List of most popular musicians (all time)

Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (born May 8, 1975), simply known as Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. Iglesias started his career in 1995 on an American Spanish Language record label Fo...

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant...

Hans Florian Zimmer born 12 September 1957) is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 150 films, including film scores for The Lion King, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Pirates...

John Ono Lennon, born John Winston Lennon; (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980), was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the rock band the Beatles, the most commercially succe...

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life...

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era.

Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in h...

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, inclu...

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. Born in Venice, he is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his l...

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. She initially performed in theater, appearing in high school plays, and studied at CAP21 thr...

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor and former trumpet player, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, as well as contemporary classical w...

Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, one of the...

Frédéric François Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849), born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote primarily for the solo piano. A child prodigy, he...

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberd...

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Franklin, Tennessee, she held minor roles in the television series Doc and the film Big Fish in her ch...

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed with the inde...

Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), known by her stage name Rihanna, is a Barbadian singer, actress, and fashion designer.

Enya (born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin; anglicised as Enya Brennan; 17 May 1961) is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. She has sold 26.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the US and an estimated 75 million worldwide, makin...

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and director. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records...

Avril Ramona Lavigne (born 27 September 1984) is a Canadian-French singer-songwriter, musician, and occasional actress. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, and spent most of her youth in the town of Greater Napanee. By the age of...

Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter and actor. He was born in Toronto, Ontario. He first garnered recognition for his role as Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Nex...

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is a British singer and songwriter.

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and humanitarian. He is best known for his work with his E Street Band. He is nicknamed "The Boss".

David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, 8 January 1947) was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor.

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer, songwriter and actor, best known as lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones.

James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator of film scores. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for his fre...

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977) is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, choreographer, and model. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin, Arab...

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child, and rose to fame in t...

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (sometimes spelled Strawinski, Strawinsky, or Stravinskii, 17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor. He first achieved in...

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to prominence after releasing her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990. It went multiplatinum and...

Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono, is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician, venture capitalist, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best recognized as the frontman of the Dublin-based rock band...

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known professionally by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist. He was the principal songwrit...

Park Jae-sang (born December 31, 1977), hangul: 박재상, hanja: 朴載相, better known by his stage name Psy (Korean: 싸이), stylized PSY, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, record producer and rapper. Psy is known domestically for his hu...

Richard William "Rick" Wright (28 July 1943 – 15 September 2008) was an English musician, composer, singer and songwriter. He was a founder member, keyboardist and vocalist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, performing on th...

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), better known by her stage name Lorde, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Born in Takapuna and raised in Devonport, Auckland, she became interested in performing as a ch...

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic experimental singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional actress. She initially became known as the lead singer of the alterna...

Paul Frederic Simon is an American musician, actor and singer-songwriter. Simon's fame, influence, and commercial success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel...

Michael Hoenig (born 4 January 1952) is a German composer who has composed music for several films and games

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. He is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King".

Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, and photographer.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer and songwriter. She had limited exposure to secular music during her childhood and pursued a career in gospel musi...

David John "Dave" Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African-born American singer-songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. Matthews was born in...

Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/1455 – 27 August 1521), often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. His original name is sometimes given as Josquin Lebloitte and his later name is given under a...

Thomas Edward "Thom" Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician best known as the singer and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Radiohead. As a multi-instrumentalist, Yorke mainly plays guitar and piano, but...

Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key...

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter and television personality. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the band Black Sabbath. Osbourne was fired from Blac...

George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although...

Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason (born 27 January 1944) is an English musician and composer, best known as the drummer of Pink Floyd. He is the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1965. Despite solely writing onl...