Well, this was the biggest hit of all time for a little while given how it was the theme song to Spiderman into the spider verse, OK it was the favourite song of the lead character Miles Morales which in turn made it the new favourite song of audiences who enjoyed the film. Not bad for two rappers who by this point were divisive at best in the hip hop game.
Given how we're in an era where every song on an album is guaranteed to chart once said album is released, I guess the way to have follow ups from it once it comes out is to take a track and modify it in a way where it stands out from the rest of the track listing. This was the mindset for this ballad which got turned into a duet with Beyonce despite the original being about how Ed feels that the love of his life was perfect the way they were.
It looked like Five seconds of summer were yesterday's news given how they hadn't troubled the charts anywhere in the world since their second album back in 2015, however their popularity was restored when they released the lead single to their third album which became an inescapable success everywhere in the world. Were it not for Tones and I's earlier entry, this would be the biggest hit from an Australian artist of all time.
Although this was plenty successful as a single, the bulk of this song's success comes from the music video which is a montage of Benny Blanco's life up until this point which tugged at the heartstrings of viewers around the world. The song recruits both Khalid and Halsey to narrate his life experience which also contributed to the song's overall popularity.
I guess it's good to know that it's only been recently that Australians have been struggling to make it big even in our local charts, this was such a massive hit for Dean Lewis that it even managed to be a huge international success for the indie folk singer at a time where it was becoming increasingly hard for indie artists to make it big in an increasingly coporatised market.
The last time George Ezra had any success on the charts was four years prior to when this became a huge runaway success for him with his debut album, although admittedly he did take his sweet time in following up that album as he didn't release any new music in those four years. This is a song whose popularity was a result of it being featured in every commercial you can think of.
It had been a while since Lady Gaga last had a genuine hit single anywhere in the world, so to see her back at the top of the charts with this track from the A star is born soundtrack was a bit of a surprise to say the least. The song's popularity came in two waves, the first was upon its initial release to promote the film and the second was when it won best original song at the Academy awards.
Post Malone had moderate success prior to this song about how he wished he was a rock star rather than a rapper (although I hesitate to call him a rapper if I'm being honest) however it was this track that finally made him transition from a meme that "White Iverson" made him earlier in the decade to a household name likely because of the subject matter.
This was originally from Post Malone's debut album Stoney; it was a mere album track which contained the type of misogyny you'd expect from someone who doesn't understand that women were people and thus was largely dismissed as a dud from the album initially. It gained traction a year after the album came out due to a live performance of the song which was so well received that it was pushed as a single.
We looked at the biggest hit from Halsey's career earlier on this list, now let's look at her biggest hit to date which has her as the lead artist (as of this writing of course.) It's a song about how she felt she was responsible for G-Eazy's fame (despite him finding success much earlier than she did, let alone when they met) and how he was going to have a hard time living without her now that they were through as a couple.
This is a song I don't want to talk about, OK I guess I can because it's the video that makes me angry whenever this comes up in conversation (look it up to see where I'm coming from.) I guess this was able to get Bastille out of the one hit wonder bin that "Pompeii" threatened to trap them in earlier in the decade (stay tuned for that further down this list) however that's about the only positive I have for this track.
Following her departure from Fifth harmony, Camila Cabello launched a solo career which began with this song about how she was in love with the city of Havana (which just happens to be where she was born.) It was a massive hit for her likely due to it being released when the Latin craze of the late 2010's took off thanks to "Despacito" from earlier on this list.
This was originally an album track from Maroon 5's album Red pill blues, it was given the remix treatment when the band decided to turn it into a female empowerment anthem by having the video had Adam Levine dance with some of the most powerful women in the world as well as having a guest verse from Cardi B which (in my opinion) might just be the only thing remotely empowering about the track.
This was Drake's lead single to his album Scorpion, an album that managed to dominate the charts worldwide due to its monopoly on Spotify upon its initial release. Here he chalks up his success to being God's plan, there have been plenty of jokes made about this song for that alone which ironically is likely why it was such a huge success for him.
This song feels like a lie due to it crediting Bebe Rexha as the lead artist when really it should be Florida Georgia Line (man what a stupid band name) as they have far more presence on here than the pop star. The song is rather innocuous on its own, however it caused massive controversy for breaking the record for the most weeks at number one on the Billboard country charts, a set of charts I think we can all agree has little value.
