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Drake named Spotify's artist of the decade

No stranger to setting music world records, rapper-singer Drake has been named the most-streamed artist of the past decade, according to streaming giant Spotify.

On Tuesday, the Stockholm-based company announced a list of the songs, albums and artists most popular with its listeners over the past year, as well as "A Decade Wrapped": a comprehensive look back at favourites from 2010 through 2019.

Toronto hip-hop star Drake earned the artist of the decade honour with more than 28 billion streams of his music.

He was followed by British pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, genre-blending U.S. rapper-singer Post Malone and American pop performer Ariana Grande. Veteran American rapper Eminem rounded out the top five most streamed artists.

Drake, fellow Torontonian R&B singer The Weeknd and Stratford, Ont. pop singer Justin Bieber were the musical acts most streamed this past decade in Canada.

Ken Winter/Getty Images
Ken Winter/Getty Images

2019's most streamed

Malone was the year's top streamed artist, with more than 6.5 billion streams worldwide for his music — especially the tracks Sunflower, his collaboration with rapper-singer Swae Lee from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack, and Wow, off his recently released album Hollywood's Bleeding.

Close on his heels was American teen sensation Billie Eilish, who last month was one of the top nominees for the upcoming Grammy Awards. Her music surpassed 6 billion streams and her release When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was the top-streamed album of the year.

Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, originally from Pickering, Ont., earned major recognition for Senorita, his duet with Camila Cabello. With more than 1 billion streams, it was the year's most-streamed song.

After Senorita, the list of the most-streamed songs also included: Eilish's bad guy, Malone's Sunflower, Grande's 7 rings and Old Town Road — Remix by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Spotify, the world's leading audio streaming service, announced early this year that its paying subscribers had reached 100 million. The company's total monthly users — which includes those who do not pay a monthly subscription fee, but use the service with intermittent ads — hit 217 million in the first quarter.