Ed Sheeran was the biggest music star in Canada in 2017.
According to the Nielsen Music Year-End Report released on Thursday, Sheeran’s album ÷ spent five weeks at No. 1 in Canada – more than any other album – and was the top-consumed album.
It was also one of only five albums that sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada in 2017.
Sheeran’s single “Shape Of You” was the biggest song in the country based on streams and radio play – and second only to “Despacito” for downloads. Those two songs were the only ones to sell more than 300,000 downloads.
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Six Canadian artists had No. 1 albums in Canada last year: Shania Twain, Drake, The Weeknd, Arcade Fire, Gord Downie and Pierre Lapointe.
According to Nielsen, Canadians love music. Overall consumption of albums, songs and audio streaming was up 13.6 per cent over 2016 and, for the first time, streaming surpassed the 900 million per week mark.
Hip-Hop and R&B were the fastest growing kinds of music last year. Seven of the 10 most-streamed artists in Canada were from those genres.
It was also a good year for vinyl in Canada, where sales of LPs increased 21.8 per cent over 2016.