This was a hit twice for Travis Scott (a man I won't be talking about outside of his music on this site for what I hope are obvious reasons) the first time was upon its initial release as the song has received a lot of praise over the years for the many different directions it takes and the second was when Drake got on board the track with a guest verse which boosted its popularity even further.
Dua Lipa already had a huge hit earlier in the decade with "Be the one" (which is still to come on this list) so it's little surprise that she would score a massive hit with this track about her learning some self-care when it comes to going out to party. It was such a massive hit for the English diva that it managed to crossover to the American charts as well as allow her debut album to be a massive success.
This was meant to be Ariana Grande's way of addressing the criticism she received for her questionable behaviour throughout the decade, it was a compelling enough song that people have long since forgotten her many controversies (although I get the feeling that Manchester concert also helped out with this.) The song is also known for its video which is stuffed with references to popular teen movies.
This seems like one of those songs that was created specifically to draw out comments from people that will offend their readers, as such I won't say anything about this track other than it being the one and only hit from American singer Ava Max likely because of the reason I just described.
This was the song that became a massive hit for Post Malone when his second album Beerbongs and Bentleys dropped, I bring this up because it technically was never released as a single and only stuck around due to a live performance that captivated listeners of the moment.
This was the last official single that was released from Beerbongs and Bentleys before the album dropped, it was exactly as successful as the previous entry (its placement on this list was down to the wire) despite both songs having completely different subject matter as the former was about moving on from a toxic relationship whilst this was about how he felt he was a psycho.
Given how popular Khalid was here in Australia thanks to how well beloved he was on Triple J (what's happened to him I wonder?) it seems fitting that he would be the one to introduce Marshmello to the world with this collaboration he made with the American DJ. His gimmick is that he wears a helmet that's meant to suggest that he's an anthropomorphic marshmallow making music for the masses.
This was one of the more pop friendly tracks from Khalid's catalogue, I guess this is why it remains his biggest hit as a lead artist and is only slightly less successful than his earlier entry with Marshmello on this list. It also allowed him to have a massive hit in his native America given how everything he released up until this point was only a moderate hit on Billboard at best.
This is one of the grooviest songs to come out of the decade, it comes to us from a band that had been active for over a decade by the time they scored their one and only hit in the music industry (as of this writing of course.) As with most indie bands, this managed to become a success due to ad execs somehow discovering the track and including it in their ads, that and it being a favourite on Triple J here in Australia.
There haven't been many Canadian artists in recent years, sure Justin Bieber is going to stick around for the rest of time and we shouldn't be surprised if Shawn Mendes suddenly reappears on the charts, however, there haven't been many other artists to make it big from the far north. One of the more recent success stories comes from this duo who scored a massive hit with this EDM track worldwide.
Around the time that Khalid had a hit with Marshmello with their earlier collaboration on this list, he also managed to score a huge hit in Australia and NZ with this remix of one of his songs on his debut album which really resonated with audiences the same way that Twenty Øne Piløts did the year prior as it's about how he and his friends were all young dumb and broke in this world.
The hits just kept on coming for Khalid as he collaborates with Fifth harmony singer Normani on a song where the two of them play a couple madly in love with each other, like the rest of his catalogue, it was a massive hit for him in the southern hemisphere and not so much in his native America.
There have been many jokes made about how this wasn't the "revival" that Eminem needed for his career; however, I feel this song's backlash was blown out of proportion given how it was just an (admittedly bizarre) collaboration between Eminem and Ed Sheeran of all people likely due recreate the success of his two collaborations with Rihanna earlier in the decade. In that regard, the song succeeded.
To date, this is the final hit for everyone involved with this track, mainly because it's a song about how we're living in good times released during a time where that couldn't be further from the truth (don't even get me started on how the world's been in recent memory.) The song's intentions are good of course, which is perhaps why it was a hit even if you can definitely say it was released at a bad time.
This was the third and final big hit to come from Scorpion, this was because Drake attached a challenge to it where one has to film someone dancing to the song whilst driving in a car (at least all of the videos I've seen have this happening.) It was a predictable hit from the Canadian rapper and one that extended his good will into the 2020's even with how much overexposure he's gotten over the years.
The worst thing about Maroon 5's earlier entry on this list was that they got the idea to turn "Girls like you" into a female empowerment anthem from this song from Drake who made it specifically to be a female empowerment anthem from the get-go. He also put more effort into the video by making the feminists (who are more well loved and respected) look like super models as opposed to the earlier video.
