This ranking captures the most impactful global pop artists of 2025 so far—measured through August 27, 2025. We prioritized what moved culture and crowds this year: top-line festival billings (and whether they were true headliners or undercard), size and sell-through of tour routings, and momentum across broadcast moments and prestige stages. We also factored in hard signals of demand and discovery—Spotify monthly listeners, YouTube traction on 2025 music videos and live clips, TikTok creation bursts for 2025 sounds, Shazam trends in key cities, and sustained radio/playlist presence (e.g., BBC Radio 1/1Xtra, Capital, Apple Music’s A-List Pop, Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits). Press temperature and cross-scene collaborations counted when they clearly amplified an artist’s global footprint.
What this list is (and isn’t): it’s a snapshot of 2025 performance and influence, not a lifetime-achievement ledger. Legacy clout mattered only where it translated into this year’s outcomes—selling bigger rooms, commanding better slots, or powering new hits. We included solo acts and groups/duos whose core output in 2025 was unmistakably pop, even if it fused club, alt, R&B, or K-pop textures. Each entry includes a high-resolution official image and one representative 2025 YouTube link, and our write-ups point to concrete, verifiable data behind the placement.
How to read it: if you’re a booker, use the headliner vs. undercard context and city-by-city demand as a quick barometer; if you’re a fan, the paragraph under each artist will map where their sound is cutting through right now. The list will inevitably evolve—but as of today, these 20 names are driving the global pop conversation in 2025.
1. Olivia Rodrigo – USA
Olivia Rodrigo takes the No. 1 spot because 2025 is the year she vaulted from Gen-Z phenomenon to bona fide global pop headliner. The clincher: topping Glastonbury on June 29—an emphatic, historic booking that placed her on the Pyramid Stage alongside legacy names and made her the weekend’s mainstream pop focal point. BBC Music’s official clips from her set have been racing up YouTube (e.g., “All-American B**** (Glastonbury 2025)”), underlining just how sticky her live moments are in the algorithm. Press recaps consistently framed Sunday’s finale as “Olivia’s night,” with outlets cataloguing the set’s surprise moments and festival-closing aura. That matters for rank: Glastonbury headlining in a non-fallow year is still the gold standard for global impact, and she delivered it while sustaining chart heat from late-2024 into 2025. Across spring and summer she stacked huge festival anchors (Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds media focus spillover) and premium broadcast looks in the UK and EU, driving Shazam spikes in London and Amsterdam during and after the broadcast window and reinforcing that her sound—sardonic lyricism cut with pop-punk crunch, soaring ballads, and sleek alt-pop—lands beyond North America. Put simply: she owned the biggest European stage, kept the conversation, and proved the songs convert at true headliner scale.
2. Sabrina Carpenter – USA
Sabrina Carpenter ranks No. 2 on the strength of a relentless 2025 run that turned 2024’s breakout into sustained, stadium-scale dominance. She headlined Lollapalooza Chicago in August (one of the most globally visible multi-genre festivals), sharing top billing with Olivia Rodrigo and TWICE—an emphatic signal of her headliner market power in the U.S. and to international buyers tracking streaming metrics. Earlier in July she delivered a London showpiece at American Express presents BST Hyde Park, whose official highlight reel amplified a rapt 65k-plus crowd singing back every syllable. Her 2025 creative center was “Manchild,” released on Sabrina’s own channel; by late August the video had surged into the multimillion view range and was still generating TikTok choreography clips and POV lip-syncs. Critically, she balanced prestige media looks with pure mass reach: a Radio 1 Live Lounge in July kept UK radio rotation sticky while Spotify Pop and Apple Music A-List Pop slotting stayed consistent on release week. Sonically she’s landed a crystalline, hook-forward pop that folds in disco-bounce drums, sparkling synth arps, and a wink of retro-R&B phrasing, all paired with an eminently meme-able lyrical bite. The result: premium festivals want her name on the top row, and sell-through keeps pace.
