The world is in shambles, and when I say the world I mean Twitter (we have to know by that I won’t call it X, right?). For the past few weeks, Billboard has been releasing their list of the top pop artists of the 21st century, despite the fact that we’re literally only 23 years into it. Anyway, they’ve compiled 25 artists to make this list, which was barely getting much traction until they got to the last two spots. They’ve been releasing a few names about every few days, so, when Rihanna was named the third greatest artist of the 21st century, stan-Twitter users quickly realised that two big names had yet to be seen on the list: Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. With that, people began to speculate which artist would end up on top.

Well, last week, Swift was named number two on Billboard’s list, leaving many to assume that Beyoncé will take the number one spot despite Billboard not sharing it yet. Swift taking the number two spot enraged her fans, the Swifties. They took to Twitter sharing that nobody, including Beyoncé, should be ranked above her.

As a die hard member of the Beyhive, I have to disagree with the Swifties. However, instead of taking the time to hate on Swift—which I could do very well—let’s just talk about why Beyoncé’s the most deserving of the top spot.

First and foremost, Beyoncé has been Beyoncé for decades. She first hopped on the scene with Destiny’s Child, one of the best girl groups of all time, in the 90s. After the group disbanded, Beyoncé began her solo career, releasing her debut album “Dangerously in Love” in 2003, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Since then, Beyoncé has been a household name, her career continuing to grow despite being in the industry for longer than most of those Twitter Swifties have been alive. The longevity of her career is something we’ve never truly seen before, so why wouldn’t she be the greatest pop star of the 21st century?

Let’s move onto accolades. I’d be here all day if I mentioned every award Beyoncé’s received so let’s just stick with the Grammys. Beyoncé is the most nominated artist in Grammy history with 99 nominations, she also has 32 Grammys, making her the most awarded artist in Grammy history. That’s all. 

I could go on forever but I’ll just say one last thing, does anyone know why artists release music on Fridays? There used to be a time when new music was dropped on Tuesdays. Releasing on Tuesdays was a way for artists to maximize their sales which would then help them chart the following week. This was a global tradition until Beyoncé came along. On Friday December 13, 2013, Beyoncé surprise dropped her self-titled album. She didn’t promote it in any way shape or form, she simply digitally dropped it unannounced. Debuting at the top of the Billboard 200, the album completely changed the game. Artists began dropping their own music on Fridays until conversation sparked about moving the Global Release day from Tuesday to Friday, a change that officially happened in 2015. That quite literally happened because of Beyoncé which is why she raps, “changed the game with that digital drop” in her feature on Nicki Minaj’s song “Feeling Myself.” I don’t know about you guys but that sounds like a quality the greatest pop star of the 21st century would have.

All that to say, Beyoncé is a living legend, no artist can match what she’s done and what she continues to do in the music industry, and that’s okay. Every artist can’t be the best artist to ever do it, but Beyoncé can.