff belongs to Glass Animals' "Heat Waves" as they drop out AT40 from #16 on July 17th (three weeks after they initally peaked at #14 and a week after Dave Bayley hosted the show) but in December they returned December 4th after a TikTok following brought them back on the radio.

The slowest song to reach the top this year was Dua Lipa's "Levitating" as it took 36 weeks (3 weeks short from the AT40 record (Current record is 39 by "Before You Go" done last year by Lewis Capaldi). She (when it was the DaBaby remix) orginally peaked at #4 in late January and fell as far as #35 in mid-May til she moved back after radio starting playing due to a TikTok following and rose back up the chart and hit #1 in early July.

The artist that had the most hits this year was once again Justin Bieber with 8  ... "Holy (with Chance The Rapper)", "Lonely (with benny blanco)", "Monster (with Shawn Mendes)", "Anyone", "Hold On", "Peaches (with Daniel Caesar & Giveon)", "Ghost", and "Stay (with The Kid LAROI)" are the songs

The longest-running hit was "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd as logs in 64 weeks, spent 5 weeks at #1, he tied the record for more stints at #1 with 3 (the others includes Post Malone's "Circles" and Chic's "Le Freak")

And the Top 3 songs of 2021 are, *drumroll*

Coming in at #3 is "Mood" by newcomers 24kGoldn and iann dior, which spent 49 weeks on the countdown, including 10 weeks at #1

At # 2 is "positions" by Ariana Grande, while spent 48 weeks on the countdown. including 4 weeks at #1

And the queen of 2021 is Dua Lipa's "Levitating", which, currently as of December 4th, spent 59 weeks, including 2 weeks at #1 and (as mentioned earlier) moved back up in mid-May after TikTik following brought it back to life from it fell to #35 after it orginally peaked at #4 in January

AMERICAN TOP 40 Top 40 of 2021 - December 25, 2021
=====================================================================

Rank Artist-Title Peak (*-active) Weeks at #1 (bold-italics) Weeks On (*-active)

40 BTS - Dynamite 6 26
39 Marshmello/Jonas Brothers - Leave Me Before You Love Me 8 25*
38 Jawsh 685/Jason Derulo/BTS - Savage Love (Laxed-Siren Beat) 1 [4 weeks] 33
EX JESSIA - I'm Not Pretty

37 Duncan Laurence - Arcade 7 31*
36 Lil Nas X/Jack Harlow - INDUSTRY BABY 1 [1 week] 16*
35 Surf Mesa/Emilee - ily (i love you baby) 2 34
34 Masked Wolf - Astronaut In The Ocean 7 21
EX Coldplay/BTS - My Universe

33 Maroon 5/Megan Thee Stallion - Beautiful Mistakes 10 19
32 Lewis Capaldi - Before You Go 1 [1 week] 56
31 Doja Cat/The Weeknd - You Right 4 21*
EX Alessia Cara - Sweet Dream

OX-1 Nelly/Florida Georgia Line - Lil Bit

30 Gabby Barrett/Charlie Puth - I Hope 3 42
29 Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar 1 [8 weeks] 39
28 Pop Smoke - What You Know Bout Love 8 27
EX BTS - Butter

27 Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars/Anderson.Paak) - Leave The Door Open 5 20
26 Saweetie/Doja Cat - Best Friend 8 30
25 Justin Bieber/benny blanco - Lonely 1 [1 week] 30
24 AJR - Bang! 6 44
EX Elton John/Dua Lipa - Cold Heart (PNAU remix)

23 Ariana Grande - pov 2 29
22 The Kid LAROI/Justin Beiber - Stay 1 [11 weeks] 18*
21 Ritt Momney - Put Your Records On 3 28
EX Jason Derulo - Take You Dancing

OX-2 Ava Max - My Head & My Heart

20 Ed Sheeran - Bad Habits 2 21*
19 Justin Bieber/Chance The Rapper - Holy 2 37
18 The Kid LAROI - WITHOUT YOU 2 36
EX Taylor Swift - willow