Following the success of his collaboration with Dua Lipa (which we'll get to in a bit) Calvin Harris decided to return to his roots of collaborating with strictly British artists which is perhaps why he decided to have Sam Smith be his next collaboration as they were among the most popular artists of the decade regardless of where in the world you're from. I should clarify that this was the last hit that they had before they revealed their identity.
This was a collaboration with two of the biggest names in British music during the last stretch of the decade, after all Calvin Harris was still a household name in the EDM scene whilst Dua Lipa was coming off the success of her debut album taking off over in America. Here the two score another worldwide hit with this collaboration proving that their respective popularities were as strong as ever.
Here's the other big hit that Zedd had as a lead artist, it's also the second hit he had with the American duo Grey following the success the three DJ's had with Hailee Steinfeld from two years prior (that collaboration is still to come on this list.) The only new name on this track is Marren Morris who is a country singer who scored her big crossover hit worldwide with this collaboration.
To date, this is the only hit single from American Christian rapper NF anywhere in the world, although considering how long it took for the Caucasian rapper to find success from the start of his career, I wouldn't count him being trapped in the one hit wonder bin just yet. This is a song about how he felt he was a failure to his (biological) father, making this being a success that much more ironic in hindsight.
This is the only collaboration that Marshmello has made where he doesn't have the main credit on the song as he gave that to Selena Gomez for some reason, I guess because she was inescapably popular during the second half of the decade which is strange considering she only started having hits once she made a clean getaway from Disney as well as long after she broke up with Justin Bieber.
This wasn't meant to be a single from Dua Lipa's debut album, however it became one following the surprise success of her earlier entry on this list in America where said album wasn't released when it crossed over. If you didn't already know, the song is an acronym for "I don't give a f**k" which is perhaps why it wasn't chosen as the single as naturally the radio has to edit out the last word when playing it.
This is one of two big hits that Kendrick Lamar had from the Black panther soundtrack, the other was with the Weeknd which will appear much later down the list as it wasn't nearly as successful as this first hit was. I guess we Aussies preferred his collaboration with SZA who's only success at this point was with Maroon 5 on their hit single "What lovers do" which we'll get to later down this list.
This is literally a friendzone anthem, it's bad enough when one is friend zoned as it means that the person they have feelings for and/or is attracted to doesn't feel the same way about them but cares enough that they want their company, but to have that awkward situation glamourised in this song is problematic to say the least. That's ignoring the fact that this person Anne Marie is friend zoning likely needs a restraining order.
To date, this is the final hit that Jonas Blue has been able to achieve anywhere in the world, likely because he chose to collaborate with a duo known as Jack and Jack who don't exactly live up to the hype set up by his other collaborators this decade with their vocals. We've got two more hits to look at from the British DJ which were much better than the two songs we've looked at so far.
This is a song whose music video was considered so good by the music industry that (I swear I'm not making this up) there were posters for it in the movie theatres, I'll leave my readers to decide if it was even worth promoting the music video in theatres like it was a real movie or not but suffice to say, this was where the arrogance of Adam Levine was seriously starting to test the patience of the internet.
This was the first advanced single from Billie Eilish's debut album, it's a song that while I certainly respect, I find it difficult to listen to after repeated listens due to me becoming too invested in Billie's plight to the point where it makes me uncomfortable. I guess most audiences don't have this issue as it was a hit not only upon its initial release but also when the album dropped several months after its release.
There seems to be a rising interest for the year 2002 in recent memory, so much so that Anne Marie wrote a song about how great that year was despite only being eleven years old at the time. I'd say she must have a very good memory, however that becomes questionable when she references "99 problems" by Jay Z which wasn't released until 2004, hey we all misremember things from time to time.
Although this is credited to Mark Ronson much like his other hit with Bruno Mars from earlier on this list, this is really a Miley Cyrus track where she discovers her inner Stevie Nicks for this track that's meant to be a throwback to the 70's disco but feels more like one of the Fleetwood Mac singer's solo material from the 80's. It was a massive success for them worldwide except of course in Miley's native America.
This was one of two big hits that Ariana Grande had this decade where she clearly wanted to move on from her previous turmoil's, we already looked at the other song earlier on this list, so let's instead focus on why this connected with audiences when it did. She was nearly cancelled earlier in the decade for her bad behaviour, but was spared from this fate when she became the victim of a terrorist attack at one of her concerts which this song indirectly addresses.
