Sony/ATV’s Ed Sheeran is Billboard’s Top Artist of 2017

Sheeran becomes the first British male solo artist since George Michael in 1988 to rank as the year’s top artist, while 'Shape Of You' leads the year-end Hot 100 chart having spent a record 33 weeks in the weekly Top 10. This was part of a 12-week run at No.1.

The singer-songwriter’s third studio album Divide finishes as Billboard’s fourth top album covering a chart year which runs from the week ending December 3 2016 to November 25 2017.

Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart includes a number of other big hits penned or co-penned by Sony/ATV songwriters. The No. 2 song is 'Despacito', which was co-written by Sony/ATV signings Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Erika Ender, while Sony/ATV-published The Chainsmokers have the year’s fifth biggest hit with 'Something Just Like This', which they recorded with Coldplay, and are No. 7 with 'Closer' featuring Halsey.

Other Sony/ATV songwriters on the year-end chart include James Arthur at 11 with “Say You Won’t Let Go”, French Montana at No. 15 with 'Unforgettable' and Alessia Cara with 'Stay', which she recorded with Zedd. This with co-written by Cara with fellow Sony/ATV songwriters Sarah Anders, Anders Froen and Jonnali Parmenius.

The top-ranked album of the year is Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN, which includes eight songs co-written by Sony/ATV songwriter Sounwave, while Sony/ATV’s Drake is at No. 5 with More Life. He is the year’s third top artist with The Chainsmokers placed sixth.