She’s the Music Week 2020 Artist Of The Year – and now Dua Lipa has been crowned the year’s queen of TikTok.
The superstar singer-songwriter’s music was the most-used catalogue in the UK for TikTok creations – the platform’s key measurement for virality.
Lipa launched her video for Levitating, featuring TikTok creators, on the platform and has racked up 4.6 million followers. That helped her beat Harry Styles, S1mba, Hrvy and Lewis Capaldi to the top.
The most viewed UK artist account, however, was from a relative unknown: Essex-based singer-songwriter Sam Ryder, who has 6m followers waiting for his next cover of a classic song. The rest of the Top 5 on that chart was made up of Hrvy, Liam Payne, Capaldi and the maker of the UK’s current No.1 album, Yungblud.
TikTok has become a vital platform for breaking songs this year, and has been behind numerous hits, as documented in our 2020 cover feature on the platform. It now has 100m active users in Europe, and 176 different songs have passed the one billion views mark as TikTok sounds.
“2020 has been the year that music started on TiKTok - driving music discovery and fan engagement for all artists, from emerging talent to global superstars,” said Paul Hourican, TikTok’s head of music operations UK. “New artists have been given a big voice on our platform and established names have found new, authentic and creative ways to engage with their fans.
“We've seen so many incredible artist moments in 2020, bringing new music and experiences and inspiring our creative community,” he added. “I want to say a big thank you to all the artists and our industry partners who have embraced TikTok this year - bring on 2021."
* To read our exclusive Dua Lipa cover story, get the current issue of Music Week, available now, or click here. To order your print copy, email musicweek@abacusemedia.com. To subscribe to Music Week and never miss a vital music biz story, click here.
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