Should Any of Our 2025 Greatest Pop Star Honorable Mentions Have Made the Top 10 — And Who Got Left Off Altogether?

It’s been a fascinating year in pop stardom, as several A-listers rolled their massive 2024s into nearly-as-big 2025s, some proven hitmakers made the jump to to true ubiquity, and some underground up-and-comers poked their heads above the surface for the first time. It all made for a crowded field, from which it was difficult to choose just 10 names to be our official Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 — which we’ll be counting down one a day starting Monday (Jan. 19) — and nearly as tough even just to decide the 10 honorable mentions, which we just posted today.

On this first Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we focus on those 10 unranked best-of-the-rest artists. YouTuber and Song vs. Song podcaster Todd in the Shadows stops by to help us size up those 10 artists — and share his takes about who should have made the main list, and who didn’t necessarily need to be recognized at all — as we also look at some of the artists we couldn’t find room for, and also make some predictions about artists who could be in the Greatest Pop Stars discussion in 2026.

Along the way, we answer all the most important questions about our Nos. 11-20 Greatest Pop Stars of 2025: Does it matter that Ariana Grande’s 2025 mostly feels like leftovers from her 2024? Is Benson Boone the Barry Manilow of the 2020s? Did Chappell Roan not make a single truly wrong move all year and still end up losing a lot of her momentum from the year before? Did Justin Bieber out-Swag himself? How highly do we value SZA being the most valuable supporting pop star of the year? And perhaps most importantly: Where exactly do we rate Drake in all of this?