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.
How ironic that one of the last songs to become a success in the decade would also be the most successful, at one point this was the most successful song of all time in Australia and if we're going by chart runs, it still is to this day given how it last 26 WEEKS AT NUMBER ONE purely due to "Old town road" lasting nineteen weeks at number one on Billboard at the end of the decade.
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.
This is another song that's become infamous for the internet's opinion of it, it's easy to see why people detest this song as it seems to check all of the boxes for what it hates about music from the vocals to the melody to the lyrics. It's worth noting that even in this day and age, non-American artists usually have to wait until they've conquered the world before they so much as touch the Billboard charts like this did.
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.
While it didn't last almost half a year at number one outside of America, this meme track from Lil Nas X was a massive success regardless thanks to the controversy that came when it was (rather foolishly) denied being able to chart on the Billboard country charts which sparked accusations of racism due to how many songs that have been able to appear on those charts despite not being country songs.
It seems strange that the biggest hit of Billie Eilish's career (at least as of this writing) would be a song that was released the day that her debut album dropped, I guess audiences wanted to listen to her try and seduce an older person over anything else she had to offer at this point. It saw a minor comeback in the new decade after she swept the Grammys as well as it being crowned the best song of 2019 by many publications.
This is a song whose existence is based around a more popular song; in this case it was "Old town road" which was quickly becoming one of the biggest hits of all time when Blanco Brown decided to cash in on its success by releasing this track which worked wonders for the country singer of colour.
This was the song that Shawn Mendes released with Camila Cabello to confirm rumours that the pair were in fact dating, this was likely due to persistent rumours that Shawn was gay due to him being more effeminate than the usual pop star even in this day and age (don't get me started on this stereotype.) It remains Shawn's final hit to date, although Camilla is still sticking around the mainstream.
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.
It may be too early to say given how it hasn't even been five years since this dropped off the charts (as of this writing of course) however this might be the last we'll ever hear from Maroon 5 given how none of their subsequent singles have been able to take off anywhere in the world outside their native America.
This was a massive hit for both Marshmello and Kane Brown in Australia and their native America, likely because country music seems to be the genre of choice in both countries following the "Old town road" controversy as the decade was coming to an end. In Australia, it could also be because Marshmello was inescapable here as he had plenty of other hits that we'll look at on this list.
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.
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.
It looked like that Guy Sebastian's popularity came to an end with "Like a drum" from earlier on this list, heck not even his appearance at the 2015 Eurovision as Australia's first entry did his career any favours as that track failed to become a hit for him even here that year. Fast forward four years and he managed to score a massive comeback with this track even with all of the Spotify streaming it had to compete with.
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 is a song whose popularity I personally don't understand, it obviously leaves me in the minority that I don't like this track considering A: how inescapably popular it was going into the new decade and B: the critical acclaim it continues to receive to this day for Post Malone.
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.
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 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.
There were a ton of DJ's to make it big as the decade was coming to an end that were from places that you likely didn't even realise had a music scene, here we have a hit from Regard who hails from Kosovo who came across the Jay Sean track from 2008 and made it his own by remixing it for a modern audience. It was a massive hit going into the new decade and one that promised great things for the man in question.
You may be surprised to learn that this will be the Jonas Brothers only appearance on this site as they never had much success during their time on Disney like their female counterparts, in fact I get the feeling this was only a hit for the trio due to it sounding a lot like "Feel it still" from Portugal the man which was one of the bigger hits of the decade worldwide (stay tuned for it.)
This is the first new entry from this list, I told you that pop music wasn't dead during the second half of the decade once you looked past the streaming services. In any case, we have this (to date) one and only hit from English singer/songwriter Freya Riding who managed to connect with audiences in the real world with this self-empowerment anthem about overcoming a rough relationship.
This was the third hit to come from the debut E.P from Tones and I, much like her earlier entry, this is a song about her struggles living in poverty which naturally connected with an audience albeit to a much smaller scale as it wasn't turned into a meme like "Dance monkey" was. You'd think with all of this success she would still be one of the most popular artists of the moment, alas she no longer is.
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.
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 was the song that Sam Smith released to coincide with them coming out as non-binary, although I always found it weird that they chose to reveal who they truly were on this track as it's a collaboration with Normani from Fifth harmony and appears to be a song about how they were cheating on each other as if they were dating. To date, it remains the final hit single from Normani as she's yet to have a hit as a lead artist.
Well, this is a song that I feel the title speaks for itself, although I will say that Ed Sheeran was one of the lucky few to not have his career ruined by collaborating with Justin Bieber which is a lot more than I can say for just about everyone else on this list who made the mistake of doing so.
This is another entry form P!nk that should be much higher due to it failing to compete with the Spotify charts despite having strong sales upon its initial release, it has the same theme as "What about us" in that she's speaking up for the disenfranchised on this track which seems to have become her theme in recent years. Although she struggles to retain her popularity going into the 2020's, she has scored a hit here and there.
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 is the most recent song I'll be featuring on this site, mainly because I tried talking about the 2020's on my older sites and trust me, there's no way I can do so without things getting ugly. That aside, this was a good way to send off the 2010's as it's a sequel to Dua Lipa's previous biggest hit "New rules" as she practices self-assertiveness by not allowing the person she's singing to boss her around.
Both the Greatest showman and P!nk were inescapable forces here in Australia during the last stretch of the decade, so it only makes sense that having the latter cover a song from the former would be a massive success on our digital charts despite never receiving an official single.
*I had to improvise for album art with his entry as this wasn't released as a single from the album*
Were it not for streaming services dominating the last stretch of the decade, this would've easily been Birds of Tokyo's biggest hit here in Australia given how it became a surprise hit for the band as the decade was coming to an end on the digital charts. I remember this receiving quite a fair amount of airplay, which is further proof I have that the digital charts reflected what people in the real world wanted to hear.
