50 Fun Facts About 2019 Music

Which country veteran joined Lil Nas X on the chart-topping 2019 remix of Old Town Road?

Billy Ray Cyrus got the call after Lil Nas X tweeted, a day after the original came out, that he wanted him on the song.

Which singer's 1994 Christmas classic finally reached number one on the Hot 100 in December 2019?

Mariah Carey waited 25 years for All I Want for Christmas Is You to top the chart, and it has returned to number one in later holiday seasons.

Which children's song from South Korean brand Pinkfong broke into the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2019?

Baby Shark later became a ballpark anthem when the Washington Nationals adopted it on their way to winning the 2019 World Series.

DJ Marshmello staged a virtual concert for players in February 2019 inside which hit online video game?

Fortnite drew over 10 million players to the set, the first of many in-game concerts that later featured Metallica and Ariana Grande.

The 2019 film Yesterday imagines a world where only one struggling musician remembers which band?

The Beatles' songs cost the filmmakers $10 million to license, though none of the band's members was involved in making the film.

Which 17-year-old singer became the first artist born in the 2000s to top the Billboard Hot 100?

Billie Eilish was also the youngest chart-topper since Lorde, who was 16 when Royals reached number one in 2013.

Which flute-playing singer topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 with Truth Hurts, a song released in 2017?

Lizzo saw the two-year-old track take off after it featured in the Netflix film Someone Great and spread on TikTok.

Taron Egerton sang live on set to play which piano-pounding star in the 2019 musical film Rocketman?

Elton John was played by an actor who also learned piano for the part and won a Golden Globe for the performance.

A troubled 50th-anniversary revival of which 1969 festival was cancelled weeks before its August 2019 date?

Woodstock 50 was hit by permit problems, venue moves and artist withdrawals, and shrank from three days to one before it was called off.

Which band headlined the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in 2019 with guests Travis Scott and Big Boi?

Maroon 5 slipped a short SpongeBob SquarePants clip into the set after fans petitioned for a tribute to Stephen Hillenburg, who had dreamed up the cartoon.

Ariana Grande's 2019 number one 7 Rings borrows its melody from a song in which classic musical?

The Sound of Music tune My Favorite Things proved a costly loan: its publishers took 90 percent of the songwriting royalties.

Which sibling trio returned from a six-year break in 2019 with Sucker, which debuted at number one?

Jonas Brothers cast their real-life partners in the video, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner.

Which former Fifth Harmony singer joined Shawn Mendes on the chart-topping 2019 duet Señorita?

Camila Cabello had teamed up with him once before, on the 2015 single I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Lady Gaga's duet Shallow, which won the Best Original Song Oscar in February 2019, came from which film?

A Star Is Born also brought her a Best Actress nomination, and she sang the song at the ceremony with co-star Bradley Cooper.

Which rock frontman did Rami Malek play to win the Best Actor Oscar in February 2019?

Freddie Mercury's story in Bohemian Rhapsody made Malek the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win the category.

Which K-pop group performed on Saturday Night Live in April 2019 and later sold out Wembley Stadium?

BTS used the show for the first live performance of Boy with Luv, their new single with American singer Halsey.

Which Taylor Swift album, released in August 2019, was her first after leaving Big Machine Records?

Lover came out on Republic Records under a new contract that gave her more artistic freedom than she had before.

Which rapper began leading weekly gospel Sunday Service gatherings with a choir in January 2019?

Kanye West followed the sessions with the album Jesus Is King and, on Christmas Day, the choir's own record Jesus Is Born.

Which former One Direction member released his second solo album, Fine Line, in December 2019?

Harry Styles borrowed the title of its hit Watermelon Sugar from Richard Brautigan's 1968 novel In Watermelon Sugar, a copy of which was to hand during the writing.

Which Spice Girl sat out the group's 2019 stadium reunion tour of Britain and Ireland?

Victoria Beckham stayed away while the other four sold out three nights at Wembley Stadium, the highest-grossing engagement of the year.

Which song ended the then-record 19-week run of Old Town Road atop the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2019?

Bad Guy had been stuck in the runner-up spot for nine weeks before it finally climbed to the top.

Which Scottish singer-songwriter had a worldwide 2019 hit with the piano ballad Someone You Loved?

Lewis Capaldi gave a part in the video to a distant relative, Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi, who plays a bereaved husband.

Which singer's Divide Tour ended in 2019 as the highest-grossing concert tour in history at the time?

Ed Sheeran passed the record of U2's 360° Tour despite keeping ticket prices relatively low, and finished with four hometown shows in Ipswich.

Which 2019 hit by former Australian busker Tones and I reached number one in more than 30 countries?

Dance Monkey set an Australian chart record with 24 weeks at number one, a year after its singer was living in a van and busking in Byron Bay.

Which former Disney Channel star scored her first Hot 100 number one in 2019 with Lose You to Love Me?

Selena Gomez reached the top in the ballad's second week, beating the number-five peaks of Good for You and Same Old Love.

