The Weeknd has scored VPRO 3voor12’s Song of the Year 2020 with ‘Blinding Lights’. A great achievement, of course! With ‘Blinding Lights’ The Weeknd has made VPRO 3voor12’s Song of the Year 2020. The winner was announced last weekend during a 9 hour broadcast on NPO 3FM in which live counting was done from #100 to #1. For 36 years listeners, followers and viewers of VPRO 3voor12 have chosen their Song of the Year.
Extraordinary debut in 2011
The biggest hit of the year has been chosen as favorite Song. That must mean that the world falls massively for this R&B singer known for his dangerous cocktail of sex, drugs and dark depression.
The Weeknd’s stormy breakthrough came in a fairly unconventional way: in 2011 the Canadian made his debut with no less than three albums, which he gave away for free. Highly unusual, in those days. Spotify had just been launched, but we were still living in a period in which artists struggled with the value of music. The Weeknd had nothing to lose, he just put his Trilogy online, as an investment in the future’, we read in the emailed press release.
We read on: ‘In recent years – after 2015 – The Weeknd has written more of these massive pop songs. First there was ‘Can’t Feel My Face’, followed by two songs he wrote together with Daft Punk: ‘Starboy’ and ‘I Feel It Coming’. But with over 1.7 billion streams and number one positions with ‘Blinding Lights’ in just about every country in the world, this feels like an absolute peak in his career’.
Eefje de Visser
At number two ended Eefje de Visser with the number ‘Oh’. Eefje is the highest ranked Dutch artist in the top 100 of the Song of the Year 2020. Tonight she received the 3voor12 Award for best Dutch album of 2020.
Song of the year
For 36 years listeners, followers and viewers of VPRO 3voor12 have chosen their Song of the Year. Previous winners included ‘HOU JE BEK EN BEF ME’ by Merol, ‘Slicer’ by Kensington, ‘Make the Call, Leave it All’ (De Staat), ‘Let It Happen’ (Tame Impala), ‘Get Lucky’ (Daft Punk), ‘Everything Now’ (Arcade Fire), ‘Seven Nation Army’ (White Stripes), ‘Paranoid Android’ (Radiohead) and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (Nirvana). The Top 10 of the VPRO 3voor12 Song of the year 2020:
- The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights
- Eefje De Visser – ‘Oh’
- Tame Impala – ‘Lost In Yesterday’
- Nothing But Thieves – ‘Impossible
- Fontaines D.C. – ‘A Hero’s Death’
- Froukje – ‘Bigger than me’
- Billie Eilish – ‘Everything I Wanted’
- Harry Styles – ‘Watermelon Sugar
- Di-rect – ‘Soldier On
- Goldband – ‘The World
More information and the entire Top 100 can be found here.