WHO GOT SHAZAMED THE MOST THIS YEAR?

Shazam is taking a look back at the top artists and tracks that piqued the ears of their 100m+ mobile active users in 2014, and some of the winners might surprise you.



The #1 Most Shazamed Artist is John Legend, with Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Iggy Azalea and Lorde comprising the rest of the Top 5. Rounding out the Top 10 are OneRepublic, Disclosure, Magic!, Jason Derulo and Nico & Vinz. Interestingly, half of the Top 10 artists—Sheeran, Azalea, Lorde, Derulo and OneRepublic—didn’t make the Top 10 Most Shazamed Songs.

In the Most Shazamed Songs (U.S.) category, Legend’s champion ballad "All of Me" is followed by mostly brand new artists. The multi-genre smash "Latch" from Disclosure featuring Sam Smith soars in at #2, followed by reggae revivalist record "Rude" from Canada’s Magic!, "Am I Wrong" from Scandinavian duo Nico & Vinz and "Rather Be" from British electronic group Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne. Meghan Trainor’s "All About That Bass"—released five months after Clean Bandit—jumps in at #6. We don’t see a bona fide superstar in the Most Shazamed Songs category until Perry’s "Dark Horse" at #7. Smith’s "Stay With Me" is #8, "Don’t Tell ‘Em" from Jeremih featuring YG (the lone hip-hop entry) comes in at #9 and Pharrell’s pop anthem "Happy" from rounds out the U.S. Top 10.

Shazam’s Peter Szabo definitely saw a trend. "2014 proved to be the year of the mega-hit—starting with ‘All of Me’ in the spring, then ‘Rude’ and ‘Am I Wrong’ over the summer, followed by ‘All About That Bass’ in the fall," he tells us. "The last three came out of nowhere to become huge smash hits. And we’re excited to see if Magic!, Nico & Vinz and Meghan Trainor can continue building as artists."



Worldwide, Clean Bandit’s "Rather Be" steals away the global #1 Most Shazamed Songs honor from Legend, who’s ranked #2 with "All of Me". Clearly, the U.K. crowd is really on their Shazamming game, because "Prayer in C" by Lilly Wood & the Prick & Robin Schulz roars in to #3, "Waves" from Dutch singer/songwriter Mr. Probz surfs into the #4 spot, Nico & Vinz’s "Am I Wrong" is #5 and Magic! land in the #6 slot with "Rude." The only Americans to make Most Shazamed Songs Worldwide are Katy featuring Juicy J ("Dark Horse," #7) and Pharrell ("Happy," #8). German folk-rock duo Milky Chance is #9 with "Stolen Dance" and Canada’s Kiesza takes #10 with "Hideaway."

Says Szabo of the worldwide patterns, "It was fun to see Clean Bandit start as #1 in the U.K. in January, then move to #1 in Italy, France, Germany and Spain through the spring, then make it to #1 in the U.S. in August."

Shazam has also studied its data to make a few calls on potential future superstars, and it’s all centered on a specific genre. "Country continues to show huge gains on Shazam—and we wanted to highlight Sam Hunt along with Maddie & Tae for Artists to Watch next year," Szabo notes. "They both had huge debut hits, we’ve already seen good trends for other songs on Sam’s album, and we’re confident the passion with which Maddie & Tae fans Shazamed them will allow these two to continue to be massive stars."

Other notable Shazam 2015 Hit Maker Predictions included Young Thug, Echosmith, Rae Sremmurd, Oliver Heldens, Dej Loaf, James Bay, Years & Years and Tchami.