From music to podcasts, Deezer reveals the sounds that defined the year

#MyDeezerYear brings fans their year in music on mobile


What does your taste in music say about you? If you’ve listened to the likes of The Weeknd and Tones and I this year -  you may be surprised to discover that your kindred musical twin is a cat. Say what? Yes, it’s true. Not only did we analyze all the tunes and podcasts that got us through the year, but we also wanted to find out what our listening habits revealed about us.

Global audio streaming service, Deezer looked into the top sounds of 2020 around the world. Back by popular demand, we looked at the beats of songs we’ve jammed to the most and analysed each user’s beats to determine a unique ‘Animal Rhythm.’ We discovered that the majority of our users are on average - feline first. Similar to a cat’s internal BPM, they prefer listening to artists and tracks that hit the sweet spot at 131-132 BPM. So if you’ve streamed our top three tracks of the year, you are definitely a cat at heart.

Read on to learn more about your 'Animal Rhythm' as well as 2020’s most streamed artists, tracks, albums,podcasts, plus a few new categories including Superfans and Trendsetters. We’ve also added some fun facts that sum up the sounds of 2020.

Top track: It seems like tracks released in 2019 were still going strong this year. The now iconic ‘Dance Monkey’ by Tones and I was released in 2019 and held onto the position as our most streamed song for 2020. The same goes for chart smash-hits ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd and ‘Roses (Imanbek Remix)’ by SAINt JHN. All three also kept fans coming back for more after its release in 2019. 

Top album: The Weeknd took the no.1 spot for most played international album of 2020 with ‘After Hours.’ This year also saw a flurry of brilliant new top 10 streamed album entries from Pop Smoke (‘Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon’), Dua Lipa (‘Future Nostalgia’) and Lady Gaga (‘Chromatica’).

Top artist J Balvin can rest easy. For the third year in a row, the Colombian superstar held his spot as the #1 most streamed international artist. The Weeknd was not far behind as #2, followed by Dua Lipa at #3 and Bad Bunny at #4.

Top female artist: Dua Lipa stole the crown from last year’s winner Ariana Grande. Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga made it into the top 3, while Latin music showed its growing popularity with Karol G and Anitta in our top 10.

Top Trendsetter: Although The Weeknd missed out as the top global artist and top male artist, he did nab the #1 spot as a Trendsetter. The #2 spot this time went to J Balvin. Deezer defines a “trendsetter” as an artist who has fans that are ahead of the curve, listening to an artist as soon as a track or album is released.

Biggest superfans: We’re raising our glasses to all the superfans out there - the top users who streamed their favorite artist the most. When we looked at artists ranked by the number of superfans Eminem topped the list. He was closely followed by K-pop superstars BTS. Classic 60s and 70s bands The Beatles and Queen made up the top 10, while Shakira and Beyoncé also had the most loyal streamers. Fun fact - the average age of a superfan is 31 years old!

Animal Rhythm: When we looked at the average musical BPM around the world,  cats clawed their way to the top of the animal kingdom with a BPM of 131-132. The giraffe wasn’t far behind coming in at #2 with a BPM (140-149) and the dog hitting the #3 spot at (127-128). However, regionally cats played second fiddle to the giraffe which took the #1 spot in countries including: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Guatemala.

Top podcasts: The most played podcasts show what a rollercoaster of a year this has been. The lockdown meant we regularly turned to updates with ‘Global News Podcast’ and inspiration with ‘TED Talks Daily.’ But throughout it all, we still needed a good laugh. The likes of top-charting ‘Call Her Daddy’ and ‘Sh**ged Married Annoyed’ meant comedy reigned supreme as our most streamed podcast genre. It beat True Crime, which kept the world gripped with shows like ‘Casefile True Crime’ and Crime Junkie’.

“This is the year of home confinement and social distancing. Streaming helped many people cope and it may be telling that the top 10 tracks this year are all international, dancey, and positive. We also saw some interesting trends, with 40% of our top 20 international albums made by black artists, compared to a quarter the year before. And our top 10 streamed international acts were equally split between genders this year. Music has always reflected the underlying dynamics of our society and 2020 is no different. I can’t wait to see what 2021 brings,” said Frédéric Antelme, Deezer’s VP of Content and Productions.

In order to help you find all the sounds of 2020 in one place, our editors have created a special ‘Best of 2020’ channel. Here you’ll find all the top streamed tunes, and artists of the year. You’ll also find personal playlists from our editors that define what 2020 meant for each of them.

The ‘Best of 2020’ channel will be live on the morning of December 2nd, along with what you’ve been waiting for all year long -  #MyDeezerYear. You’ll be able to see your personal top chartsand rediscover what you listened to the most. You canHead to the mobile app, log into your account and find all the tunes, artists and podcasts that you’ve had on repeat in 2020. Send to your friends in shareable cards, while also revealing your ‘Animal Rhythm.’

Top 10 international artists 

1. J Balvin

2. The Weeknd

3. Bad Bunny

4. Dua Lipa

5. Billie Eilish

6. Lady Gaga

7. Anitta

8. Eminem

9. Ed Sheeran

10. Ariana Grande

Top 10 international female artists 

1. Dua Lipa

2. Billie Eilish

3. Lady Gaga

4. Anitta

5. Ariana Grande

6. Rihanna

7. Sia 

8. Beyoncé

9. Nicki Minaj

10. Karol G

Top 10 international male artists 

1. J Balvin

2. The Weeknd

3. Bad Bunny

4. Eminem

5. Ed Sheeran

6. Queen

7. Ozuna

8. Justin Bieber

9. Daddy Yankee

10. Drake

Top 10 international tracks

1. Dance Monkey - Tones and I

2. Blinding Lights - The Weeknd

3. Roses (Imanbek Remix) - SAINt JHN

4. Don’t Start Now - Dua Lipa

5. Tusa - Karol G, Nicki Minaj

6. Ride It - Regard

7. The Box - Roddy Ricch

8. bad guy - Billie Eilish

9. RITMO (Bad Boys For Life) - Black Eyed Peas, J Balvin

10. Say So - Doja Cat

Top 10 international albums 

1. After Hours - The Weeknd

2. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?- Billie Eilish

3. The Kids Are Coming  - Tones and I

4. Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon - Pop Smoke

5. Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial - Roddy Ricch

6. Hot Pink - Doja Cat

7. Fine Line - Harry Styles

8. Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa

9. Chromatica - Lady Gaga

10. Music To Be Murdered By -  Eminem

Top 10 English speaking podcasts 

1. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. TED Talks Daily

3. Sh**ged Married Annoyed

4. No Such Thing As A Fish

5. That Peter Crouch Podcast

6. Crime Junkie

7. Global News Podcast

8. Casefile True Crime

9. Stuff You Should Know

10. Call Her Daddy

Artists with the most Trendsetting fans

1. The Weeknd

2. J Balvin

3. Os Barões Da Pisadinha

4. Lady Gaga

5. Justin Bieber

6. Ninho

7. Henrique & Juliano

8. Zé Neto & Cristiano

9. Marília Mendonça

10. Maes

Artists with the most Superfans

1. Eminem

2. BTS

3. Beyoncé

4. Queen

5. The Beatles

6. David Guetta

7. Maroon 5

8. AC/DC

9. Shakira

10. Justin Bieber