3. Ariana Grande – USA
Ariana’s No. 3 rank is about scale and cultural saturation. Her 2025 short film rollout around the *Eternal Sunshine (The Bad Day Chronicles)* deluxe cycle (notably the “Brighter Days Ahead” film and the “Dandelion” video drops) re-centered her in the pop discourse beyond the *Wicked* halo, delivering blockbuster YouTube traction and a fresh round of editorial support. The film’s release on March 28 gave her a clean Q2 pivot into festival season and international promo, while playlist support across Apple Music’s A-List Pop and Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits on drop week helped sustain streaming velocity. Editorials from Rolling Stone and Harper’s Bazaar framed the year as an artistic refresh that sharpened her R&B-leaning topline runs and stacked background harmonies into a more intimate, cinematic pop palette—exactly the kind of innovation that keeps an A-tier pop act contemporary. Combined with premium broadcast looks and consistent radio adds across BBC and Capital in the UK and Top 40/Hot AC in North America, Ariana maintained top-of-mind awareness while competitors cycled. It’s that blend—filmic visuals, elite vocal craft, and conversion on mainstream radio—that cements her near the summit for 2025.
4. Dua Lipa – UK
Dua lands at No. 4 on the back of a meticulously executed third-era world campaign that continued to flex in 2025, punctuated by “Handlebars” with JENNIE. Dropping a sleek, tightly choreographed, neon-washed clip on March 2025, she extended *Radical Optimism*’s festival-headlining momentum across Europe and Asia while refreshing her setlist with an unmistakable arena-pop banger tailored for pyro hits and synchronized crowd jumps. Press from mainstream and K-pop trades alike elevated the team-up’s global appeal and cross-demographic pull, strengthening tour marketing in Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok and European capitals. On the ground, she held top-of-card placements through the summer run, with major playlisting on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits and Apple Music’s A-List Pop the week of release, plus heavy rotation on BBC Radio 1 and Capital. The track’s sync-friendly hook (four-to-the-floor kick, rubbery bass, glassy pads) fit seamlessly between “Houdini” and “Training Season,” keeping the live arc kinetic. It’s the cohesion—global bookings at the very top, a 2025 viral video that traveled internationally, and radio/playlist grip—that makes Dua a consensus top-five pop force this year.
5. TWICE – South Korea
TWICE’s No. 5 spot reflects a year where they didn’t just tour arenas—they headlined a flagship U.S. mega-festival. Their official full-set upload from Lollapalooza Chicago 2025 (on TWICE’s own channel) captures a 90-minute precision pop spectacle calibrated for American main stages: airtight harmonies, maximalist LED art direction, and a setlist spinning from glossy Euro-dance touches to Y2K R&B-pop. They shared the top line with Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and Hozier, a lineup that signaled a full embrace of K-pop within mainstream U.S. festival culture. The set’s view count climbed quickly through August, mirroring U.S. Shazam spikes in Chicago and Toronto the festival week and giving their 2025 singles steady U.S. radio curiosity beyond K-pop specialty shows. Behind the music, their choreography-first performance language—syncopated snaps over four-on-the-floor kicks, bright synth stacks—keeps translating on TikTok, amplifying their headliner narrative to casual fans. Add in strong Apple Music and Spotify editorial placement around the festival window and the case is obvious: TWICE were one of the few non-English-first pop acts to headline a major U.S. festival in 2025 and convert that moment into measurable global attention.
6. Chappell Roan – USA
Chappell Roan ranks No. 6 because she turned 2025 festival fields into her home court. “The Subway” arrived with a high-gloss, narrative-driven video on her official channel and quickly accrued seven-figure views, but it’s the live empire she built that matters: Reading & Leeds 2025 media narratives centered on her drawing the weekend’s biggest crowd, with UK broadsheets describing the atmosphere as generational and euphoric. That momentum threads into her profile across BBC and European radio, where “Good Luck, Babe!” era cuts still rotate adjacent to the new singles. Musically, her pop lives at the intersection of queer night-out glam, 80s neon synths, and theatrical belt—sharp snare programming, octave-leaping hooks, and tongue-in-cheek stories that go instantly viral. Add BBC Music’s on-site coverage and Glastonbury-adjacent buzz to her label’s consistent playlist adds and you get a U.S.-to-UK conversion few new-gen pop acts match. A summer of packed tents, with sell-through reported across secondary markets, cements why she beats out many legacy names here: the 2025 festival ecosystem quite literally revolved around her.
