Brian May and Roger Taylor latest artists to receive the award celebrating over one billion UK streams

Queen has been presented with a BRIT Billion Award by the BPI, the representative voice for the UK’s world-leading record labels and music companies, which is also home to The BRIT Awards. The BRIT Billion Award celebrates the iconic band’s outstanding achievement as recording artists in surpassing the landmark of one billion career streams in the UK, as calculated by the Official Charts Company.

Contributing to the huge total, Queen’s most-streamed hits include such classics as “Another One Bites The Dust,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “Killer Queen,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “Under Pressure,” “We Are The Champions,” and “We Will Rock You,” among many others.

Receiving the award for Queen are Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor OBE, who have each been presented with the personalized trophy created for the BPI by Gaudio Awards in the shape of the BRITs “B” and incorporating an encapsulated BRITs statuette. The award made to Queen coincides with the 50th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut album, which was released in July 1973, the same year the BPI itself came into being in its present role.

“Thank you for presenting Queen with a BRIT Billion Award,” May says. “We’re grateful to all our fans that support us and continue to enjoy our music. Rock on BPI.”

“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,” Taylor adds. “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.”

Queen, whose classic line-up also comprised Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, and the BPI have enjoyed a number of shared connections over the course of their respective five-decade histories.

The band’s acclaimed Queen’s Greatest Hits has gone on to be BRIT Certified 24X Platinum by the BPI as the most successful album of all time in the UK, with sales and streams combined.

Officially launched in May 2023, the first wave of artists to receive the BRIT Billion award included global superstars ABBA, Coldplay, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, pioneering Rap and Hip-Hop artists AJ Tracey and Headie One, and chart-dominating Pop artists and singer-songwriters Anne-Marie, Ellie Goulding, George Ezra, Lewis Capaldi, RAYE, Rita Ora and Sam Smith.

The BRIT Billion award reflects the extent to which streaming has transformed the music landscape for artists and fans alike over the past decade – more than 85% of the UK’s recorded music consumption now takes place through streaming, and in 2022 there were a record 160 billion audio streams in the UK in total.