Shazam is today celebrating its 20th birthday — who would have thought they’d been around for that long? It originally began as a text message service in the UK, releasing on Apple App Store and Android in 2008. Since its inception it has helped users recognise over 70 billion songs!
To mark the occasion of its birthday Shazam has released a special birthday playlist comprised of the most Shazamed song of each calendar year for the past 20 years. It will certainly help you take a trip down memory lane with some classics in there including I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas and Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.
Shazam has not only helped users to figure out just what they are listening to but also helped artists become more widely known and show off their work to more fans. This has helped many artists to grow their fans worldwide with, for example, “Love Nwantiti [Remix]” by Nigerian artist CKay became the second song to ever surpass 1 million Shazams in a week in 2021 (and was the longest running global number 1 song of 2021).
Ckay credits Shazam for playing an impactful role in his career saying “It allowed millions of people all over the world to discover me and my unique Nigerian sound. It made me a global sensation even before I started to perform all over the world. The story of CKay cannot be told without Shazam connecting me to the world.”
Shazam has also branched out in recent times, pioneering new ways to bring fans closer to the music and artists they love with new tools like the concert discovery feature, which spotlights concert information and tickets on sale for shows nearby, simply by Shazaming a song, or by searching for it in the Shazam app or website.
Although Drake is the most Shazamed artist of all time with over 350 million Shazams across all songs he does not feature on the Top Shazamed Songs by Genre list. Interestingly, Melbourne-native Tones and I does appear with Dance Monkey in the Alternative section — it is also the most Shazamed song ever with over 41 million Shazams!
Top Shazamed Songs by Genre
- Top Hip-Hop/Rap: “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
- Top Dance: “Prayer In C (Robin Schulz Radio Edit)” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulz
- Top R&B/Soul: “All of Me” by John Legend
- Top Latin: “Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William
- Top Pop: “Let Her Go” by Passenger
- Top Alternative: “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
- Top Singer/Songwriter: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier
If you want to check out the Shazam birthday playlist head on over to the playlist but keep in mind it is only available on Apple Music now that Shazam is part of the Apple family — I did not need an account to view and play the playlist on PC though.