7. LISA – Thailand/South Korea
At No. 7, LISA’s “Born Again” (with Doja Cat & RAYE) was a 2025 linchpin: a glossy, fashion-forward clip that exploded across YouTube and cemented her as a pop star whose reach transcends K-pop. The official video, staged like a couture heist, sped past the nine-figure view mark within months, aligning with aggressive playlist support and pop radio curiosity in the UK and Southeast Asia. The track’s sound design—sleek club-pop with dramatic string stabs, subby low-end, and a half-time breakdown—proved tailor-made for reels and edits, triggering Shazam upticks in London, Toronto and New York the week of release. Press roundups from fashion and music trades fixated on the trio’s star power and LISA’s on-camera dominance, while her arena dates in Asia and Middle East slots announced in Q2 kept ticketing demand white-hot. Crucially, she also fed the live circuit’s headline conversation by popping up at global stadium events, priming crossover audiences for her solo shows. In a year defined by pop’s embrace of club tempo and high-concept visuals, “Born Again” is a capstone—proof that LISA’s pop era can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Western A-list releases.
8. Bruno Mars – USA
Bruno’s No. 8 rank rests on a rare combo in 2025: he drove the discourse with a viral, star-stuffed single while packing arenas with a Vegas-honed, world-class show. “Fat, Juicy & Wet” with Sexyy Red arrived January 24 with a cheeky, high-gloss official video stacked with surprise cameos (Lady Gaga and ROSÉ) and immediately ignited think-pieces about Bruno’s pop instincts and club-culture antennae. The video’s early eight-figure climb on YouTube, plus Top-20 U.S. Hot 100 peak, proved his ability to weaponize internet attention into charts, even between album cycles. At the same time, he maintained residency-level sellouts and select festival anchor slots, benefiting from cross-platform spillover as “Die With a Smile” lingered in global radio rotation. Sonically he still operates as pop’s master pasticheur—Stereotypes-polished drums, call-and-response hooks, and immaculate background-vocal stacks—while 2025’s feature run reminded buyers he’s a guaranteed closer. The year’s arc shows a veteran pop star playing the internet’s game without ceding musicality, which is why he sits firmly inside the top ten.
9. ROSÉ – South Korea
ROSÉ’s No. 9 is about sustained global pop relevance via both record and stage. The “APT.” campaign with Bruno Mars continued to tower over 2025’s first half, with the official video tearing through view milestones and sending the song into festival-scale sing-alongs. Her surprise appearance with Coldplay in Seoul on April 22 became one of spring’s most shared stadium moments—proof of true crossover magnetism—while coverage from major outlets underlined the transcontinental pull of that performance. In parallel, she moved her solo era in a direction that fuses pristine pop toplines with rock-band physicality (live drums, overdriven bass, and chant-ready hooks), a blend that clicks on Western playlists and Asian radio alike. With K-pop touring in high gear and collaborative stages multiplying across headliner sets, ROSÉ spent 2025 showing she can be the moment whether it’s her show or somebody else’s stadium—an increasingly important trait for elite pop acts booked across global bills.
10. Gracie Abrams – USA
Gracie’s No. 10 placement reflects a classic pop story: intimate songwriting scaling up to festival headliners. Slotted as a 2025 Lollapalooza headliner alongside Olivia Rodrigo and TWICE, she stepped into the top row as her sophomore cycle matured, and the official “Blowing Smoke” video (2025) kept the editorial gaze trained on her growth from diaristic bedroom-pop into widescreen, drum-forward anthems. The booking math adds up—strong U.S. sell-through on spring dates, UK and EU upgrades, and repeat adds on Apple Music’s A-List Pop and Spotify’s Pop Rising around release windows. Live, she keeps the front-row choir engaged with whisper-to-belt dynamics over crisp four-piece arrangements; on record, the palette leans clean guitars, warm pads, and feathered harmonies—radio-friendly but personal. That balance made her one of 2025’s safest elite bookings for major brands and festival operators, pushing her ahead of more volatile peers and cementing a top-10 rank.