17 Ava Max - Kings & Queens 2 38
16 The Weeknd - Blinding Lights 1 [5 weeks, NC] 64
15 Justin Bieber/Daniel Caesar/Giveon - Peaches 1 [5 weeks] 32
14 Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license 1 [5 weeks] 32
EX Sigala/James Arthur - Lasting Lover

13 Tate McRae - you broke me first 1 [1 week] 40
12 Machine Gun Kelly/blackbear - my ex's best friend 3 47
11 Olivia Rodrigo - deja vu 2 33*
EX JP Saxe/Julia Michaels - If The World Was Ending

OX-3 Camila Cabello - Don't Go Yet

10 Lil Nas X - MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) 1 [1 week] 32*
09 Chris Brown/Young Thug - Go Crazy 2 43
08 Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u 1 [7 weeks] 25*
EX Maroon 5 - Lost

07 Billie Eilish - Therefore I Am 1 [2 weeks] 31
06 Doja Cat/SZA - Kiss Me More 1 [1 week] 32*
EX Demi Lovato - Dancing With The Devil

05 Ariana Grande - 34+35 1 [3 weeks] 35
04 The Weeknd - Save Your Tears 1 [2 weeks] 48*
03 24kGoldn/iann dior - Mood 1 [10 weeks] 49
EX Adele - Easy On Me

OX-4 Regard/Troye Sivan/Tate McRae - You

02 Ariana Grande - positions 1 [4 weeks] 48
01 Dua Lipa - Levitating 1 [2 weeks] 59*

The regular and optional extras of the Year-End show are the songs which hit the chart that year, and either:

(a) song which was #1 in the immediately preceding week.

(b) popular collaborative events

(c) song relevant to most memorable or enjoyable interviews to be featured in the show.

(d) song which are beloved by many listeners and collected a lot of requests

(e) song which captured the social movements in 2021

(f) song to remember the artist who recently passed away

To Follow Along:

listen to AT40 channel at 5a EST Fridays on the iHeartRadio app

HitFM in Bejing, China 7p EST Fridays on the Online Radio app onlineradiobox.com/cn/hit/player/?cs=cn.hit

Love FM in Pheom Penh, Cambodia at 9p EST Fridays .... mytuner-radio.com/radio/love-fm-cambodia-434271/

... or find your station in your area at www.at40.com/howtolisten/ ..... Just type in your location... It will tell you the station

[momzquotes]

...and the extras are still 2021 songs.

[Cerebro]

There shouldn't be any surprises with the year-end show. As AT40, usually, uses the Mediabase year-end chart. Occasionally, though, they switch things up. So, you never know.

[Deleted]

I believe The Weeknd actually had 7 hits on the chart this year, because Hawai (with Maluma) was on AT40 in January

[gemini79]

Easy on Me debuted at #14 also, so Bad Habits and Easy on Me are tied for the highest debut of the year

[kani]

I think you meant Dec 25, 2021 for title thread, you made a typo: Dec 25, 2020

EDIT: thanks

[johnnywest]

Is this Mediabase’s published chart?

[Cerebro]

Dec 24, 2021 10:24:40 GMT -5 johnnywest said:

Is this Mediabase’s published chart?

Yes.

[Deleted]

Justin Bieber is actually the artist with the most songs charting this year, with 8. Lonely, Holy, Anyone, Hold On, Monster, Peaches, Ghost, and Stay are the songs. Great job on posting the chart anyway

[gemini79]

We all knew Levitating would be the number 1 song of 2021 no surprise there, the #1 song of 2020 is at #16 of 2021.But Levitating will not be on the top 40 of 2022

[Fire]

when was the last time the #1 song of the year on at40 ended up repeating on the year-end the following year?

[Glass Joe]

Dec 24, 2021 18:55:56 GMT -5 Fire said:

when was the last time the #1 song of the year on at40 ended up repeating on the year-end the following year?

Good question! I can't seem to find any instances of this on AT40 unless I missed one, but there are many times this happened on Rick Dees year end charts. "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse made the 2002 chart, "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne made the 2003 chart, "Where is the Love?" by Black Eyed Peas made the 2004 chart, and "Yeah" by Usher made the 2005 chart. I think this even happened on the years that followed too, but only for Dees.

