This 2023 music trivia quiz has 80 free questions with answers, and it covers the whole year rather than one corner of it: Miley Cyrus opening the year with "Flowers", Morgan Wallen parking "Last Night" at No. 1 for 16 weeks, the Eras Tour and the Renaissance World Tour rewriting box-office records, Barbie taking over the radio, a Beatles single arriving in November, and Brenda Lee finally reaching No. 1 in December at age 78. You will find questions on the Billboard chart-toppers and the stories behind them, the 2023 and 2024 Grammy ceremonies that bookended the year, Eurovision in Liverpool, Coachella and Glastonbury, the big comebacks (blink-182, the Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Kiss's last show) and the losses (Tina Turner, Sinéad O'Connor, Jimmy Buffett). Difficulty runs from easy warm-ups to a few that only a chart obsessive will get. Every question was checked against Wikipedia and its cited sources before publishing, so the answers hold up in a pub quiz or a group chat argument. Play through the set, share your score, and see who really paid attention in 2023.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Miley Cyrus single spent eight weeks at US No. 1 and was 2023's best-selling global single?
Flowers
The song went on to spend 57 weeks atop the Adult Contemporary chart, the longest run of any song on any Billboard airplay chart.
Q 02Morgan Wallen's "Last Night" spent how many non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
16
The last solo male country artist to top the Hot 100 before Wallen was Eddie Rabbitt with "I Love a Rainy Night" in 1981.
Q 03Which BTS member's "Seven" (featuring Latto) debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in July 2023?
Jung Kook
"Seven" also became the fastest song ever to pass one billion streams on Spotify.
Q 04SZA's "Kill Bill" broke which song's record for longest No. 1 run on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart?
Old Town Road
The song's music video, directed by Christian Breslauer, cast Vivica A. Fox, who starred in the Kill Bill films.
Q 05Doja Cat's "Paint the Town Red" is built on a sample of which 1964 Dionne Warwick song?
Walk on By
It became the first solo song by a female rapper to top the UK Singles Chart.
Q 06Which 2019 Taylor Swift album track went viral on the Eras Tour and hit No. 1 as a single in 2023?
Cruel Summer
The song was co-written with St. Vincent and hit No. 1 four years after its parent album, Lover, came out.
Q 07Oliver Anthony's 'Rich Men North of Richmond' made him the first artist to do what on the Hot 100?
Debut at No. 1 with no prior chart history
The song was discussed at a Republican presidential debate; Anthony said it criticised politicians in both parties.
Q 08Which country singer's 'Try That in a Small Town' hit No. 1 in 2023 after CMT pulled its video?
Jason Aldean
Its late-July surge was the biggest sales week for a country song in more than a decade.
Q 09Luke Combs's hit 2023 cover of "Fast Car" won CMA Song of the Year for its original writer. Who?
Tracy Chapman
Chapman became the first Black songwriter to win the CMA award; the original was her 1988 debut single.
Q 10In which US city did Taylor Swift's Eras Tour open on March 17, 2023?
Glendale, Arizona
The tour closed in Vancouver in December 2024 after 149 shows and was the first to gross over $1 billion.
Q 11In December 2023 the Eras Tour became the highest-grossing tour ever, overtaking whose farewell tour?
Elton John
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour had wrapped in Stockholm in July 2023 after 330 shows and about $939 million.
Q 12Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour opened on May 10, 2023, in which city?
Stockholm
It ended in Kansas City that October and became the highest-grossing tour by a Black woman.
Q 13"Now and Then", the 2023 "last Beatles song", grew out of which Beatle's home demo from around 1977?
John Lennon
It is the only Beatles UK No. 1 not credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership.
Q 21Lana Del Rey's 2023 album title begins "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under..." — under what?
Ocean Blvd
It peaked at No. 3 in the US and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2024 Grammys.
Q 22Boygenius is Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and which singer?
Phoebe Bridgers
The album won three Grammys, including Best Alternative Music Album.
Q 23Where did "Ella Baila Sola", the first regional Mexican song in the Hot 100's top 10, peak?
No. 4
Rolling Stone named it the best song of 2023, and it passed a billion Spotify streams by year's end.
Q 14Billie Eilish's Grammy- and Oscar-winning 'What Was I Made For?' was written for which 2023 film?
Barbie
It was the first song from a film to win Song of the Year since Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.
Q 15How many of Guts' 12 songs made the Hot 100's top 40 in the album's debut week?
All 12
The lead single "Vampire" topped charts in eight countries including the US and the UK.
Q 16Speak Now (Taylor's Version) gave Swift her 12th Billboard 200 No. 1, breaking whose record for most chart-topping albums by a woman?
Barbra Streisand
Two of its vault tracks feature Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams.
Q 17Which 1989 (Taylor's Version) vault track debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2023?
Is It Over Now?
The album was Swift's sixth to sell more than a million copies in its first week in the US.
Q 18Travis Scott's Utopia was accompanied by a film released the day before the album. What was it called?
Circus Maximus
All 19 tracks debuted on the Hot 100, making Scott the 15th artist with 100-plus career entries.
Q 19Morgan Wallen's 36-track One Thing at a Time was mainly recorded at which famous studio?
Abbey Road Studios
The album spent 19 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1, beating Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind as the longest-running No. 1 country album.
Q 20Which SZA song was the only track to stay on the Billboard Hot 100 for the entire year of 2023?
Snooze
An acoustic version featuring Justin Bieber followed in September 2023.
Q 24Karol G's Mañana Será Bonito was the first all-Spanish-language album by a woman to do what?
Reach No. 1 in the United States
It also won her first Grammy, for Best Música Urbana Album, in 2024.
Q 25PinkPantheress's "Boy's a Liar Pt. 2" hit No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 2023 with which Bronx rapper?
Ice Spice
It was the first top-10 hit for both artists.
Q 26Which pregnant Barbadian singer headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February 2023?
Rihanna
It was the first halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and drew more than 121 million viewers.
Q 27Loreen won Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool with "Tattoo". Which country was she representing?
Sweden
She became the first woman to win the contest twice, after "Euphoria" in 2012, and her country tied Ireland's record of seven wins.
Q 28Why was Eurovision 2023 staged in the UK rather than by the country that won in 2022?
Ukraine, the previous winner, could not host safely
Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena hosted on behalf of Ukraine's broadcaster, and 37 countries took part.
Q 29Which group was the first Asian act to headline Coachella, in 2023?
Blackpink
That July they also became the first Korean band to headline a major UK festival, at BST Hyde Park.
Q 30Who played the Sunday "Legends" slot at Glastonbury 2023?
Yusuf / Cat Stevens
The same weekend's closing Pyramid Stage set drew a peak UK TV audience of 7.6 million, a festival record.