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USA: Most played songs on the radio in 2020

We recently released an overview of the most popular songs on the radio in the UK during 2020, but what about some other representative music markets? We prepared a new version of the TOP 150 songs, only this time we looked into our data from the US.

The Weeknd, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, Post Malone

At the very top we have The Weeknd with the most played song on American radio stations, the song "Blinding Lights" was released in November 2019. This very successful single is also the most played song globally and has dominated both Spotify and radio charts. The song counts 3,747,891 plays on the radio and a whopping 1,763,233,948 streams on Spotify, making it the Weeknd’s most successful song to date, outclassing previous hits The Hills and Starboy.

In position #2 we have "Circles" by Post Malone, in #3 "Don't Start Now" by Dua Lipa, and in #4 "Adore you" by Harry Styles. Interestingly, these four songs are also well positioned within the Top 10 songs in the UK.

But then we also found artists in the chart that have benefited more from past tracks than from new releases. This is the case of fellows Ed Sheeran and Journey. For instance, Ed Sheeran is also very well positioned in the chart, but his share is better represented by past tracks and sporadic features more than from his latest releases. As for Journey, we found his genuine classic “Don’t Stop Believin” in position #85. This hit was released way back in 1981 and is one of the only songs in the top 100 not released in the late 2010s.

The top 150 chart by WARM uses a 1:1 count based on 7,693  monitored US radio stations, the largest coverage of radio stations among other radio tracking platforms in the US.

Check out the Top 150 songs on the radio in the US in the chart below:

Top 150 songs played on the radio in the USA in 2020

It’s worth noting that most other radio charts available are influenced by the size and importance of specific radio stations. This means that plays on certain stations count more than plays on others, which can make them less transparent. WARM’s chart, however, uses a 1:1 count based on 7693 monitored US radio stations which is the largest coverage of US radio stations for any radio tracking service by far.


What about in 2021? What were the songs the most played on the radio? Check out the Top 100 songs the most played on the radio in the UK in 2021.

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