2024 has been an outstanding year for pop stars. One that we will remember for a lifetime. Live performances, music videos, and albums have all been off the scale this year.
This ranking is taken from Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 with my own personal reflection on why they have been ranked that way. Additionally, the honorable mentions will be my own.
So, lets jump back in and celebrate the achievements of the greatest pop stars of the year!
Honorable Mentions
Gracie Abrams
Gracie has really shown us this year that she is an incredible, emotional songwriter, and her songs ‘Close To You,’ ‘I Love You, I’m Sorry,’ and ‘Risk’ reaching the charts really proved that. Her second studio album, The Story of Us, was released at the height of the summer. She produced it in partnership with Aaron Desner. It went straight to the number two spot in the Billboard Album charts and number one in the UK.
Abrams opened for Taylor Swift at The Eras Tour, where she performed 49 times. She performed at the North American leg and the few remaining shows in Canada. She also came out as a guest for the surprise song set multiple times, one being in London where she performed her duet single ‘Us’ featuring Taylor Swift. The Eras Tour and her catchy lyricism have definitely given Gracie Abrams a close fight for greatest pop star this year, but 2025 will be hers.
Benson Boone
This artist literally flipped and broke through in 2024. At just 22 years old, Benson Boone broke out onto the scene with his hit single ‘Beautiful Things’, which has been named the top song of 2024. 2024 marked the year of his first debut album release Fireworks & Rollerblades, as well as many awards and nominations.
This was an incredible year-round for Benson as he recently wrapped up his UK tour as a thank you to the fans. But in 2025, he hits the road again with the potential to break more charts and perform his trademarked backflip.
10. Jelly Roll
40-year-old country-pop superstar Jelly Roll takes the number 10 spot here, as he was everywhere. The single ‘I Am Not Okay’ reached Billboard’s number 14 spot on the Hot 100, the closest he had to having a pure pop hit this year.
He performed at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, where he was also nominated for two trophies. His tenth studio album dropped in early October, titled Beautifully Broken, with notable collaborations with rapper Wiz Khalifa, mgk, and Ilsey.
The artist rounded out 2024 with the biggest tour of his life. The Beautifully Broken tour has traveled all over the States and has continued into 2025. What a way to complete an already successful year.
9. Billie Eilish
Since her breakthrough in 2019, Billie Eilish has received seven Grammys, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a number-one single, alongside four other top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, two number-one debuts on the Billboard 200, and a sold-out arena tour.
Her third studio album dropped in the middle of May, Hit Me Hard And Soft. She received two more Grammy nominations for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. On release day, it reached 72.7 million streams on Spotify globally, becoming her biggest streaming debut on the platform. On the first week of release, it debuted with over 500 million listens globally, making it Billie’s largest streaming week ever. Just by September, the album was certified platinum for moving a million units in the US.
At just 22 years old, she is proving the impossible possible. Billie will continue her successful year into the midst of next July as she embarks on her Hit Me Hard And Soft tour. We are 100% expecting to see Billie continue to thrive, and by the end of 2025, she should be nearing the top spot of the list.
8. Post Malone
From pop to rap, Post Malone has now gone down the country route. He kicked off his outstanding career-changing year at the Las Vegas New Year’s Eve concert, performing his biggest hits ‘Rockstar,’ ‘Psycho,’ and ‘Circles.’
Post spent months in Nashville writing and collaborating with country artists to drop his debut country album, F-1 Trillion, released in August. The 18-song album saw Post work with country superstars such as Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, and Luke Combs.
Post Malone was the top nominee at the CMA Awards with his country hit, ‘I Had Some Help,’ with four nominations. The track also topped the country charts and spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was arguably one of the biggest country songs of 2024.
A whole genre shift, multiple nominations, and six weeks at number one. Now that’s one hell of a year.
7. Beyoncé
Post Malone isn’t the only one who had a major genre shift. Beyoncé decided to go down that old country road as well, and wow, what an absolute success. Bey’s eighth studio album Cowboy Carter debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Chart. She is the first black woman to lead the Top Country Albums list, alongside her hit single from the album, ‘Texas Hold’ Em,’ the first song by a black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, where it remained for 10 weeks.
Notably, Beyoncé won the iHeartRadio Innovator Award for being a “global cultural icon” who has taken “creative risks, and successfully transformed their music and influenced pop culture”. She transformed country and made it popular again, as well as breaking the internet with her Verizon advertisement during the February Super Bowl, dropping two new songs shortly after.
