Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

is a chart published by '' Billboard'' ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

(AC) market. In 2015, nine different songs topped the chart in 52 issues of the magazine, based on weekly

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

data from radio stations compiled by

Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned ...

. On the first chart of the year, the number one position was held by

Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on the Broadway stage and having achieved mainstream success across stage, film and music, Menzel has garnered the honori ...

and

Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...

with their version of the 1940s song "

Baby, It's Cold Outside "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and popularized in the 1949 film '' Neptune's Daughter''. While the lyrics make no mention of a holiday, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter ...

", the song's third consecutive week at number one. The following week it was displaced by "

Shake It Off "Shake It Off" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her fifth studio album, ''1989''. Swift wrote the lyrics and composed the melody with producers Max Martin and Shellback. An uptempo dance-pop song featuring a saxop ...

" by

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

, which spent five consecutive weeks at number one. After one week off the top spot, Swift returned to number one with the song "

Blank Space "Blank Space" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her fifth studio album, ''1989''. The song was released to US radio stations as the second single from ''1989'' on November 10, 2014, by Republic Records in partners ...

". She would go on to achieve a third chart-topper in the summer with "

Style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

", and was the only act with more than one AC number one in 2015. Both "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space" also topped ''Billboard''s all-genre chart, the Hot 100. Following Swift's second chart-topper of the year, British singer

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently re ...

gained his first AC number one with "

Thinking Out Loud "Thinking Out Loud" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, recorded for his second studio album, '' ×'' (2014). It was written by Sheeran and Amy Wadge, and produced by frequent collaborator Jake Gosling. It was released in the ...

", which spent 19 non-consecutive weeks in the top spot. This meant that Sheeran achieved three feats: the longest unbroken run at number one during 2015, the highest total weeks at number one by a song, and the highest total weeks at number one by an artist. The final number one of the year was "

Hello ''Hello'' is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the '' Norwich ...

" by another British singer,

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...

, which reached the peak position in the issue of ''Billboard'' dated November 28. The first track to be made available from her eagerly-anticipated third album '' 25'', "Hello" sold a record number of downloads in its first week of release. The song was the first track for 13 years to break into the top 5 of the traditionally slow-moving AC chart inside three weeks, and reached number one in its fourth week on the chart. In contrast, "

Maps A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

" by the group Maroon 5, released the previous summer, had taken more than seven months to finally reach the summit of the chart in February. Adele's song remained at number one for the final five weeks of 2015.

Chart history

References

{{Adult Contemporary Chart 2015 Number-one adult contemporary singles United States Adult Contemporary

Chart history

See also

References