Singers

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. An influential figure in popular culture, she is known for her autobiographical songwriting and artistic reinventions. Swift is the highest-grossing live music artist, the wealthiest female musician, and one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 and debuted as a country singer with the albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008). The singles "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Love Story", and "You Belong with Me" found crossover success on country and pop radio formats. Speak Now (2010) expanded her country pop sound with rock influences, while Red (2012) explored electronic influences. Swift recalibrated her artistic identity from country to pop with the synth-pop album 1989 (2014); ensuing media scrutiny inspired the hip-hop–imbued Reputation (2017). Through the 2010s, she accumulated the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", and "Look What You Made Me Do".

Shifting to Republic Records in 2018, Swift released the eclectic pop album Lover (2019) and re-recorded four of her first six albums due to a dispute with Big Machine. She explored indie folk on the 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, synth-pop on Midnights (2022) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024), and soft rock on The Life of a Showgirl (2025). Her Eras Tour (2023–2024) and its associated film are the highest-grossing concert tour and concert film of all time.

Swift is the only artist to have been named the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year five times. Her accolades include 14 Grammy Awards—including a record four Album of the Year wins—and a Primetime Emmy Award. A subject of extensive media coverage, she has a global fanbase called Swifties.

Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and dancer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is known for his three-octave tenor vocal range, live performances, retro showmanship, and musical versatility. He is accompanied by his band, the Hooligans. Raised in Honolulu, Mars gained recognition in Hawaii as a child for his impersonation of Elvis Presley, before moving to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a musical career.

Mars established his name in the music industry as a songwriter and co-founder of the production team the Smeezingtons. He rose to fame as a recording artist after featuring on the US number-one single "Nothin' on You" (2009) by B.o.B. Mars's first three studio albums—Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010), Unorthodox Jukebox (2012), and 24K Magic (2016)—found critical and commercial success. The albums spawned hits including "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "Locked Out of Heaven", "Treasure", "24K Magic", and "That's What I Like". He also featured on Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk", which became Billboard's best-performing song of the 2010s.

In 2021, he formed the musical superduo Silk Sonic with Anderson .Paak. Mars's 2024 chart-topping duets "Die with a Smile" with Lady Gaga and "APT." with Rosé spent a total of 30 weeks atop the Billboard Global 200.

Mars has sold over 150 million records worldwide. His accolades include 16 Grammy Awards, 14 American Music Awards, 4 Brit Awards, and 8 Guinness World Records. He is the first to surpass 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Vernon had originally formed Bon Iver as a solo project, but it eventually became a band consisting of Vernon (vocals, guitar), Sean Carey (drums, keyboards, vocals), Michael Lewis, Matthew McCaughan, Andrew Fitzpatrick, and Jenn Wasner.

Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon spent three months isolated in a cabin in western Wisconsin. In 2012, the band won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for their eponymous album Bon Iver. They released their third album 22, A Million to critical acclaim in 2016. Their fourth album, I, I, was released in 2019. Their fifth and most recent album, Sable, Fable, was released in 2025.

The name "Bon Iver" derives from the French phrase bon hiver ('good winter'), taken from a greeting on 1990s TV series Northern Exposure.

Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. They comprise lead singer and guitarist Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley. Arctic Monkeys were one of the earliest bands to come to public attention via the Internet, during the emerging "blog rock" era.

Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), received acclaim and topped the UK Albums Chart, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history at the time. It won Best British Album at the 2007 Brit Awards. The band's second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), also won Best British Album at the 2008 Brit Awards.

The band achieved wider international fame with their fifth album AM (2013), which was supported by the global hit "Do I Wanna Know?". AM topped four Billboard charts and was certified 4× Platinum in the US. Their sixth album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018), departed from the band's guitar-heavy work. Their seventh album, The Car (2022), received nominations for the Ivor Novello Awards and the Mercury Prize in 2023.

Arctic Monkeys' sales in the US alone stand at over 30 million units. They have won seven Brit Awards and have been nominated for nine Grammy Awards.

Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, businessman, and record executive. He was named the greatest rapper of all time by Billboard and Vibe in 2023. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, Jay-Z is known for his complex lyricism that often uses double entendres, wordplay, and braggadocio. He is the richest musician, worth $2.6 billion as of 2025.

He co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1994 to release his first two studio albums Reasonable Doubt (1996) and In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997). His 11 subsequent albums, including The Blueprint (2001), The Black Album (2003), and 4:44 (2017), debuted atop the Billboard 200. Jay-Z has 14 number-one albums, tied with Drake for the second-most for a solo artist.

Jay-Z served as president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007. He co-founded Rocawear in 1999 and the 40/40 Club in 2003. He launched Roc Nation in 2008 and acquired Tidal in 2015. Through his business ventures, Jay-Z became the first hip-hop billionaire in 2019. He married Beyoncé in 2008; they have three children.

Jay-Z has won 25 Grammy Awards, the eighth-most of all time and the most of any hip-hop artist. He was the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the first solo living rapper inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first musician outside of the classical and jazz genres to receive the award. Lamar's music features conscious, introspective lyrics, with political criticism and social commentary concerning African-American culture.

Born and raised in Compton, California, Lamar signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) in 2005 and co-founded the hip hop supergroup Black Hippy. He rose to stardom with his second album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), which became the longest-charting hip hop studio album on the Billboard 200. In 2015, he released his third album, To Pimp a Butterfly. His fourth album Damn (2017) featured the US number-one single "Humble".

In 2024, his highly publicized feud with Drake and sixth album GNX spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Like That", "Not Like Us", "Squabble Up", and "Luther". "Not Like Us" won five Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Lamar's accolades include 22 Grammy Awards (the third-most won by a rapper), two Primetime Emmy Awards, 5 American Music Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards, and a record 37 BET Hip Hop Awards. His 2025 Grand National Tour with SZA is the highest-grossing co-headlining tour in history.