This Week: 2024 Year in Review 🍾

ATTENTION READERS: the year has finally come to an end… So now it’s time to rank the best music, television, and pop culture moments of 2024! And we may even give a sneak peak into what we’re most looking forward to in 2025 🤩

Please note, our picks for the best movies of the year (aka The Bestie Awards) will come in a few months, coinciding with the Oscars!

🎼 MUSIC

We listened to almost 8,500 songs across over 3,000 albums last year, and among those released in 2024, these were the ones we couldn’t stop spinning! 🎶

Our top album of the year came from Big Thief frontperson, Adrianne Lenker. We even got a chance to see Adrianne perform a lot of these new songs at the Kings Theatre, which was an absolute treat! 😌

We were also lucky to see Waxahatchee and Jamie xx this year, both of whom have albums in our Top 5, and we are set to see Father John Misty when he comes to NYC next month.

There were plenty of other fantastic records that didn’t make our top ten, so here are a few honorable mentions that we highly recommend:

• COWBOY CARTER - Beyoncé
• BRAT - Charli XCX
• Charm - Clairo
• Radical Optimism - Dua Lipa
• Romance - Fontaines D.C.
• The Past Is Still Alive - Hurray for the Riff Raff
• No Obligation - The Linda Lindas
• Loss Of Life - MGMT
• Manning Fireworks - MJ Lenderman
• Dance of Love - Tucker Zimmerman
• CHROMAKOPIA - Tyler, the Creator

Our number one song of the year had to go to Kendrick Lamar’s already infamous diss, “Not Like Us”—heck, we even made an entire edition of the Listies chronicling the history of diss tracks because of this song.

Adrianne Lenker grabs the second spot with the effortlessly beautiful “Sadness As A Gift” and Billie Eilish’s SOTS bracket winner “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” (and now the most streamed song of 2024 on Spotify) takes bronze. Rounding out the Top 10 are some particularly standout tracks from Blondshell & Bully, Chappell Roan, Waxahatchee, The Linda Lindas, Fontaines D.C., Jamie xx, and Father John Misty.

You can find the playlist version of our Top 20 Songs of 2024 down below, featuring some of these honorable mentions and many more!

• Best Of All Possible Worlds - AJJ, Kool Keith & Kimya Dawson
• Eulogy - Ayesha Madon
• Sexy to Someone - Clairo
• The Leader - Dog Race
• Like That - Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar
• Forever - Hovvdy
• Alibi - Hurray For The Riff Raff
• Like The End - James Blake
• Prologue - Kamasi Washington
• Die With A Smile - Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
• My Golden Years - The Lemon Twigs
• #RICHAXXHAITIAN - Mach-Hommy, KAYTRANADA & 03 Greedo
• She’s Leaving You - MJ Lenderman
• Never Need Me - Rachel Chinouriri
• A Bar Song (Tipsy) - Shaboozey
• Claw Machine - Sloppy Jane feat. Phoebe Bridgers
• Lose Control - Teddy Swims
• Dad of the Year - Tim Heidecker
• Nasty - Tinashe
• Compress / Repress - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

📺 TELEVISION

Was 2024 a banner year in television? We’re not so sure. But we still wanted to rank our Top 10 TV Shows of 2024, as well as the Top 10 Reality “Winners” of 2024* 🥇🥇🥇

*in case you’re worried about reality TV spoilers, these are not necessarily people who won their seasons, though there are certainly a few!

As massive fans of the Dune franchise, we loved the slowburn world-building of the first season of Dune: Prophecy, but that wasn’t the only fantasy/sci-fi show that landed on our list—we also loved The Rings of Power Season 2, The Acolyte, and Fallout.

Australian Survivor once again landed on our list of favorite shows with a new season that was even better than the last (it took the #8 spot in our Top 10 last year). Finally, we’d like to give a shoutout Season 7 of The Circle, Netflix’s most reliably entertaining competition show whose recent season featured a particularly charismatic group of players.

A handful of honorable mentions that are actually worth your time:

• The Anonymous (season 1)
• The Floor (seasons 1 & 2)
• The Getaway
• John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA
• Survivor 47
• Tournament of Champions (season 5)

With three prominent seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race airing this year (Season 16, All Stars 9, and Global All Stars 1), it’s no wonder we have three queens on our list this year. But our top spot of the year was a no-brainer, going to the charming and rebellious Feras Basal from Australian Survior.

We also have a smattering of memorably messy characters, like Big Brother 26’s Angela or Survivor 47’s Andy, as well as our first chef to make this list, the Spice Queen herself, Maneet Chauhan! 👑

There was actually a lot of great reality and competition TV this year, so here are a few honorable mentions:

• Marcel Vigneron (24 in 24: Last Chef Standing)
• Nina Diaz-Twine (The Anonymous)
• Kirby Bentley (Australian Survivor 11)
• Brandon Baker, a.k.a. “Olivia” (The Circle 6)
• Hud (Claim to Fame 3)
• Boston Rob Mariano (Deal or No Deal Island)
• Dylan Bachelet (The Great British Bake Off 15)
• Kandy Muse (House of Villains 2)
• Ben Doyle and Adam Chase (Jet Lag: The Game 9-12)
• Jorgeous (Ru Paul’s Drag Race: All Stars 9)
• Plastique Tiara (Ru Paul’s Drag Race: All Stars 9)
• Jelinsky (Survivor 46)
• Sol Yi (Survivor 47)
• Parvati Shallow (The Traitors 2)

🗯️ CELEBRITIES AND POP CULTURE

It’s now time to turn our attention to the people and moments who made the year memorable. We’re talking pop culture, NOT politics, but we still need your vote! 🗳️

Take a look at our Top 5s below and then vote for your favorites in each poll. First up is…

Whether it was encouraging moviegoers to sing in the theatre or holding space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity”, there was perhaps no more memorable (or inescapable) event in the world of film than the Wicked press tour. There was also not one, but two watershed moments in the music industry this year that we had to include in our Top 5—the Kendrick-Drake Beef and Charli XCX’s BRAT Summer—as well as two major moments in sports—the Olympic Games in Paris and the Dodgers winning the World Series.

Now is the time to pick your MVP of the year from our Top 5 below and decide once and for all…

Here are five people we think could make the case for “winning” 2024.

Timothée Chalamet had Dune: Part Two early in the year, followed by an amazing press run for his role as Bob Dylan that has included countless viral moments—from his appearance on College GameDay to the now infamous lookalike contest. Ariana Grande had a similarly massive year, starting early with her hit record eternal sunshine, which included hits like and “yes, and?”and “we can’t be friends”, and culminating with the massive success of Wicked and (very likely) her first Academy Award nomination.

We also had to include Simone Biles, the indisputable star of Team USA who had her redemption moment when she won four medals (3 gold, 1 silver) in Paris over the summer. The previously mentioned Kendrick Lamar and Charli XCX round out our Top 5, for obvious reasons.

🚨 BONUS LIST ALERT 🚨

…and that’s all folks!