Greatest Pop Stars of 2025: Honorable Mentions

Their Year in Pop: In 2025, Addison Rae solidified herself as force in the pop world. After kicking off the year with “High Fashion” and an appearance during Arca’s Coachella set, the former TikTok star released her eponymous debut studio album on June 6. The acclaimed album reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Hot 100 hits “Headphones On” (No. 87) and “Fame Is a Gun” (No. 73), the latter of which recently re-entered the chart several months post-release. She supported the album with a Billboard cover and a 44-date headlining tour, following that up with an appearance in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the third installment of Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-winning Netflix true crime anthology. By the end of the year, Addison officially became a Grammy-nominated artist, picking up a nod for best new artist.

Why Not Top 10? Addison made impressive inroads, but she’s still lacking a true breakthrough hit.

Their Year in Pop: Though she came up short at the 2025 Academy Awards, where she was nominated for best supporting actress for Wicked, Ariana Grande returned to the top of the Billboard 200 after releasing the Brighter Days Ahead deluxe edition of her 2024 Eternal Sunshine LP in February which arrived alongside a short film that took home video of the year at September’s MTV Video Music Awards. Brighter Days Ahead added six new tracks to the Grammy-nominated album, including the Global 200 No. 7 hit “Twilight Zone.” Grande also announced her upcoming Eternal Sunshine Tour, which will visit arenas across Europe and North America in 2026. By Thanksgiving, Wicked: For Good earned the highest global and domestic opening weekends for a Broadway adaptation, and secured back-to-back supporting actress nominations for Grande at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes and Actor Awards. The accompanying soundtrack reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, tying the peak of its predecessor — which also earned Grande two 2026 Grammy nods, including best pop duo/group performance for her and Cynthia Erivo’s “Defying Gravity.”

Why Not Top 10? It was a close call, but Ariana felt more musically dominant during the first part of the Eternal Sunshine and Wicked cycles in 2024.

Their Year in Pop: Benson backflipped off a piano and into America’s hearts at February’s Grammys, where he properly introduced himself to folks who only knew him as the voice behind the screeching hook to the 2024 smash “Beautiful Things.” That song stayed in the top 40 for most of 2025, and was joined by two more long-lasting hits: the pulse-racing, stop-starting “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” and the gleefully preposterous “Mystical Magical,” both of which appeared on his Billboard 200 No. 2-debuting American Heart album. By year’s end, he was touring arenas, headlining festivals and infuriating Harries growing impatient for their idol to return to re-challenge Boone for male pop-rock star supremacy.

Why Not Top 10? American Heart drew less-than-stellar reviews and fizzled a little quicker than expected on the charts, failing to spawn another major hit beyond its advance singles.

Their Year in Pop: After kicking off the year by becoming the first Black woman in a quarter-century to snag the album of the year Grammy as a lead artist, Queen Bey brought her historic Cowboy Carter LP on the road, raking in over $400 million on its accompanying tour. Not only did that trek become the highest-grossing country tour of all time, but it also found Beyoncé helping pioneer a mini-residency model at the world’s most iconic stadiums. From impromptu gender reveals to Blue Ivy’s show-stealing solos and shocking malfunctions, the Cowboy Carter Tour effortlessly dominated headlines despite its all-too-brief 32-show run. By autumn, Beyoncé won her first Emmy Award (outstanding costumes for a variety, nonfiction or reality programming) for the exquisite looks at the previous Christmas’ Beyoncé Bowl, bringing her halfway to an EGOT. Most notably, the music icon eschewed the Western-themed fashion that defined her past two years, spurring countless fan theories about the status of the long-awaited conclusion to her still-unfurling album trilogy.

Why Not Top 10? Beyoncé was quite present throughout 2025, but she didn’t release a single note of new music all calendar year!

Their Year in Pop: The BLACKPINK mothership touched down again in 2025, leading to the release of the Hot 100 top 30 hit “Jump” and another successful stadium tour. But the year was more about the four ladies’ solo ventures, including new albums and new Hot 100 hits from each member (except ROSÉ, who had already been the first one up at the end of 2024), as well as big festival moments for JENNIE and big acting roles for LISA and JISOO. And while ROSÉ’s biggest releases were the year before, one of them was big enough to roll well into 2025: Her Bruno Mars collab “APT.” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in February, landed Grammy nods for record and song of the year, and ended the year atop the Year-End Global 200 chart.

Why Not Top 10? Even with the collective individual achievements, it’s hard to consider this year a new peak for BLACKPINK — the group just kinda stays winning.