Which Weeknd song, released in November 2019, was later named Billboard's top Hot 100 hit of all time?

Blinding Lights stayed on the chart for 90 weeks, after a Mercedes-Benz commercial had previewed it days before its release.

Which artist behind the album Hollywood's Bleeding was Spotify's most-streamed act worldwide in 2019?

Post Malone passed 6.5 billion streams for the year, and his Spider-Man soundtrack hit Sunflower was among the three most-played songs.

Which Texas rapper's viral catchphrase became the 2019 single Hot Girl Summer, featuring Nicki Minaj?

Megan Thee Stallion had already styled herself the hot girl on the artwork of her mixtape Fever, months before the single arrived that August.

Which country singer's album Golden Hour won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in February 2019?

Kacey Musgraves won all four categories she was nominated in that night, and the record jumped back into the top ten a week later.

Which Australian pop star played Glastonbury's Legends slot in 2019, 14 years after illness made her cancel?

Kylie Minogue had been booked to headline in 2005 before her breast cancer diagnosis, and Nick Cave and Coldplay's Chris Martin joined her on stage.

Which rapper's Invasion of Privacy made her the first solo woman to win the Best Rap Album Grammy, in 2019?

Cardi B performed at the ceremony and wore three vintage Thierry Mugler couture looks during the telecast.

Which Childish Gambino single became the first rap song to win Record of the Year at the Grammys in 2019?

This Is America also took Song of the Year, though its maker skipped the ceremony and producer Ludwig Göransson accepted Record of the Year for him.

Which act became the first female K-pop group to perform at the Coachella festival, in April 2019?

Blackpink arrived a week after releasing Kill This Love, whose video set a record for YouTube views in its first 24 hours.

Which emo band behind The Black Parade announced its reunion on Halloween 2019, six years after splitting?

My Chemical Romance played a comeback show in Los Angeles that December, but the full reunion tour did not take place until 2022.

Which singer's 2019 solo induction made her the first woman to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice?

Stevie Nicks had first been inducted in 1998 as a member of Fleetwood Mac, 21 years before the Hall honoured her on her own.

Which documentary maker's eight-part PBS history of country music premiered in September 2019?

Ken Burns hosted a concert special from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium that aired a week before the 16-hour series premiered.

Which boy band's 2019 album DNA gave the group its first US number one since Black & Blue in 2000?

Backstreet Boys made it their third chart-topping album and backed it with a world tour that opened in Lisbon that May.

Which Apple music program, launched in 2001, was split into separate Mac apps in October 2019?

iTunes gave way to separate Music, Podcasts and TV apps on the Mac, while syncing an iPhone moved into the Finder.

Which music manager bought Big Machine Records in 2019, and with it Taylor Swift's first six albums?

Scooter Braun paid a reported $330 million for the label, and she answered by vowing to re-record all six records herself.

Rival Netflix and Hulu documentaries in January 2019 retold the collapse of which music event?

Fyre Festival had been sold as a luxury getaway on a Bahamian island by organizers including rapper Ja Rule, then fell apart in 2017.

Duncan Laurence's ballad Arcade gave which country its first Eurovision Song Contest win since 1975?

The Netherlands took the trophy in Tel Aviv without topping either half of the vote: it was third with the juries and second with the public.

Which Australian psychedelic rock act headlined Coachella 2019 alongside Childish Gambino and Ariana Grande?

Tame Impala took the Saturday night slot and was joined on stage by A$AP Rocky during the second weekend's set.

Which grime star headlined Glastonbury 2019 wearing a stab-proof vest designed by the artist Banksy?

Stormzy was the first Black British rapper to top the festival's bill, and his Union Jack vest was read as a comment on knife crime in London.

Which metal band ended a 13-year wait for a new album in August 2019 with the chart-topping Fear Inoculum?

Tool had been held up by creative, personal and legal troubles since 2006, and its track 7empest went on to win the Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

Which Puerto Rican star's 2019 hit Con Calma reworked Informer, the 1990s hit by Canadian rapper Snow?

Daddy Yankee shares the billing with Snow himself, who features on the track nearly three decades after his original.

Kygo's 2019 dance hit Higher Love was built on a 1990 cover recorded by which late singer?

Whitney Houston's version had only ever appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of her album I'm Your Baby Tonight.

Which rapper became the first woman in hip-hop inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, in June 2019?

Missy Elliott followed it that August with MTV's Video Vanguard Award, becoming the first female rapper to receive that honour as well.

Which rapper's album Igor became his first US number one in 2019 and later won him his first Grammy?

Tyler, the Creator accepted Best Rap Album but complained that the Grammys had filed his genre-bending record under rap at all.

Which pop star did a jury find in July 2019 had copied the Christian rap song Joyful Noise in Dark Horse?

Katy Perry and her co-defendants were ordered to pay $2.78 million, but the trial judge overturned the award the following March.

Ric Ocasek, the singer and songwriter who died in September 2019, fronted which American new wave band?

The Cars had entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame only a year earlier, with a set that turned out to be his final performance with the band.