It had been a while since Panic! at the disco troubled the charts anywhere in the world, indeed this has the same criticisms as what people have for Maroon 5 as if feels more like a solo joint from Brendan Urie rather than a comeback for the band. In any case, this revived Brendan's popularity enough for him to have a duet with Taylor Swift about how awesome it was to be her just before the decade came to an end.
This is a song that was tailor made to be controversial, as such I'll only be featuring it on here for prosperity as it was a hit here in Australia like it was throughout the rest of the world.
It looked like Camila Cabello was the real driving force of Fifth harmony's success throughout the decade as she was effortlessly able to score a second hit on her own whilst the band had by this point faded into obscurity, here she further moves away from their sound by moving in a more adult contemporary direction which many people found irritating due to her vocals clashing with the production.
This was the Weeknd's final hit of the decade worldwide, although he would begin the 2020's with the biggest hit not just of his career but of all time (at least for a brief spell it was) proving that this was a mere holdover to when he released his fourth album that year.
This was a collaboration between three artists that had varying degrees of success throughout the decade, there's Hailee Steinfeld who was by far the most successful of the three due to her acting career giving her buzz for her music career. Florida Georgia line was also decently successful in their native America but not as much internationally, and finally there's Alesso who only had one other hit with "Heroes" this decade.
It may surprise you to learn that "Bodak yellow" was a massive flop for Cardi B internationally, I'm guessing because international audiences felt that there was only room for one female rapper at the time which they've since realised wasn't the case given the success of the likes of Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat over the years. As such, this was the world's introduction to her which was a remix of a new jack swing track from Bruno Mars' album 24k magic.
Here we have another artist from a country that many likely didn't realise had a music scene, in this case it's Lithuanian DJ Dynoro who scored a massive hit with this collaboration with the aging Italian pop star Gigi D'Agostino who scores his first and (to date) only hit with this collaboration. It was a massive hit as the decade was coming to an end here in Australia and presumably Dynoro's homeland.
This is to date Rita Ora's final hit anywhere in the world, although you'd think that her being a judge on the Voice Australia would at least open her up to having more hits exclusively in Australia since she migrated here in 2020, but then again, she did break a few laws just to come here as well as in her native UK that I won't get into on this list. As for why she was more popular here than anywhere else, I can't answer that either.
Well, this will be difficult to talk about, mainly because the artist in question is no longer with us and also due to the song's subject material showing him to have a rather bleak view on women. Obviously, this appealed to people during his lifetime which I'm of course not going to take said appeal away from, and also it was a tragedy that he would no longer be with us only a year after it became a massive success.
This would've easily been much higher on this list were it not for all of the Spotify payola pushing songs like this out of the mainstream, even so, its placement on this list should be telling of how popular indie singer Amy Shark was during the second half of the decade as this was able to be a massive hit for her in a way that many of her contemporaries failed to achieve.
This was that second posse cut from all of these men involved minus Lil Wayne for their entry earlier on this list, I don't have much to say except that none of them managed to have any further success except for Justin Bieber and Quavo, the latter of which only had one more hit with JB on "Intentions" before he too faded into obscurity.
This was one of two hit singles to come from the 13 reasons why soundtrack, a Netflix series that's so controversial it's one of the leading factors as to why people believe the streaming service shouldn't create original content (despite it being based on a series of books.) Due to the popularity of the series, the song from Selena Gomez managed to become a massive worldwide hit for her.
This is the last hit to come from Kanye West, oh sure he's charted since this collaboration with Lil Pump (of "Gucci gang" fame which thankfully won't be appearing on this list) but he's still yet to shake off the novelty of this track whose music video debuted at the porn hub awards for 2018.
This is the last hit that Conrad Sewell has had to date in his career, although he is an indie artist, so perhaps if we ever have data to songs that got big outside of Spotify's monopoly of the music industry, then perhaps I can feature other songs of his on this site. This has nothing to do with the Elton John song of the same name even though the two have a similar subject matter to each other.
There have been several successful showtunes to make it big in the mainstream throughout the decade, one of the bigger tracks was this song from the Greatest showman which comes from Keala Settle who plays the bearded lady in the film. This was the song that she sings during the film's emotional lowpoint as she did so to convince her peers that she wasn't going to be ashamed of herself regardless of what society thinks of her.