Their Year in Pop: Bruno made our 2024 Honorable Mentions on the strength of a pair of smash hits: “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT.” with ROSÉ. And Bruno also makes our 2025 Honorable Mentions on the strength of a pair of smash hits: “Die With a Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT.” with ROSÉ. Those two songs were massive enough to last well from one calendar year into the other, with the two songs both ending in the top 10 of the 2025 Year-End Hot 100 (and “Smile” topping the list outright). The never-unconfident pop superstar celebrated his joint accomplishment by inviting both collaborators to appear with him and new collaborator Sexyy Red on the video for third 2025-impacting single “Fat Juicy & Wet” — which wasn’t nearly as big a hit, but the vid certainly made him look pretty damn cool.

Why Not Top 10? Though the two smashes seemed like they would end up presaging an actual album to come — Bruno’s first solo effort in a decade — said album didn’t materialize. (But now it seems to be coming in late February.)

Their Year in Pop: Less than a month after winning her first career Grammy (best new artist) — while also delivering a “Pink Pony Club” performance dazzling enough to send the song to new chart heights and putting the music industry on notice with an acceptance speech calling for labels to provide artists with a living wage and healthcare — Chappell Roan went country. The Shania Twain-esque “The Giver” debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100, also earning the Midwest Princess her first Hot Country Songs chart-topper. She spent June and July visiting select cities across Europe and the U.S. on her Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things Tour before closing out the latter month with “The Subway.” Nominated for a pair of Grammys, including her second consecutive record of the year nod, “Subway” debuted at No. 3 on the Hot 100, instantly becoming the highest-peaking hit of Roan’s career. Though she confirmed her sophomore album would not be arriving anytime soon, Chappell Roan kept busy in 2025, prioritizing activism through her music and live shows.

Why Not Top 10? While both new singles certainly arrived with ample fanfare, neither grew into a year-defining smash on par with “Pink Pony Club” or “Good Luck, Babe!” — though two top five hits in an off-cycle year remains nothing to scoff at.

Their Year in Pop: After three years spent mostly absent from pop music, Justin Bieber made a surprise return in July with Swag — a 21-track pivot to a more organic, indie-leaning pop&B vibe with help from cool-kid collaborators like Dijon and Mk.gee — after barely a day’s notice. The sound and strategy paid off, as the album debuted to the best streaming totals and some of the best reviews of his career, while spawning a pair of long-lasting hits in “Daisies” and “Yukon” and even scoring an album of the year Grammy nomination. It not only reversed the momentum from an early-year run on social media that had fans a little curious (if not outright worried), but it integrated that period into his latest success, as his now-iconic “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business” rant was not only weaved into one of the set’s Druski-featuring skits, it was even included in the album merch.

Why Not Top 10? Without a tour or any major media appearances, the only other big moment of Bieber’s 2025 was his Swag II drop in September — too much too soon, perhaps, as the set’s lukewarm commercial response suggested that fans were already a little Swagged out.

Their Year in Pop: Rosalía had one of the most-hyped album releases of the year with her fourth studio album Lux in November — but few, if any pop releases of 2025 were as ready to meet the moment. Calling it a “pop” release even feels reductive: Lux took on different languages, styles, sounds and collaborators with an ambition and scope that ends up getting it that classification merely because no other genre is big or vague enough in definition to house it. The set drew unanimous raves, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and saw “La Perla” (with Yahritza y Su Esencia) briefly cameo on the Hot 100, while the visuals for that and fellow single “Berghain” (with Björk and Yves Tumor) proved some of the year’s most arresting, setting the stage for what is sure to be one of 2026’s most dazzling live tours.

Why Not Top 10? While not many artists had songs as towering or memorable as Rosalía this year, certainly plenty had songs that were more ubiquitous.

Their Year in Pop: Few artists are running this decade the way SZA continues to. She rode the late December ’24 arrival of LANA, the deluxe edition of 2022’s blockbuster SOS, to continued success, breaking MJ’s Thriller record for the longest-running Billboard 200 top 10 album by a Black artist by March 2025. SZA then properly began the year with a splashy box office debut alongside Keke Palmer in the buddy comedy One of Them Days, winning her fifth Grammy (best R&B song for “Saturn”) and joining Kendrick Lamar as a guest during his historic Super Bowl LIX halftime show just one week later. Right after the big game, LANA’s Lamar-assisted “30 for 30” reached No. 10 on the Hot 100, setting the stage for an even bigger duet from the two superstars: “Luther,” which spent 13 weeks at No. 1. Those two chart-conquering collaborations gave way to the pair’s Grand National Tour, which became the highest-grossing co-headlining tour of all time. Somehow, SZA also found the time to become the Vans’ first artistic director, and at the very end of the year, lend fellow TDE powerhouse Doechii an assist on the score-settling “Girl, Get Up.”

Why Not Top 10? Realistically, SZA was the MVSP (most valuable supporting player) of 2025 — and we’ve all seen what it looks like when she truly steps into the lead role, as she did in 2023.