Shazam turns 20 on Friday (Aug. 18) and has officially surpassed 70 billion song recognitions, marking two decades of answer the question: “Hey, what’s that song?”
To celebrate the milestone, Shazam is inviting fans to take a trip down memory lane with a special playlist comprised of the most Shazamed song of each calendar year for the past 20 years, including some of the biggest hits of the 2000s like Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” Sia’s “Cheap Thrills,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and more. The playlist is available to listen to exclusively on Apple Music here.
Just in case you’re thinking that 20 years seems like longer than Shazam has been around, it actually started in August 2002 as a text-message-based service only in the U.K., where users could dial a number, hold their phone up to a song, and then receive a text with the song title and artist. In July 2008, Shazam launched in the App Store and then was available to Android users by October that same year.
Throughout the years, Shazam has played a major role in bringing local artists to a global audience through music discovery. For example, the longest-running global No. 1 song of 2021 that was Shazamed on the platform was “Love Nwantiti (Remix)” by Nigerian artist CKay. The track also became the second song to ever surpass 1 million Shazams in a week.
“Shazam has played an impactful role in my career,” CKay said in a press statement. “It allowed millions of people all over the world to discover me and my unique Nigerian sound. It made me a global sensation even before I started to perform all over the world. The story of CKay cannot be told without Shazam connecting me to the world.”
To celebrate 20 years of Shazam, see below for 20 fun facts about the platform, from the most Shazamed artist and song of all time to the first song to reach 1 million, 10 million and 20 million Shazams.
