Ariana Grande takes huge Spotify record from Taylor Swift amid Wicked box office success

Ariana Grande is absolutely smashing it.

Between her soaring pop career and her massive box office success in her dream-come-true role playing Glinda in the movie version of musical Wicked, she’s at an all-time high.

Her spiralling popularity means she’s now broken an iconic Spotify record, taking the crown from Taylor Swift.

Ariana has the monthly listeners on Spotify for a female artist, with an unfathomable 123,700,287 listeners as of 27 December 2024.

The spike in her fan base was fuelled by her festive hit “Santa Tell Me”, her 2024 single “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”, plus songs from the Wicked soundtrack, including “Defying Gravity”, “What Is This Feeling?” (both with Cynthia Erivo) and “Popular”.

Ariana takes the Spotify record from Taylor, who has broken it numerous times, most recently on 17 May 2024 with 116,229,071 monthly listeners.

Wicked is also breaking records at the box office.

The film, a sort-of prequel to The Wizard of Oz, was adapted from the Broadway musical based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Ariana, who last year made her Nonna Marjorie a record breaker, said it had been a life-long dream of hers to play Glinda the Good Witch.

She stars alongside Cynthia as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, in the box office smash that’s become the highest-grossing movie based on a stage show.

It earned the record after taking $697,615,000 (£573,430,108) at the global box office as of 13 January, according to The Numbers.

Back to Spotify, for those interested in a full round up…

Bruno Mars has taken the record for most monthly listeners on Spotify (male) with a peak audience of 146,232,306 as of 11 January.

The singer’s surge in popularity was primarily due to his enduring chart-topping duets with Lady Gaga (“Die with a Smile”) and Rosé (“APT.”), which, respectively, had logged 107 and 28 weeks at No.1 on Spotify’s “Daily Top Songs Global” chart as of the same date. On that day alone, the two tracks collectively posted 20,258,984 streams.

And it’s Coldplay who claimed the monthly listeners on Spotify (duo or group) record with a total of 96,459,910 as of 28 December 2024.

The band’s most popular tracks on that day alone included their catalogue hits “Yellow”, “Viva La Vida”, “Something Just Like This” (with The Chainsmokers), “A Sky Full of Stars” and “Sparks”.

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