Top 10 best collaborations in 2020: Cardi B and Meghan Thee Stallion to Drake and Future, here are the fan favorites
2020 did not prove to be a good year, thanks to the pandemic, but it surely did not disappoint us in terms of music. After all, it was music which kept us going during the global lockdown due to the unfortunate Covid-19 pandemic. We witnessed a lot of chartbusters — some broke previous records while some created new ones — but the best part was seeing our favorite artistes coming together under one roof to entertain their fans.
As the year is coming to an end, we look back at some of the best collaborations that fans loved in 2020.
Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion — 'WAP'
The world saw two female emcees Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion joining hands for their song called ‘WAP’, which ended up as one of the biggest collaborations of 2020. Released in August 2020, ‘WAP’ is an acronym for wet a** p***y, which samples Frank Ski's 1993 Baltimore club single ‘W****s in This House’ — yes, the catchy phrase which got stuck in everybody’s head. Thanks to its sexually explicit video, Cardi B and Megan did garner a lot of attention but also left the internet divided. While some praised both the ladies for the confident display of women who demonstrate their sexual prowess, others pointed out the nudity in the video.
Apart from YouTube and Spotify, ‘WAP’ also became a viral hit on TikTok and Instagram, which further catapulted the song’s popularity. The fan-favorite debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Cardi B her fourth number-one single in the US and Megan her second. ‘WAP’ also went on to break several other records on the social media platforms. Since the release, the official audio of the hit single has got 117M views on YouTube while the official video stands strong with 258M views. The song also features cameos from several women, including reality TV star Kylie Jenner, singers Normani and Rosalia and rappers Mulatto, Sukihana and Rubi Rose. Check out the song right here.
Future featuring Drake — 'Life Is Good'
Released in January 2020, fans perceived it as a perfect New Year gift when their favorite artistes Future and Drake collaborated on the song ‘Life Is Good'. Currently standing strong on YouTube with 1.1B views, the song debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and also became the first song ever to spend its first eight weeks at that position, behind Roddy Ricch's hit single ‘The Box'.
Also, ‘Life Is Good’ is Future's highest-charting song till date. For the unversed, this is not the first time Drake and Future have joined hands on a project. Their friendship goes way back to 2011 when they dropped their very first song together called ‘Tony Montana'. Interestingly, both the hip-hop artistes share great chemistry and are known for their workaholic attitudes towards their craft. On the contrary, the title ‘Life Is Good’ also got trolled when we were struck with the global pandemic.
Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyonce — 'Savage (Remix)'
When American female emcee Megan Thee Stallion, who is a newbie in the hip-hop game, first dropped her single ‘Savage’ in March 2020, nobody expected it to be such a viral hit that Beyonce, who is considered as the queen of pop music, would jump on it for the remix. The most unexpected collaboration of 2020 took the world by storm and as we say, the rest is history.
The song might only have 55M views on YouTube as there is no video of the single, but the ‘Savage (Remix)’ got unending attention on Instagram and TikTok, which further pushed its popularity in pop culture. From dance covers to rap covers, ‘Savage (Remix)’ saw everything. The remix featuring Beyonce was released on April 29, 2020, and scored the numero-uno position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Megan’s first ever No. 1 song and Beyonce’s seventh as a solo artist.
Lady Gaga featuring Ariana Grande — 'Rain On Me'
Lady Gaga, who enjoys a massive fan following across the globe, teamed up with the current pop sensation Ariana Grande in May 2020 to treat her fans with the hit dance-pop single ‘Rain On Me'. The song is the very first collaboration of these two talented artistes and therefore, the fans had a great time with it. ‘Rain On Me’ is listed as the second single from Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album ‘Chromatica'.
Thanks to the loyal fandom of both the artistes, the song debuted at the top US Billboard Hot 100, as it became Gaga's fifth and Grande's fourth US number one single in the country. ‘Rain On Me’ was the seventh most streamed song of summer 2020 on Spotify. The surprise collaboration pushed the song at the top of the charts in 14 other countries, and also charted within the top 10 in more than 50 other territories. The upbeat disco synth track currently has 263M views on YouTube.
BTS, Jason Derulo — 'Savage Love (Remix)'
‘Savage Love’ was first released in June 2020 as a resolution of sample clearance between American pop artist Jason Derulo and New Zealand music producer Jawsh 685. When Derulo, who enjoys a massive fan following on TikTok, started doing the covers of the song on the video-content sharing app, he would not have imagined that he will end up collaborating with one of the biggest South Korean boy bands, BTS, and neither did we. The K-pop band hopped on the remix by confirming it on their Twitter account. ‘Savage Love (Remix)’ was then dropped on October 2, 2020, where apart from Derulo, we also heard verses in Korean from BTS members Jungkook, Suga and J-Hope.
