Mariah Carey, Lewis Capaldi are among the artists to receive the first BRIT Billion Award.
The British Phonographic Association (BPI) has created a new award to recognize artists who have more than one billion streams in the UK.
The data on which the award is based comes from the Official Charts Company of the United Kingdom and includes both all songs from an artist's personal discography and songs by other artists on which they have appeared as a guest.
The first BRIT Billion Award was also presented to ABBA, AJ Tracey and Headie One, as well as Rita Ora, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Anne-Marie and George Ezra.
Swedish pop legends ABBA have sold 400 million records worldwide, had 17 No. 1 hits and record over 50 million streams on a weekly basis worldwide on digital platforms.
ABBA's most streamed hits are 'Dancing Queen', 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)' and 'Mamma Mia'.
As for Lewis Capaldi, the mega-hit 'Someone You Loved' was the best-selling UK single of 2019 and is also the UK's most streamed song of all time, with over 600 million streams.
Lewis Capaldi commented: “I'm so excited to be one of the first artists to receive a BRIT Billion Award! Never in a million years did I think this would happen but now it has and I will gladly accept any award, you have my address x”.
Pop diva Mariah Carey's classic Christmas song 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' from 1994 is one of the most streamed songs in the UK. To date it has accumulated over 370 million streams.
Mariah Carey said: “It's a huge honor for me to be one of the recipients of the BRIT Billion Award. I am so grateful to my fans for their endless and constant support. I love you British lambilys and I can't wait to come back and create more magical moments together."
A BRIT Billion Award was also presented to the late Whitney Houston, whose biggest hits include the triple platinum 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody', as well as 'Saving All My Love For You', 'It's Not Right (But It's OK) ", "I Will Always Love You" and "My Love Is Your Love".
RAYE, whose hit single “Escapism.” is double platinum in the UK, he said: “Thank you so much to the BPI for this award. One billion streams is too staggering a number for me to actually realize, I'm very grateful to everyone involved in that number, thank you."
Each artist will be presented with a specially designed BPI by Gaudio Awards1 trophy bearing the letter 'B' and a BRIT Awards statuette bearing their name.
Sophie Jones, BPI chief strategy officer and the federation's interim chief executive, said:
“For an artist, there are few greater sources of pride than having a platinum or gold record on their wall, but in an age where success is measured in hundreds of millions, even billions of streams, it was clear that we needed a new and additional way to to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievements in recorded music and I'm sure the BRIT Billion Award will become just as important."