Sheeran tops class of 2017

ED Sheeran might have been snubbed at the Grammys and missed out on being nominated for major awards but his online popularity tells a different story.

The 26-year-old, who had a bike accident recently but recovered from it quickly enough to kick off a new leg of his world tour in Singapore in November, is 2017's most streamed artist, according to Spotify.

The ginger-haired pop star has 45 million monthly listeners, and his latest album, ÷ (Divide), enjoyed a whopping 3.1 billion plays.

Not only that, the record's lead single Shape of You has been named the most streamed track of all time on Spotify, with over 1.4 billion spins and counting.

The accompanying clip was also named by YouTube as the Top Trending Music Video in Singapore for 2017, based on views, shares, comments, likes and more.

Globally, Shape of You was YouTube's second-most watched music video of the year, behind Luis Fonsi's Despacito which not only topped the chart but also is also the most viewed YouTube video of all time.

A remix of Despacito, featuring Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber, was also the second most streamed track of the year globally on Spotify, while Fonsi's original took third place.

In Singapore, the remix was the third most streamed song, after Coldplay's Something Just Like This.

Next to Sheeran, Mandopop singer-songwriter Jay Chou was the second most streamed artist in Singapore, while producer-duo The Chainsmokers and Coldplay took third and fourth place respectively.

Despite being released in 2014, Sheeran's x (Multiply) was also the fourth most-streamed album locally.

"Ed Sheeran absolutely dominated this year ... There is no doubt that 2017 was The Year of Ed Sheeran, and we are thrilled that so many millions of music fans have discovered, listened to, and shared his music," says Stefan Blom, Spotify's chief content officer.

Bruno Mars' 24K Magic came in second behind Sheeran's ÷ (Divide), while Shawn Mendes, who is playing a sold-out show in Singapore on Saturday, was third with Illuminate.

Despite Sheeran's stranglehold, hip hop also enjoyed a good year. Listening for the genre increased 74 per cent over the last 12 months according to Spotify data.

Latin music also had a landmark year with its listening increasing by 110 per cent, fuelled by two Latin tracks hitting No 1 on Spotify for the first time - Despacito and Mi Gente (J Balvin and Willy William) - as well as 10 Latin songs appearing on Spotify's Global Top 50.

The K-pop genre also saw tremendous growth globally. The number of streams of K-pop tracks within the K-pop Hub have grown by 63 per cent year on year, and Singapore holds the fifth position globally, with the most number of K-pop streams on Spotify.