[Glass Joe]

Dec 24, 2021 18:30:33 GMT -5 gemini79 said:

We all knew Levitating would be the number 1 song of 2021 no surprise there, the #1 song of 2020 is at #16 of 2021.But Levitating will not be on the top 40 of 2022

I think it might make the next year end chart since the chart year that is counted for year end shows starts around November 1st of the previous year. Might be a stretch since I think it was around # 25 at the beginning of November, but it might be enough to get there.

[upland1425]

Dec 24, 2021 19:22:04 GMT -5 Glass Joe said:

Dec 24, 2021 18:30:33 GMT -5 gemini79 said:

We all knew Levitating would be the number 1 song of 2021 no surprise there, the #1 song of 2020 is at #16 of 2021.But Levitating will not be on the top 40 of 2022

I think it might make the next year end chart since the chart year that is counted for year end shows starts around November 1st of the previous year. Might be a stretch since I think it was around # 25 at the beginning of November, but it might be enough to get there.

It depends on whether Premiere will use Mediabase Official Year-End charts again next year.
Unlike Billboard, Mediabase counts all spins, current and recurrent, during the 52 weeks survey periods. However, in order to be eligible for the 2022 Year-End chart, songs must appear in the published weekly chart (with recurrent rule) at least once during the survey period starting November 14, 2021 chart.
Levitating was still hanging in the published November 14 Hot AC chart at #5 but has already been eliminated from the CHR chart due to recurrent rule. So, if they use the Mediabase Official Year-End chart for the 2022 Year-End CHR show, Levitating will not be qualified. Please see additional info here.

[johnnywest]

I didn't see Kani's notes for the year-end show so let me fill in:

--"Savage Love" spent 4 weeks at #1 at the end of 2020

--The shortest song of the year was "I'm Not Pretty" at one minutes and 56 seconds

--Duncan Laurence is from the Netherlands

--Lil Nas X wrote a kids' book

--Maroon 5 has had 29 AT40 hits, 11 #1s, and is the only group to have #1 songs in three different decades

--Gabby Barrett is the top "American Idol" act of 2021, and was 3rd place on the 16th season; "I Hope" hit #1 on the country chart

--"Watermelon Sugar" won a Grammy

--List of everyone who guest hosted in 2021 including Saweetie

--"Bad Habits" was the only song to hit the top 10 in just 2 weeks this year

--Justin Bieber had the most #1s in 2021 with three of them

--"Blinding Lights" was the #1 song of 2020

--Justin Bieber had the most hits this past year with 8 of them [and I believe it was 9 on the hot ac version]

--Olivia Rodrigo is the top newcomer of 2021

--Tate McRae is from Calgary, Alberta [is she the first since Jann Ardin?]

--Lil Nas X had two #1s in 2021 and won "Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards for "Montero"

--#1 country - "What's Your Country Song" by Thomas Rhett

--#1 hip hop - "For The Night" by Pop Smoke

--#1 rock - "Shot In The Dark" by AC/DC

--"Easy On Me" hit #1 in 18 countries

--Adele had the fastest rise to #1 of the year and the top selling album of 2021 with "30"

--"Levitating" had a strange chart life and eventually hit #1 after dropping out of the Top 10

--Congratulations to Dua Lipa for having the year end #1 song twice, first doing it in 2018 with "New Rules"

[richie]

I checked the iheart online version twice and they were missing the segment from 27 thru 24 plus Cold Heart. I guess it's hard
to "sew" the segments together.

[MitchWolf: Super Chart Genius]

Dec 27, 2021 7:55:29 GMT -5 richie said:

I checked the iheart online version twice and they were missing the segment from 27 thru 24 plus Cold Heart. I guess it's hard
to "sew" the segments together.

Still??? My advice for this weekend??? Listen to the re-air with different extras on your local iHeart station.... rely on them better than the AT40 channel way its going

[richie]

^Thanks, but I'm just listening to the songs now at You Tube.

[kani]

thanks for the post, i posted some interview notes in HAC side..

sorry for being late

thanks definitely for the post for year end country, rock, and hip hop, and rest of other notes.

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