She definitely is a global icon and will forever continue to serve just like she did during the NFL Christmas Day halftime show for Netflix. Beyoncé performed songs from Cowboy Carter and brought in 27 million viewers. Now, that’s one way to end the year and why she earns a place on this list.
6. Ariana Grande
It is impossible to decide whether Ariana served more as herself or as her role in Wicked as Glinda this year. Ariana returned to the music scene after four years to bring us all up to date with her life, heartbreak, and love interests through her album Eternal Sunshine. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and the singles ‘Yes, And?’ and ‘We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)’ both reached number one on the US charts.
Grande was so back and not just as an artist, but as an actress in the box office musical hit, Wicked. Ariana starred as Glinda the Good and has nabbed herself her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture.
Ariana also has three Grammy Nominations, one for her album Eternal Sunshine. How happy are we this queen is back after the trauma, divorce, and healing she has endured lately? So happy!
5. Charli XCX
This one came out of nowhere, but all of a sudden, we all had a BRAT Summer?
Charli this year proved that success can come by just being yourself. Brat not only was Charli’s sixth studio album, but it was a feeling, a vibe, and most of all, an iconic cultural movement. It took Charli releasing a remix album of Brat before it topped the UK Album Charts.
Performing this year was for Charli. Her Sweat Tour with friend Troye Sivan took over the States and had fans desperate to be there. The outfits, choreography, and vocals were outstanding.
Party girl Charli XCX needs to stay forever for sure, as she is simply iconic and responsible for the album of the summer!
4. Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan has proven she is the next big thing with the outstanding year she has had. Pop music is getting its fun, quirky side back all thanks to Chappell, with her romantic lyricism, all with a catchy dance-y beat.
Her debut album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, came out in September 2023. The album tells the story of a girl finding her way in this world. Chappell’s fans took that message and made her the next big pop star for 2024.
Chappell is set to headline Reading and Leeds next year with her popular songs ‘Good Luck Babe,’ ‘HOT TO GO,’ and ‘Casual’. She has also been nominated for 6 Grammy Awards. 2024 was great for her, but could 2025 be the year of Chappell Roan?
3. Taylor Swift
It feels like Taylor Swift is always having her year, and that is because she keeps getting better and better. It was milestone after milestone for Taylor as she concluded her highest-grossing tour this December, The Eras Tour, in Vancouver, Canada.
Taylor loved to surprise us this year, especially with her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, along with The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology double album drop.
The Eras Tour has been remembered through Taylor’s first-ever published book commemorating the legacy and fun of The Eras Tour for fans.
She has given us so much and never stops. Taylor Swift is history, she is the moment, and she is the pop star of a generation.
2. Sabrina Carpenter
The rise of Sabrina Carpenter, isn’t that sweet? I guess so. Seriously though, it is sweet.
2024 has been Sabrina Carpenter’s year and you cannot tell me otherwise. 2023 set her up massively as she was already a trending artist with her song ‘Nonsense’ and the quirky outros she made on her tour stops. But 2024 brought us more Sabrina and a very saucy side to her with her sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet. The princess of pop didn’t just score her first number-one single and album this year. She also racked up a record 21 weeks on top of the Official Singles Chart – seven with ‘Espresso,’ five with ‘Please Please Please,’ and nine with ‘Taste’.
The breakthrough princess rounded out her successful year with her sold-out Short n’ Sweet tour in the States, soon to carry on in Europe in 2025. She also recently celebrated her first Grammy nominations, of which she received six.
There is nobody who deserves the success more right now.
1. Kendrick Lamar
Alas, we reach our number one spot, which goes to Kendrick Lamar. The one thing you might remember is the beef he had with Drake earlier this year, but what really made Kendrick’s 2024 so remarkable was that he proved he could do things we have never seen from him before. Kendrick commanded the entire top five of the Hot 100 at once this year – something that previously only Drake had done among emcees.
Kendrick made room for an iconic cultural moment that fans will remember for a lifetime, by releasing a surprise album GNX. Fans were excited and shocked to be graced with a 12-track album with no warning.
His run of achievements doesn’t stop there either. Beyond announcing the Super Bowl and the Grammys, Kendrick also announced a co-headlining 2025 stadium tour alongside SZA, something which has never been done before.
Its probably time we recognize that Kendrick is just above any other rapper and we start comparing him to the greatest pop icons of all time. He is on another level.
So, what do you think about the top 10? Surprised? Happy? Not so happy? Let us know!