11. Conan Gray – USA
Conan’s No. 11 is powered by a fully refreshed 2025 album era and a heavy fall arena run. With *Wishbone* announced for August 15 and a September–October “Wishbone Pajama Tour” through North American arenas (MSG, Crypto.com Arena, more), he’s converting streaming heft into top-tier venues. The 2025 singles rollout—including the lyric-video launch for “Caramel” and subsequent visuals—put him back on the surface area of YouTube and TikTok, where his cinematic, coming-of-age pop thrives. Press and ticketing trades catalogued the scope of the itinerary while Spanish-language outlets tracked the narrative arc through singles like “Vodka Cranberry,” highlighting the leap in storytelling and production (Dan Nigro’s touch is all over the drum programming and guitar voicings). Between U.S. radio support on CHR/Hot AC for the new cuts and festival hits earlier in the summer, the year reads like a step-up campaign done right—hence this mid-table but rising position.
12. Tate McRae – Canada
Tate sits No. 12 after a spring–summer where the Miss Possessive era proved it has stadium potential. “Revolving door” arrived in early 2025 with an official video that leans into her kinetic dance-pop DNA—elastic bass, clipped claps, and the breathy hook writing that made her a radio staple—and it scaled on YouTube fast. On stage she parlayed 2024’s arena wins into a 2025 run across Europe (including Germany, Scandinavia and the UK), grabbing broadcast looks like Radio 1’s Big Weekend and late-night TV slots that widened casual awareness. Coverage from European music press tracked a deft balance between tightly choreographed segments and live-band dynamics; the setlist’s A/B pacing kept socials fed and Shazam busy in London and Stockholm on show nights. As a result, she was one of the safest young headliner bets for promoters: demonstrable sell-through, sticky singles, and a fully exportable show language—exactly what this list rewards.
13. Benson Boone – USA
At No. 13, Benson Boone is 2025’s stealth arena conqueror. With *American Heart* out June 20 and the American Heart World Tour routing arenas across North America from August 22 (St. Paul) through early October (Salt Lake City) before heading to Europe, he made the leap from viral balladeer to top-line ticket mover. Official 2025 videos like “Mr Electric Blue” and award-show performances (“Mystical Magical” at the AMAs) kept his YouTube lane hot while press from People and ticketing platforms mapped a 40+ date itinerary including MSG, Scotiabank Arena and The O2. His sound runs clean, modern pop—big tom fills, atmospheric guitars, and skyscraper hooks—engineered for scream-along choruses in 15–20k rooms. With multiple U.S. and Canada dates flashing “low tickets” and steady radio rotation on pop formats, he’s vaulted past many peers into the year’s top global pop draws, meriting a strong mid-table slot.
14. Noah Kahan – USA
Noah Kahan claims No. 14 by turning folk-pop into one of Glastonbury 2025’s most replayed moments. BBC Music’s official clips (“Stick Season,” “Northern Attitude”) gave the set a second life online, converting British broadcast exposure into continental demand for his fall routing while lifting Shazam in London and Dublin during transmission. The live mix—four-on-the-floor kick under strummed acoustics, widescreen synth pads, communal la-la codas—reads pop in stadiums, and that’s exactly how it felt on the Pyramid field. Press and wiki compendia logged the set and radio rebroadcasts, while BBC playlists amplified the moment across iPlayer and Sounds. For market logic: Noah’s become a European festival cheat code; he fills the field with a younger demo, plays nice with TV, and the choruses live forever on socials. That’s why he outranks legacy pop names who toured but didn’t own a tentpole broadcast moment in 2025.
15. The 1975 – UK
The 1975 take No. 15 as the UK band who restored the idea of a guitar-driven pop headliner in 2025. Their Glastonbury Other Stage airing pulled heavy BBC YouTube traffic—clips like “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” racking mid-six to seven-figure views—and reminded everyone that their synth-sheen, Linn-drum gloss, and sparkling hooks still read directly as pop. The set’s production (sleek LED frames, camera choreography, vocal stacks) proved arena-level even outdoors, and broadcast-friendly arrangements kept radio-ready. With UK press zooming in on their late-night energy and broadcast guides previewing their slot as must-watch TV, they won the festival-media weekend for bands—and in a pop year, that’s huge. Add steady editorial support and a sharp touring spine across Europe and the U.S., and they’re the rare legacy-millennial act pushing into new-fan discovery loops alongside Gen-Z headliners.
