Taylor Swift with shake it offa semi-unknown Meghan Trainor with the hit All About That Bass, Sia with Chandelier either John Legend with All of Me, were some of the No. 1s on the WECB list in 2014. During that year, most of the songs that reached first place on the list They were pop songs in Englishrepresenting 67% of the highest positions, compared to 33% corresponding to songs from other genres. Of the 51 No. 1s, 34 were pop songs in English. Even the Spanish boyband of the moment, Aurynjoined this trendachieving No. 1 with his song in English Puppeteer.
Among the 17 songs in Spanish, hits such as to test you from Malú, which opened the year as the first No. 1 of 2014, and Touched and sunk from Melendi, which was the last. Furthermore, within that 33%, one (and the only) song urban genre that reached No. 1: Dancing by Enrique Iglesias with Gente de Zona, Descember Bueno and Sean Paul.
Ten years later, the panorama is completely different, with a reversed situation. At the beginning of December of this year, only 36% of the songs that have reached first place on the WECB list belong to pop in English, while the rest correspond to the urban genre and Spanish pop. Names like Emily, Lola Indigo, Karol G, Kapo stand out as urban names while in Spanish pop it is found Dani Fernandez, Alvaro de Luna and marlonamong others.
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Of course, we only consider the songs that have been in first place for a single week, the percentage of pop in English would be reduced even further, to 25%. This is because songs like Beautiful Things of Benson Boone, Espresso of Sabrina Carpenter either Greedy of Tate McRae They have managed to lead the list twice, so the number of songs alone is much lower.
Great pop figures
Is it because there are no new great figures of English pop today or because the urban genre has swept the music market? The truth is that, in 2024, new names have emerged with the potential to become the next big pop stars:Chapell Roan? ¿Sabrina Carpenter? ¿Benson Boone? Even artists less played on the radio, such as Charli XCXhave managed to consolidate themselves as references of the genre, becoming part of the line-up of festivals like the Primavera Sound 2025 in Spain.
However, these three names are far from those that dominated the WECB charts in 2014, when artists like Katy Perry, Sia, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor or Rihanna topped the charts. And it wasn't just big pop names; groups like Magic! with his emblematic song rudeeither Pharrell Williams with the tireless happyalso managed to position themselves at the top of the WECB list a decade ago.
The big music platforms support it
It is not a phenomenon exclusive to the WECB list. According to Apple Music, the 10 most listened to songs in Spain in 2024 belong to the urban genre, standing out in first place Moon by Feid, followed by If I Had Met You Before by Karol G. In contrast, 10 years ago, four of the five best-selling songs on iTunes Spain were pop songs in Englishwith the sole exception of Dancing by Enrique Iglesias, who snuck into the top positions.
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On the other hand, there are recent data from the Spotify Wrappedand in Spain of the ten most listened to artists, there is none that is not of the urban genre, placing Mike Towers as the most listened to. If we only focus on the ranking of the most listened to women in Spain, it may vary, since in this list Yes, there are names from English pop like Taylor Swift in second position, behind Karol G.
Of course, according to Spotify the most listened to song in the world has been Espresso of Sabrina Carpenterso it seems that English pop continues to have great influence, although not in Spain. Will the genre manage to return to the top of the charts?
