Artists with the best lead singles (last 25 yrs)

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

Some of the most popular artists in the last 25 years. Only studio albums (at least 4), no collabs, soundtracks, EPs or Xmas albums.
You can vote for 3 artists.

Rihanna
Pon de Replay, SOS, Umbrella, Russian Roulette, Only Girl, We Found Love, Diamonds, Work

Lady Gaga
Just Dance, Born This Way, Applause, Perfect Illusion, Stupid Love

Ariana Grande
The Way, Problem, Dangerous Woman, no tears left to cry, thank u next, positions, yes and?

The Weeknd
Kiss Land, Often, Starboy, Heartless, Take My Breath

Katy Perry
I Kissed A Girl, California Gurls, Roar, Chained To The Rhythm, Daisies

Drake
Over, Marvins Room, Started from the Bottom, Hotline Bling, God's Plan, Way 2 Sexy, Sticky/Massive, Slime You Out

Miley Cyrus
See You Again, 7 Things, Can't Be Tamed, We Can't Stop, Malibu, Midnight Sky, Flowers

Nicki Minaj
Your Love, Starships, Anaconda, Chun-Li, Super Freaky Girl

Kelly Clarkson
Miss Independent, Since U Been Gone, Never Again, My Life Would Suck Without You, Mr. Know It All, Heartbeat Song, Love So Soft, Mine/Me

Britney Spears
...Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did It Again, I'm a Slave 4 U, Me Against the Music, Gimme More, Womanizer, Hold It Against Me, Work Bitch, Make Me

Justin Bieber
Baby, Boyfriend, What Do You Mean?, Yummy, Holy

Beyonce
Crazy In Love, Deja Vu, If I Were A Boy/Single Ladies, Run The World (Girls), XO/Drunk In Love, Formation, Break My Soul

Justin Timberlake
Like I Love You, SexyBack, Suit & Tie, Take Back the Night, Filthy

Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw, Love Story, Mine, We Are Never Getting Back Together, Shake It Off, Look What You Made Me Do, ME!, cardigan, willow, Anti-Hero

P!nk
There You Go, Get The Party Started, Trouble, Stupid Girls, So What, Blow Me, What About Us, Walk Me Home, Never Gonna Not Dance Again

Adele
Chasing Pavements, Rolling In The Deep, Hello, Easy On Me

Ed Sheeran
The A Team, Sing, Castle On The Hill/Shape Of You, I Don't Care, Bad Habits, Eyes Closed, American Town

Christina Aguilera
Genie In A Bottle, Ven Conmigo, Dirrty, Ain't No Other Man, Not Myself Tonight, Your Body, Accelerate, Pa Mis Muchachas

Doja Cat
Go To Town, Juicy, Kiss Me More, Paint The Town Red

[SabrinaFan]

1. Adele
2. Rihanna
3. Taylor Swift

[Fire]

ari, taylor, and abel

[elementd5]

Ari, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Adele for me because they haven’t had a “bad” or at least, lead single, that I don’t really care for, yet.

[Daenerys]

Britney, Rihanna, and then Katy in that order.

[tekkenguy]

No Usher, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, or Eminem?

[jenglisbe]

I voted for Adele as basically all of them are iconic.

I will note Mariah Carey had "It's Like That," "Touch My Body," "Obsessed," "#Beautiful," and "GTFO" as lead singles in the past 25 years.

Usher had "U Remind Me," "Yeah!," "Love in This Club," "DJ Got Us Falling in Love," "Climax," etc as lead singles in the past 25 years. tekkenguy

[jdanton2]

from the list above based on lead singles .

1 Ariana Grande
2 Rihanna
3 Miey Cyrus

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Rihanna
Beyoncè
Gaga
Xtina

[• Господин Умљеновић •]

Oh, Lana Del Rey

[irice22]

No votes for Katy (besides me)? The only misfire was "Chained to the Rhythm"

[Lost In Musical Reverie]

Not a single miss from Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Britney's collections of lead singles in my opinion. 💖 Impressive consistency in picking strong statements for their projects.

Love to see Rihanna leading the poll, but surprised Beyoncé's gotten relatively few votes. It probably helps I absolutely adore the more divisive "Deja Vu", "XO", and "BREAK MY SOUL".

Honourable mentions to Ariana Grande (adore all with the exception of "yes, and?", which I found rather underwhelming and a poor response to the backlash surrounding her SpongeBob affair, but when divorcing it from the real-life context has its merits), Lady Gaga ("Stupid Love" is the only major miss, even if "Born This Way" hasn't aged the best production-wise), and Ed Sheeran ("I Don't Care" is the only poor choice in my view. The acoustic solo version is much better, and this type of project deserved a track like "Antisocial", "Take Me Back To London", or "Cross Me" to introduce it instead).

I love all the tracks The Weeknd picked to introduce his projects, but I'm not sure I'd necessarily call them strong lead singles (with the exceptions of "Starboy" and "Take My Breath". Also "Kiss Land" given he wasn't aiming for mainstream success back then). "Heartless" really benefits from the context of the album, while "Often" doesn't make as strong a statement compared to the "Can't Feel My Face" + "The Hills" duo that came later on, despite still being great.

Shout-out to Kylie Minogue too! A 35-year career so far, 16 albums with top-tier lead singles everytime (including "Word Is Out", I said what I said)

Edit: yeah, Adele has a damn brilliant collection too. But since she's only had four lead singles I still stand by prioritizing the former three. And tekkenguy is right! Bruno Mars should absolutely be here. Just like Adele, his collection isn't as extensive, but "Just The Way You Are", "Locked Out Of Heaven", "24K Magic", and "Leave The Door Open" are bonafide classics in my book.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

I truly forgot about Eminem and Usher, I'll include them in part 2.

Bruno, Dua and Billie have less than 4 STUDIO albums, like I said it in my OP, collab albums don't count.

[clsvltn]

This is too hard. So many of them are awesome lol

[dbhmr]

1. Adele
2. Rihanna
3. Britney
HMs to Beyonce, Kelly, Lady Gaga, and Miley, who all have one clunker amid an otherwise pretty great stack of lead singles.

[eyeofthestorm]

Britney
Rihanna
Adele