Fans loved the unique collaboration and made ‘Savage Love (Remix)’ reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song became Derulo’s second number-one hit after a gap of 11 years whereas BTS also got their second number-one hit after ther success of ‘Dynamite'. It was producer Jawsh 685’s very first number-one song. ‘Savage Love (Remix)’ also reached number one on the Billboard Global 200 and Canadian Hot 100 charts as well.
Eminem featuring Juice WRLD — 'Godzilla'
With 259M YouTube views on the song ‘Godzilla', the track came as a surprise for many when the hip-hop legend Eminem first announced the tracklist of his eleventh studio album ‘Music to Be Murdered By'. The song got all the hype it deserved due to the very unusual collaboration between Eminem and late Juice WRLD because the former always made headlines for slamming mumble rappers and Juice WRLD was always considered one of them.
‘Godzilla’ was released in January 2020 but unfortunately, Juice WRLD died in December 2019 at the age of 21 due to apparent overdose from Percocet pills. Fans also jumped on the song as soon as it released because it was Juice WRLD’s first posthumous release. Apart from the emotional attachment, the song also remained in news because of Eminem. The Academy Award-winning rapper broke his previous world record for his song ‘Rap God’ after spitting 10.65 syllables per second — 300 words in 30 seconds in ‘Godzilla'. Phew! That’s a lot.
Doja Cat featuring Nicki Minaj — 'Say So'
American rapper and singer Doja Cat first dropped her song ‘Say So’ from her second studio album titled ‘Hot Pink’ in January 2020 and it gained popularity after a dance created by TikTok user Haley Sharpe went viral on the platform. Nicki hopped on the remix after a few months which pushed the song to the top of the Hot 100 Billboard chart. According to various sources, ‘Say So’ has now close to 8B views on TikTok and it became the first number one for both Doja and Nicki. The track has got an unimaginable number of dance and rap covers on Instagram and TikTok. Interestingly, ‘Say So’ also has been remade in Korea and Japan with their own versions.
DJ Khalid, Drake featuring Justin Bieber — 'Popstar'
Everyone was aware of DJ Khalid joining hands with his frequent collaborator Drake on two songs namely ‘Greece’ and ‘Popstar', but what came as a surprise was the Canadian singer Justin Bieber coming-in for the ‘Popstar’ video. The Internet went berserk the moment it was revealed that it was Justin Bieber who is going to take over the entire video and oh boy! the video has already garnered 95M views on YouTube after releasing in September 2020. Fans loved the collaboration between the three artistes. The song soon went viral on social media. ‘Popstar’ proved to be a bigger hit than ‘Greece', debuting at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one in Drake's native Canada.
Ariana Grande featuring Justin Bieber — 'Stuck with U'
Marking their second collaboration and first in 2020, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber came together for their charity single ‘Stuck with U’ at the time when the entire world was stuck at home due to the global pandemic. The much-awaited collaboration was released in May 2020 and opened to positive reviews. ‘Stuck with U’ won the award for ‘Best Music Video from Home’ at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.
Both the pop icons enjoy a global fan following which allowed the song to debut at the top of Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it Bieber’s sixth and Grande's third US number-one single. The funds raised from the songs were donated to help the children of frontline helpers, who were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Ariana was first featured on the remix of Bieber’s hit song ‘What Do You Mean?’ in 2015. We surely need more collaborations like this.
Blackpink featuring Selena Gomez — 'Ice Cream'
The biggest surprise of 2020 came in the form of a song called ‘Ice Cream’ from the South Korean all-girl band Blackpink’s first full-length album titled ‘The Album'. No one ever imagined that Selena Gomez would feature in their song but the internet lost its calm when the news of Blackpink and Selena collaborating on ‘Ice Cream’ got out. The bubblegum pop song currently has a whooping 355M views on YouTube.
The electro-pop song took the world by storm with this unique collaboration, colorful video and peppy background score. The official music video for the song was released on August 28, 2020. ‘Ice Cream’ debuted and peaked at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Blackpink's first single to peak within the top 20.
Honorable mentions
Apart from the above listed top best collaborations of 2020, the following songs also made headlines for the same.
Justin Bieber featuring Quavo — ‘Intentions ‘
Jack Harlow featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez & Lil Wayne — ‘What’s Poppin’
DaBaby featuring Roddy Richh — 'Rockstar'
The Scotts, Travis Scott, Kid Cudi — 'The Scotts’
Meek Mill featuring Roddy Ricch — ‘Letter to Nipsey'