Ed Sheeran's collaboration album was met with divisive reviews, while most of the tracks were panned for being meaningless collaborations with pop stars (such as his earlier entry with Justin Bieber) others were praised such as this collaboration with Khalid which was meant to be a song about how being conventionally unattractive wasn't a reason to feel left out of society.
Given how Keith Urban has become one of the most popular country artists of the decade here in Australia, it only makes sense that there would be a younger version of him finding success here even if that success only came from our digital charts during the last stretch of the decade. Who knows how much more successful Morgan Evans would've been had he broken out sooner in the decade.
This is to date the final hit that Jessica Mauboy was able to achieve in her career, even then, it was only a hit through digital sales which were strong enough for this lead single on her (to date) final album to be a massive success on those charts and even had that success translate to minor success on the main charts.
This was the second single to come from the soundtrack to A star is born, it was more of a hit on digital services as was her top entry on this list, proving that Lady Gaga's comeback would've been even more substantial were it not for the soundtrack having to compete on streaming services with some of the big names on this list from the second half of the decade.
This is to date Dean Lewis's final hit anywhere in the world, likely due to the Aussie folk singer failing to compete with all of the streaming juggernauts in the new decade with his later material. Indeed, this was a hit twice here in Australia as it was released as the second advanced single from his debut album and rebounded once the album was released soon after.
Miley was on a roll during the second half of the decade here in Australia, or at least she was if you considered how well she did on our digital charts given how this psychedelia revival track managed to be a massive success on that format as was her other two entries from the second half of the decade we've looked at. Indeed, she seems to have taken the positive traits of her weird experimentation from earlier in the decade and used it for this phase of her career.
From what I can gather, Dan and Shay were a country duo who were big on the country scene in their native America who were looking for a pop crossover which they got by collaborating with Justin Bieber just as the decade was coming to an end. This is the latest obituary I've written for this list as the pair have yet to have another hit following this collaboration with the Canadian superstar.
This is the other new entry that the Imagine Dragons had on this list compared to my official list, it was the lead single to their fourth album which was only a modest success for the band given how they were unable to compete on streaming services with the big names during the last stretch of the decade.
This was one of many EDM tracks to make it big during the final stretch of the decade, it comes to us from the Italian group Meduza who has this amazing gimmick of their music coming out of a statue that resembles the Greek god they're named after and even having the hair animated in the official audio on YouTube. Who knows what the future holds for the group given how unique their image is.
This was another song that was a hit twice due to it being a hit upon its initial release as well as when the album it came from was released, in this case it was the lead single to the Aussie hip hop trio's (to date) latest album which was such a success that it even spawned a second minor hit with "Exit sign" (which won't be appearing on this list.) This is essentially a stoner's anthem given how much they brag about weed on here.
I don't even want to talk about this track, I'm from the queer community after all, so you can imagine my frustration I have that Taylor would compare her problems to what I and the people in my community go through on a day-to-day basis. I guess she got the approval of several high-profile queer activists, meaning that people felt this was her way of showing support to our community.
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 was originally released in 2016 to deafening silence from Lizzo, likely because it was the theme song to a film known as Barber shop that I guarantee few if anyone reading this would've heard of. It was given a second chance three years later when "Truth hurts" became a surprise hit as the decade was coming to an end in her native America, although that unfortunately was too much of a sleeper hit to appear on this list.
After two songs that caused the internet to further turn against her, Taylor Swift finally managed to redeem herself at least in the eyes of her fans with this title track to her final album of the decade. It was a return to her country roots (well at least it was with the writing) which many people appreciated from her as most of her songs from the second half of the decade have been described as petty and vindictive.
I guess Ava Max was another artist from the last stretch of the decade that had a promising career to look forward to in the 2020's were it not for the rise of streaming, here she escapes the one hit wonder bin that her previous entry threatened to trap her in (and many will tell you has due to this song's poor performance on the main charts worldwide) with a similar subject matter to that song of her being an outcast.
I did mention earlier on this list that this song was a massive hit here in Australia through digital sales during the final stretch of the decade, this goes to show that Lukas Graham was another group that could've thrived going into the new decade had streaming not dominated the mainstream worldwide.
As controversial as "You need to calm down" was, at least people tried to defend it by it being her way of allying herself with the queer community (even though many queer people were previously fans of her before that song came out and have since distanced themselves from her.) This on the other hand is her recruiting Brendan Urie of Panic at the disco (that's how he now presents himself) for a song about how awesome it is to be her which really rubbed people the wrong way.
This was technically the big comeback single that Guy Sebastian had during the last stretch of the decade with "Choir" from earlier on this list being the song that solidified his comeback on the main charts as this naturally was only a hit through digital sales and was a complete dud on our streaming services.
This was another single from Ed Sheeran's collaboration album, this time it was a triune between him, Cardi B and Camela Cabello which people are divided on as on the one hand it showcases Ed's willingness to experiment whilst on the other hand it opens up the question as to why he would want to collaborate with either of these women.
We have another entry from Ed Sheeran's collaboration album, this time it's his work with rappers PNB Rock and Chance the rapper which suggests this was meant to be the hip hop collaboration from the album.
This and "Dark horse" are the only entries on this list that didn't chart on ARIA this decade, although this third single from George Ezra's second album missed out on the main charts due to having all of its success through its digital sales which were strong enough to have an impressive run on those charts for the folk singer. Again, it's hard to say if his later material has sold well due to ARIA conveniently discontinuing their digital charts in 2020.
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