Apple Music 2021 Year-end Charts: s Gyakie & Omah Lay’s ‘Forever’ tops rest of Africa
Apple Music today reveals the biggest songs of the year with its annual Top 100 charts. For the first time, Apple Music shares the Top 100 2021: Fitness chart—spotlighting the most-played workout music across Apple Music and Fitness+—besides its Top 100 Streamed Songs, Top 100 Shazamed Songs and Top 100 Most-Read Lyrics! These global charts highlight and celebrate another incredible year in music, and together they provide a truly unique and global perspective on the year’s biggest music.
Check out Apple Music’s 2021 top charts below, and listen to the full Top 100 charts-playlists on Apple Music at music.apple.com
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Chart Toppers
– Top Streamed Song of 2021: Dynamite – BTS
– Top Read Lyrics: drivers license – Olivia Rodrigo
– Top Streamed Workout Song: Head & Heart (feat. MNEK) [Tiësto Remix] – Joel Corry
– Top Shazamed Song: Astronaut In The Ocean – Masked Wolf
The Top Songs of 2021
The year’s most-played songs around the world on Apple Music
After a year in which much of the world’s population was trapped in their homes, 2021 was all about having one foot out the door. This chart compiling the most-streamed songs across the globe on Apple Music between October 16, 2020, and October 15, 2021, is a mirror of that tentativeness and hopefulness—a mix of thrilling new hits that helped shake the world from its stasis alongside favorites we returned to when that jolt felt like too much. What they all have in common, from hip-hop upstarts to a wave of Japanese artists striving in streaming to a K-pop juggernaut primed for planetary domination, is that they brought comfort and catharsis at a time when we all needed them most.
Top 100 2021: Most-Read Lyrics
Mic check! These are the songs our users just had to sing along to this year.
Every year, Apple Music tallies which songs had the most popular lyrics, read—and, surely, sung—by fans around the world. The top 100 are compiled into a karaoke-ready playlist, which you can find below. The top of this year’s list is dominated by Olivia Rodrigo, the TikTok sensation turned bona fide pop star with three songs in the top 10. “drivers license,” her runaway breakthrough single that was released in January when she was just 17, is a masterfully vivid postcard of vulnerability and teen heartache—rich, brooding, and melodramatic. It’s the sort of big, catchy ballad that makes you want to hit the road and belt along: “And you’re probably with that blonde girl/Who always made me doubt/She’s so much older than me/She’s everything I’m insecure about.”
Top 100 2021: Fitness
The most-played workout music across Apple Music and Fitness+ this year
Whether it’s to keep the vibes positive and uplifting, to tap into a deeper sense of purpose, or just to remind us of a great night out, the music we choose to work out to is so personal. Apple Music’s Top 100 2021: Fitness is a comprehensive look at what tracks did the trick for sweating it out in 2021. Compiling data from all of our Apple Music Fitness playlists, as well as what the Fitness+ trainer team was programming through the Studio Series, Fitness+ Spotlight collection, and even the Fitness+ workouts themselves, this set represents the year’s most-played high-energy music.
Top 100 2021: Shazam
Find out which songs received the most Shazams, globally, in 2021
Think back throughout the year: How many times did you use Shazam to identify a song? Are you one of the 11.7 million fans who used the app to discover Masked Wolf’s “Astronaut in the Ocean”? The Australian hip-hop artist’s sleeper hit may have first been released in 2019, but after going viral on TikTok, it received more Shazams than any other song in the world during 2021—by quite a margin, in fact. The Weeknd came in second, with 8.5 million Shazams for “Save Your Tears,” while Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” received 8.1 million.
South Africa
The Apple Music 2021 Year End Music Charts in South Africa sees Amapiano producer Busta 929 & the late Mpura top the Top Songs of 2021 charts with their #1 single ‘Umsebenzi Wethu’ which dominated the country’s airwaves and dance floors last summer.
It was another strong year for South African artists on the charts, with over 44% of the Top 100 songs of the year and 26% of the Top 100 albums of the year on Apple Music in South Africa.
Drake’s latest album ‘Certified Lover Boy’ shattered streaming records around the world and was the #1 album of 2021 on Apple Music in South Africa. The highest charting South African album of 2021 was Afrikaans artist Riaan Benade’s debut album ’Spontaan’ .
Drake was also the #1 artist of the year on Apple Music in South Africa and the highest charting local artist was Amapiano king Kabza de Small.
Kwiish SA Feat. Njelic, MalumNator & De Mthuda’s single ‘LiYoshona’ was the #1 most Shazamed song of the year and Kabza De Small was the most Shazamed artist of the year in South Africa.
DJ Maphorisa & Tyler ICU Feat. Sir Trill, Daliwonga & Kabza De Small – Banyana
De Mthuda Feat. Sir Trill & Da Muziqal Chef – John Wick
Mthandazo Gatya Feat. DJ Manzo SA & Comado – Senzeni
DJ Obza Feat. DJ Freetz & Nkosazana – Dlozi ‘lam
Zandimaz Feat. Nokwazi – Emathandweni
Top Shazamed Artist of 2021 – South Africa
Kabza De Small
Nigeria
The Apple Music 2021 Year End Music Charts in Nigeria sees a clean sweep for the Starboy himself Wizkid.
Wizkid’s Feat.Tems tops the Apple Music Top Songs of 2021 charts with their #1 hit and Top 10 Billboard single ‘Essence’.
Wizkid also topped Apple Music’s Top Albums of 2021 chart with his #1 Grammy nominated album ‘Made in Lagos’.
Wizkid was also the #1 Artist of the Year on Apple Music in Nigeria.
It was a great year for local artists with over 96% of the Top 100 songs of the year and 48% of the Top 100 albums of the year on Apple Music.
Former Africa Now cover star, Ghanaian breaking artist, Gyakie’s single ‘Forever’ was the #1 most Shazamed song of the year & Davido was the most Shazamed artist of the year in Nigeria.
Looking across the rest of Africa, the Apple Music 2021 Year End Music Charts sees Gyakie & Omah Lay’s ‘Forever’ as the Top Song of 2021 and Davido’s ‘A Better Time’ the Top Album of 2021 in Ghana.
In Kenya Olamide Feat. Omah Lay’s ‘Inifinity’ was the Top Song and Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ was the Top Album of 2021, and in Tanzania Olamide Feat. Omah Lay’s ‘Inifinity’ was the Top Song and Davido’s ‘A Better Time’ the Top Album of 2021.