50 Cent, Cardi B & Doja Cat Get Honorable Mentions In Best Pop Stars List
50 Cent, Cardi B, and Doja Cat have earned spots on Billboard’s “honorable mentions” list as the magazine preps to unveil their top 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. This list, set to roll out over the next few months, left some big names out for various reasons. It came down to some artists not having enough hits under their belt.
As the publication puts it, these artists “were great enough to get strong consideration for our top 25, but ultimately just didn’t quite have either the stats, the impact, the longevity or the volume to elbow their way into our main list.”
50 Cent, Cardi B, and Doja Cat were among those on the honorable mentions list released on Wednesday (August 14).
About 50 Cent, they explained, “After losing a much-publicized first-week sales showdown with Ye (then Kanye West) in 2007, the bottom fell out for 50 Cent surprisingly quickly — he’s yet to score a Hot 100 top 10 hit as a lead artist or a Billboard 200 No. 1 album since, and new releases became more scattershot as he shifted focus to his acting career and business investments.”
For Cardi B, they noted, “Tough to crack the quarter-century list when your mainstream breakthrough came two-thirds of the way through those 25 years. And even though Cardi kept scoring hits following the Invasion of Privacy era, some of those hits — ‘Money,’ ‘Up,’ ‘Enough (Miami)’ — might have enjoyed longer chart runs had they been tethered to a proper full-length.”
And about Doja Cat, the outlet wrote, “The recency hurts, of course, as does the fact that as many brilliant moments as she’s strung together over the years, she doesn’t quite have the pull to stop the world with a release – evidenced by the fact that she’s yet to score a Billboard 200 No. 1 album.”
How does Billboard determine the greatest pop stars of this century?
In 2019, Billboard’s team chose the greatest pop star of each year from 1981 onward, marking the start of modern pop with the launch of MTV. They wrote essays explaining why each star was the biggest and most important that year. Recently, they’ve also been ranking the top 10 pop stars of the year, with each getting a special write-up.
Now, with 25 years of the 21st century behind us, Billboard is counting down the 25 Greatest Pop Stars of this century. Over the next four months, they’ll reveal the list and share essays, articles, and discussions about each artist’s impact on pop music and culture.
Before they begin, they’re acknowledging that 25 spots aren’t enough to include everyone who’s been influential since 2000. So, they’re starting with an unranked list of 25 Honorable Mentions—artists who were close but didn’t quite make the top list.
Billboard also reminds readers that these rankings aren’t just based on chart stats, streams, or sales. Other factors like music videos, performances, social media presence, and cultural influence also matter. And they’re looking at the entire 25-year span, so artists with only brief moments of success might not rank as highly.
Check out the complete list of honorable mentions here.
