Drake Named Shazam’s All-Time Most Searched Artist

Thania Garcia
·4 min read

For Shazam’s 20th birthday, the music discovery app compiled a list of its most searched artists and songs and found that Drake holds the title as the top artist with 350 million Shazams. Across the songs he has led or featured on, Drake’s “One Dance” is his most sought-after track at over 17 million Shazams.

Shazam launched the first version of their tool back in August of 2002 when they experimented with a text message service based in the UK. Users could identify songs by dialing “2580” on their phone and holding the device up to a speaker as a song played. They were then sent an SMS message telling them the song title and the name of the artist. At the time, the most Shazamed song was “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley.

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Shazam would later appear on the app store in 2008 and launched its Andriod version in October of the same year. By June of 2021, the app had over 1 billion Shazams per month and as of this week, it has officially surpassed 70 billion song recognitions. Today the 20-year-old platform boasts over 225 million global monthly users.

The acknowledgments continue with the most Shazamed song of all time going to Australian singer Tones And I for 2019’s “Dance Monkey,” which collected over 41 million Shazams.

Shazam also observed the most searched songs in seven genres: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton for hip-hop/rap; “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood and the Prick and Robin Schulz for dance; “All of Me” by John Legend for R&B/soul; “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William for Latin; “Let Her Go” by Passenger for pop; “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I for alternative; and “Take Me to Church” by Hozier in the singer/songwriter category.

Across its two-decade history, Shazam has introduced various new features — the latest being the concert discovery tool, which spotlights concert information and tickets on sale for shows nearby when someone Shazams a song (or by searching for it in the Shazam app or website).

To mark the anniversary, Shazam developed a commemorative playlist comprised of the most Shazamed song of each calendar year since its inception. You can listen to that list on Apple Music.

Notable Firsts

  • First-ever Shazamed song: “Jeepster” by T. Rex (April 19, 2002)

  • First Shazamed song on the iOS app: “How Am I Different” by Aimee Mann (July 10, 2008)

  • First track to reach 1,000 Shazams: “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem (September 2002)

  • First track to reach one million Shazams: “TiKToK” by Ke$ha (February 2010)

  • First track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye feat. Kimbra (December 2012)

  • First track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz (October 2015)

  • First artist to hit one million Shazams: Lil Wayne (February 2009)

  • First artist to hit 10 million Shazams: Lil Wayne (June 2011)

  • First artist to hit 100 million Shazams: David Guetta (May 2015)

Fastest Tracks to Accumulate Shazams

  • Fastest track to reach one million Shazams: “Butter” by BTS (nine days)

  • Fastest track to reach 10 million Shazams: “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran (87 days)

  • Fastest track to reach 20 million Shazams: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I (219 days)

Most Shazamed of All Time

  • Drake is the most Shazamed artist of all time with over 350 million Shazams across songs the artist has led or featured on. “One Dance” is Drake’s most popular track at over 17 million Shazams.

  • “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I is the most Shazamed song ever with over 41 million Shazams.

  • “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley was the most Shazamed song using the 2580 text service.

Top Shazamed Songs by Genre

  • Top Hip-Hop/Rap: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton

  • Top Dance: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz

  • Top R&B/Soul: “All of Me” by John Legend

  • Top Latin: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William

  • Top Pop: “Let Her Go” by Passenger

  • Top Alternative: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I

  • Top Singer/Songwriter: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier

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