Queen Receives BRIT Billion Award
via @queen danka / Youtube
Queen has been awarded the BRIT Billion Award by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The award is given to musicians whose music has received more than one billion streams in the UK, according to data from the Official Charts Company.
When the BRIT Billion award was initially revealed in May, ABBA and Coldplay were among the initial beneficiaries. On July 20, Queen was recognized in honor of the recent 50th anniversary of their breakthrough album Queen.
Along with John Deacon and the late Freddie Mercury, members of the Queen band Brian May and Roger Taylor received personalized BRIT Billion trophies made for the BPI by Gaudio Awards.
May said the following in response to the BRIT Billion Award:
“Thank you for presenting Queen with a BRIT Billion Award. We’re grateful to all our fans that support us and continue to enjoy our music. Rock on BPI.”
Taylor said:
“I’m thrilled to accept the BRIT Billion Award on behalf of Queen, celebrating being streamed over a billion times in the UK, which is incredible.
“I would like to say thanks to everyone who has extracted a morsel of enjoyment from our music. We are still around and we hope to entertain you a little. Thank you.”
There are probably not many musicians who have done more to popularize and promote British music throughout the world than Queen, according to Dr. Jo Twist OBE, Chief Executive of the BPI. Their greatest hits CD was the most popular album ever in the UK, and their catalog of timeless songs is today recognized for having been streamed more than a billion times in the country.
The term iconic scarcely does credit to their outstanding accomplishments as recording artists. They said:
“Queen occupy a special place in the heart of the BPI – their self-titled debut album came out the same year we were formed and they were among the very first artists to win an inaugural BRIT Award – so we couldn’t be happier that they have now been honoured with a BRIT Billion Award in this, our 50th anniversary year.”
In 2022, there were a record 160 billion audio streams in the UK, representing more than 85% of the country’s consumption of recorded music.
