Billboards Top Artists of the Year

Billboard has unveiled its full list of year-end music charts for 2018, including Top Artist, Top New Artist, Hot 100 Songs and Billboard 200 Albums, featuring Drake, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello and more.

Drake ruled the charts this year, leading the year-end Top Artists ranking with the success of his Billboard 200-topping album Scorpion and its many hit singles on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, including the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 song of the year, “God’s Plan.” Drake is the first rap act to be the overall Top Artist of the year since 50 Cent in 2005, and just the third rap artist to ever lead the category, after 50 Cent and Nelly.

Following a male-dominated 2017, in which men swept the entire top 10, female artists took center stage as three women finished in the top 10 on the Top Artists tally. Taylor Swift – the year’s top female artist – is the highest ranking woman on the overall Top Artists tally at No. 4, joined by the year’s top new artist, Cardi B, at No. 5, Camila Cabello at No. 10, Ariana Grande (No. 14), Dua Lipa (No. 19) and Halsey (No. 20).

Rankings are based on combined radio airplay and sales and streaming data.