Crossing the Blues

Friday, December 10, 2010

Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift Are Billboard's Artists of the Year


From becoming a hot newbie, Lady GaGa has now taken home the title of Artist of the Year. Handed Rising Star Award at Billboard's Women In Music Awards in 2009 and named Top New Artist at the end of the year, the outlandish singer made a move from "new" to "top" only in a year.

She is the only artist who made the fast move since Chris Brown snatched both titles concurrently in 2006. She followed the footsteps of fellow singer Whitney Houston who was named Top New Artist in 1985 and then switched to Artist of the Year the following year.

GaGa received the honor due to the success of her two albums "The Fame" and "The Fame Monster" which both broke the Top 5 of weekly Billboard Hot 200. Additionally, the effort was ranked at No. 4 and 13 respectively in the year-end albums list, and four of her singles appear in Hot 100 Songs roundup with "Bad Romance" leading at No. 8.

Following GaGa as No. 2 Artist of the Year is none other than young country music beauty Taylor Swift. The Big Machine artist has two albums "Fearless" and "Speak Now" on the Top 10 of the year-end Billboard 200 list. The 2009 best-selling album is sitting at No. 7, while record breaker "Speak Now" is securing the ninth place.

Now that GaGa is no longer the Top New Artist, Billboard gives the title to Ke$ha. Her dance track "Tik Tok", which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the weekly Hot 100 chart, is named Song of the Year, leading the year-end list of Hot 100 Songs roundup.

2010 Top Artists list:
  1. Lady GaGa
  2. Taylor Swift
  3. Eminem
  4. Lady Antebellum
  5. Ke$ha
  6. Usher
  7. Black Eyed Peas
  8. Justin Bieber
  9. Rihanna
  10. Drake