16. Selena Gomez – USA
Selena’s No. 16 position is anchored by a focused, highly visible 2025 collaborative era. “Call Me When You Break Up,” her sugary, throwback-pop single with benny blanco and Gracie Abrams, arrived February 20 with an official video that quickly surged into eight figures, powered by a three-fanbase supercharge and heavy social lift. People and ABC News framed the duet as a centerpiece for her joint album cycle, and Spanish-language pop media tracked the project’s tracklist and March 21 rollout. Sonically, it’s pure Selena: bubblegum melodies over punchy drums and glossy synth pads, built for CHR rotation and TikTok POVs. While she didn’t tour in 2025, the content cadence—videos, acoustic alternates, and deluxe announcements—kept her top-tier in the pop conversation, with steady editorial playlisting on release weeks and notable Shazam pops in NYC and London as the video trended. It’s the smartest version of a non-tour pop year, and the metrics (views, airplay curiosity, social) justify a strong mid-table rank.
17. RAYE – UK
RAYE’s No. 17 slot recognizes a 2025 defined by virtuoso live dominance and savvy collaborations. Her Glastonbury 2025 clip (“Where The Hell Is My Husband?”) on BBC Music shot up quickly, emblematic of a set that scaled her jazz-inflected pop/R&B fusion to broadcast TV with ease: swaggering brass stabs, syncopated drums, and a big-screen diva presence. In parallel, she co-starred on LISA’s “Born Again,” a fashion-world-approved club-pop moment that widened her global streaming funnel and bolstered radio adds outside the UK. It’s a masterclass in leverage: use elite festival TV to cement O2-level headliner credentials at home, and precision-pick a global collab to open doors in Asia and North America. With that two-front strategy humming and her songwriting muscle as sharp as ever, RAYE is the rare critically revered artist who also moves the pop needle abroad—more than enough for a top-20 berth.
18. JENNIE – South Korea
JENNIE enters at No. 18 off a marquee 2025 crossover that doubled as a global pop event: “Handlebars” with Dua Lipa. The official video’s quick multi-million climb cemented her as a solo draw to Western audiences beyond the BLINK core, with strong UK/US editorial playlisting, K-pop and Top 40 radio curiosity, and sustained TikTok edits. Stylistically, she threads K-pop precision and Western pop minimalism—ice-cool rap-sung cadences, clipped kick patterns, and a neon-sleek topline—that slides perfectly between Dua’s rhythm-guitar funk and European club sheen. The collaboration reverberated into live: increased demand signals for her standalone festival slots and brand headliner events across Europe/Asia through the summer. Paired with Blackpink members’ stadium cameos and cross-scene moments, JENNIE’s 2025 footprint looks every inch global pop, not just K-pop, justifying a strong placement inside the 20.
19. Charli XCX – UK
Charli’s No. 19 rank acknowledges how completely she dominated 2025’s festival pop conversation. Her Glastonbury Other Stage set was appointment TV, teed up by UK media as a late-night essential and dissected across fan communities, with broadcast clips racking major views on BBC channels. The show distilled the *brat* era’s club-pop ethos—rail-gun kick drums, plasticky bass, and chant-able hooks—into an arena-scale spectacle with dancers, runway-style pacing, and immaculate lighting cues. That live intensity fed playlist surges for her 2025 drops and collabs, while tabloid noise about lip-sync accusations only amplified visibility; more importantly, the BBC framing and broadsheet previews confirmed the industry saw her set as a peak-of-festival moment. She also drove house/club crossovers onto pop radio shows, keeping her a fixture in BBC Radio 1 mix-hours. Few artists engineered a festival narrative this sticky—hence a near-top-tier slot.
20. Doja Cat – USA
Doja closes the list at No. 20 because 2025 found her squarely back in the pop-center via event collaborations and headline-ready setpieces. Her starring feature on LISA’s “Born Again” was one of Q1’s biggest global videos—super-shareable visuals, fashion-editorial energy, and a club-pop chassis that translated across playlists from Today’s Top Hits to Pop Rising. That single alone re-accelerated her international metrics, rebounding radio interest in territories where rhythmic-first singles don’t always cut through. Around it, she’s kept a steady stream of viral video moments and tabloid-magnified visuals, ensuring omnipresence on socials and a near-constant Shazam hum in U.S./UK hubs. Musically, she remains pop’s great shapeshifter—nimble rap-sung verses into glossy choruses over whiplash drum programming—equally at home on festival main stages and club shows. The cumulative effect: in a year where a handful of A-listers idled, Doja stayed noisy, visible, and playlisted—enough to edge into this global top 20.
