Curated playlist

MTV Video Music Award winners

David BowieDavid Bowie died two days after releasing his final album. He planned Blackstar as a parting gift while privately dying.
ColdplayColdplay's first release was 500 copies of a self-financed EP. The band later grossed a billion dollars on one tour.
Britney SpearsBritney Spears sold the rights to her entire music catalogue for a reported $200 million. The buyer was the music publisher Primary Wave, and the BBC reported that the purchase closed on the 30th of December 2025. The price reflects a body…
Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
EminemEminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards while GLAAD protested outside.
Black Eyed PeasThe Black Eyed Peas topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 26 straight weeks in 2009. No artist had done it longer by then.
Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
Whitney HoustonWhitney Houston sold more than 220 million records and carried a nickname that needed no first name: "the Voice". She was born in 1963 and died in 2012. In between, she became one of the most awarded performers in history. In 2023, Rolling…
Drake (musician)Drake's 2006 mixtape Room for Improvement sold roughly 6,000 copies and earned him $304.04.
The White StripesThe White Stripes, a rock duo from Detroit, Michigan, gave their first concert at a bar called the Gold Dollar on Bastille Day in 1997. Meg White had started learning the drums just two months earlier, and she struggled to keep the tempo…
BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
Bruno MarsBruno Mars was five years old when he wet himself on a Honolulu stage in the middle of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." His parents wondered whether they were making a mistake by putting him in front of crowds. He never…
Young ThugYoung Thug was expelled in sixth grade for breaking a teacher's arm.
BlackpinkBlackpink became the first artist in the world to pass 100 million subscribers on YouTube, reaching that mark on the 20th of February 2026. The platform marked the occasion with a custom Red Diamond Creator Award. The group behind that…
Green DayGreen Day is an American rock band whose own lead singer once called its name "the worst band name in the world." Billie Joe Armstrong said so in 2001. The name came from Bay Area slang for an entire day given over to smoking marijuana.…
AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake was 11 years old when he appeared on the television show Star Search and sang country songs under the name Justin Randall. The boy from Memphis, Tennessee would one day be dubbed the Prince of Pop. Billboard would name…
Beastie BoysThe Beastie Boys, an American hip-hop trio from New York City, once set off a worldwide run of car thefts without ever touching a car. Around the time their debut album came out, Mike D began appearing on stage and in publicity photographs…
Tina TurnerTina Turner crossed a Texas freeway on foot on the 1st of July 1976 with 36 cents and a Mobil credit card in her pocket. She had slipped out of a hotel suite in Dallas after a fight, while her husband slept. Her destination was a nearby…
Pharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams, the American musician, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, was once behind a startling share of the songs on the radio. An August 2003 survey cited by The Age found that his production duo, the Neptunes,…
Red Hot Chili PeppersThe Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first show on the 16th of December 1982, at the Grandia Room, a club on Hollywood Boulevard, in front of roughly 30 people. They did not yet have that name. The poster billed them as Tony Flow and the…
Lil WayneLil Wayne left school in tenth grade after his mother found a gun in his bag.
Justin BieberScooter Braun found Justin Bieber by clicking a YouTube video by accident. He had been searching for a different singer.
Tyler, the CreatorAt the age of seven, Tyler Gregory Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, was already making albums that did not exist. He pulled the covers out of CD cases and made new ones for imaginary records, each with a tracklist and…
Panic! at the DiscoBrendon Urie's Las Vegas band signed a record deal before playing a live show.
David FincherDirector David Fincher demanded 99 takes from Rooney Mara for a single scene in The Social Network.
ShakiraAt age four, Shakira climbed onto a restaurant table and danced to a doumbek. It happened in Barranquilla, Colombia.
V (singer)V, the South Korean singer born Kim Tae-hyung, began his career as someone fans were not supposed to know about. Before BTS debuted, the group's followers had no idea he existed. His agency wanted to keep him as a surprise, so he was the…
Linkin ParkLinkin Park formed in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. Its founders were high school friends with a bedroom studio and no record deal. Years of…
BTSBTS debuted in 2013 from a small label outside K-pop's three dominant agencies. They practiced up to 15 hours a day.
Missy ElliottMissy Elliott and Timbaland wrote and produced nine tracks on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million.
Foo FightersThe Foo Fighters began in October 1994, when Dave Grohl walked into Robert Lang Studios with 15 songs of his own. He played every instrument and sang every vocal. The single exception was a guitar part on "X-Static," played by Greg Dulli…
Doja CatIn August 2018, Doja Cat uploaded a homemade music video in which she fantasized about being a cow. Within a week it had passed three million views. The American rapper, singer and producer was born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, and the…
Dua LipaIn the week beginning the 15th of May 2020, Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia sat at number one on the UK chart with only 7,317 sales. No chart-topping album this century has sold fewer copies in a single week. That modest number belongs…
SiaSia Kate Isobelle Furler, the Australian singer and songwriter known simply as Sia, has spent much of her fame facing away from the people who made her famous. In March 2021, a laneway in the centre of Adelaide was renamed Sia Furler Lane.…
One DirectionOne Direction began on the 23rd of July 2010, when five young singers who had each been knocked out of a talent show were put together as a group. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had all auditioned…
Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
M.I.A. (rapper)M.I.A. arrived in London as an eleven-year-old refugee speaking no English. She later became a Grammy and Oscar nominee.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg bought Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, in February 2022. It took nearly three decades.
Mark RonsonMark Ronson was twelve years old when he pestered Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, until the magazine gave him an internship. By his own description he was a music nerd, and the persistence paid off. Decades later he had won ten…
Miley CyrusMiley Cyrus was eight years old when she grabbed her father's arm in a Toronto theatre. In 2001 the family lived in Toronto while Billy Ray Cyrus filmed the television series Doc. He took her to see a Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at…
Cardi BCardi B reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated the 25th of September 2017, with a song called "Bodak Yellow." No solo female rapper had topped that chart since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998. The woman behind…
Olivia RodrigoOlivia Rodrigo was a teenager when one of her songs drew more than 15.7 million streams around the world in a single day, on the 11th of January 2021. The next day, the total passed 17 million. Looking back, she described it this way:…
Lana Del ReyLana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, and for years she performed under names that almost nobody remembers. One of them was Sparkle Jump Rope Queen. Another was May Jailer. These were the stage identities of a young American…
Bad BunnyBad Bunny once bagged groceries at an Econo supermarket. He later won Album of the Year at the Grammys.
Megan Thee StallionMegan Thee Stallion's mother took her to recording sessions instead of daycare.
Alicia KeysAlicia Keys was fifteen years old when Columbia Records tried to win her signature with a $26,000 white baby grand piano. She took the deal. It began a long struggle over who would decide what her music sounded like. Years later she summed…
Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson's first single debuted at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The following week it rose to number 52. Then it shot to number one, breaking a record for the biggest leap to the top that The Beatles had…