This was a hit twice for XXXtentacion, the first time was upon its initial release which goes to show that there was always an audience for this ballad even though it was widely criticised for its subject matter (which I won't be discussing on this list.) The second time was when he was killed which encouraged fans to revisit the song where it became twice as successful as it was the first time.
Even though feminists have been claiming that God is a woman since at least the early 70's (look up Helen Reddy's acceptance speech at the Grammys for "I am woman" for proof of this) this song still managed to create controversy as people believe to this day that God is a man and that this sort of statement is little more than virtue signaling towards the feminist movement.
This is to date the only hit to come from an artist that's from the Middle east, I bet you didn't even realise that there was a music scene from the likes of Israel where Dennis Lloyd is from did you? In any case, we have this song that was originally released in 2017 becoming big the following year due to how well received it was in his homeland.
This is one of the shortest songs to appear on this list, it was a hit due to it being turned into a meme shortly after its release which allowed it to become a success ironically in 2018. This led to songs becoming big off Tik Tok as people would discover these obscure tracks and either poke fun at them or remix them into a dance trend which would allow them to take off internationally.
This is to date the final hit that Clean bandit has been able to achieve throughout the world, I guess because it was their second collaboration with an American pop star (following "I miss you" with Julia Michaels which was only a sleeper hit at best here) that being Demi Lovato fresh off her success with her earlier entry on this list.
This is only one of two hits that Cardi B has had to date as the lead artist outside her native America, the other was "Wap" two years later which sparked controversy due to it having a sexually charged music video that somehow thrived on YouTube despite breaking its community guidelines (I won't get into that topic here of course.) This was far less controversial as it was a rap song from her, Bad bunny and J Balvin based on a sample from a 60's classic.
This was the lead single to Shawn Mendes's third album, an album that was much better recieved than his earlier work likely due to there being a maturity that he and songwriter Teddy Geiger went through during its process following the backlash to songs such as "Stiches" and especially "Treat you better" from earlier on this list. It was their only hit from this album as they would part ways after its production was complete.
This was the other big hit that Pnau managed to achieve this decade, more or less for the same reason I brought up on their earlier entry which means I don't have much more to say here that I didn't already cover on "Chameleon."
This is the final hit that Martin Garrix had here in Australia, mainly because it was a collaboration with Khalid who was at the height of his popularity at the time of its release in the southern hemisphere despite the RNB singer still yet to have that big crossover hit in his native America at the time.
Unlike most modern activists from the entertainment industry, it appears that Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino had a genuine approach to his topic of racial injustice on his song this is America which brought the world to a standstill when he unveiled its music video in 2018 due to the harsh imagery it displays to go along with how he feels about the American political climate. It was an instant hit for him, although its appeal comes from the video which is why it didn't last long on the charts.
This was the word's introduction to Billie Eilish who was a rising star in the indie sphere prior to collaborating with Khalid for this second single from the 13 reasons why soundtrack, that's right, the controversial Netflix series is why Billie would go on to become a massive success going into the new decade with her debut album.
This was the other big hit to come from the Black panther soundtrack, it was a collaboration between two of the biggest musicians of colour throughout the decade for a film with a predominantly black cast so of course it was going to be a success even if it wasn't as big as you'd otherwise think.
This is a song that seemed to exist to test fate as we have this duet between a real-life couple that even upon its initial release, people were making predictions of when they would no longer be as such. I guess it was a hit more for prosperity as it is a convenient way of reminding both parties that they did in fact date given how both of them like to forget that they ever knew each other.
I honestly didn't think this was a hit here in Australia as the only reason why I was aware of its existence was how much of a meme it was upon its initial release due to its strange lyrics. It's also a weird posse cut as we have two DJ Tiesto and Dzeko as well as two performers Preme and Post Malone, only the latter of which would explain why this song was a genuine hit worldwide.
This is the last hit that Peking Duk has been able to achieve in their career, well I call it a hit when really, it's an E.P from them that charted on the singles chart likely due to the success of its single "Fire" which would realistically be the song that should appear on this list for the duo.
This was an E.P from Noah Kahan that initially flopped upon its release in 2017 due to no one knowing who he was, it was given a second chance the following year when Julia Michaels convinced him to turn the title track into a duet where it became a surprise hit for the two of them worldwide and thus made the E.P a success for the rising folk singer.
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