UK Pop Stars Disappear From Global Bestseller Charts For First Time In Two Decades​on February 23, 2025 at 10:48 am

For half a century, British pop stars have been among the biggest sellers worldwide, but that all changed last year.

BBC News reports that, for the first time since 2003, no British music artist has made it into the worldwide annual chart of the year’s top 10 bestselling singles or albums, as revealed by the annual report from global music industry body IFPI.

The bestselling song of 2024, as reported by the IFPI, was American singer Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things. The bestselling album was Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.

Boone’s song topped the charts in the UK, Australia, Canada, Norway, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand. It also became his first song to enter the top five on the US Billboard chart, reaching number two.

Swift’s album was released at the peak of her record-breaking Eras tour, benefitting from fevered fan speculation as to which of her ex or current boyfriends inspired which song on the longplaying album.

The BBC reports that the highest-ranked British entry on the list was singer and producer Artemas, in 15^th position with the song I Like the Way You Kiss Me.

Charlie XCX – the leading nominee at next week’s Brit Awards, rewarding the best in British music – failed to make the cut, along with Coldplay and Dua Lipa, who both released new material this year.

Nor did British artists hold any of the top 10 most popular singles even in the UK charts, the first time of this instance for at least 20 years.