Guinness World Records Names The Weeknd As World's 'Most Popular Artist'

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, now reigns as the most popular artist in the world.

On Monday, Guinness World Records (GWR) announced that the 33-year-old Grammy winner earned the title as he set two record-breaking milestones, having the most monthly listeners on Spotify with 111.4 million and being the first-ever artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform.

The Weeknd beat out several hitmakers, such as Miley Cyrus, who came in second with 82.4 million listeners following the release of her eighth studio album "Endless Summer Vacation" earlier this month. Other artists he surpassed included Shakira (81.6 million), Ariana Grande (80.6 million), Taylor Swift (80.2 million), Rihanna (78.5 million) and Ed Sheeran (77.5 million).

The surge in the singer's nine-digit streaming figure came following the release of his collaboration with Grande, titled "Die For You (Remix)" — a reimagined version of the 2016 original that released as part of his third studio album "Starboy" — which topped the Billboard 100 music chart.

"Die For You (Remix)" is the fourth collaboration track between The Weeknd and the "Break Free" singer, following 2014's "Love Me Harder," 2020's "Off The Table" and the 2021 remix of "Save Your Tears."

GWR also noted that Michael Jackson was the only other solo male artist to reach the milestone in the past. The latter now has 35.2 million monthly listeners.

This wasn't the first time the "I Was Never There" artist received GWR titles. Back in 2016, he received certificates for having the most streamed album on Spotify in 2015 for "Beauty Behind The Madness" and for spending the most consecutive weeks on the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart as a solo male musician.

The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" still holds the record as the most streamed track on the music streaming giant with over 3.4 billion streams as of February, surpassing Sheeran's "Shape Of You," which garnered 3 billion streams since its release in 2017.

Most recently, the Canada native also took home several awards from the 2023 Juno Awards — a ceremony spearheaded by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the music industry — held on March 13 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Weeknd won artist of the year, songwriter of the year for the fourth time in a row, single of the year for "Sacrifice" and pop album of the year for his most critically acclaimed album to date, "Dawn."