The Best Female Pop Singers Of 2022

Jared Baly
Updated March 2, 2022 13.8K votes 2.0K voters 51.4K views

What would the pop music industry be without its leading female vocalists?! From Grammy-winning superstars Adele and Billie Eilish to on-the-rise singer-songwriters GAYLE and Lauren Spencer-Smith, all of the talented singers featured below are taking 2022's ultimate pop playlists by storm. 

Which trending female pop musicians are you most excited to see live, and whose records are you currently listening to? Vote below for the best female pop singers of 2022, and be sure to also check out this year's top new pop songs here.

Ranked by
  • Taylor Swift
    1

    Taylor Swift

    1,235 votes
    Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed with label Big Machine Records and became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the U.S., where it peaked at number five. The album's third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the success of pop crossover singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless became the best-selling album of 2009 in the U.S. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner. Swift was the sole writer of her 2010 album Speak Now. It debuted at number one in the U.S., and the single "Mean" won two Grammy Awards. Her fourth album, Red (2012), yielded the successful singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble". For her fifth album, the pop-focused 1989 (2014), she received three Grammys and became the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice. Its singles "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" reached number one in the U.S., Australia, and Canada. Her sixth album, Reputation (2017), and its lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", topped the UK and U.S. charts; with the release of Reputation, Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S. Her seventh album, Lover (2019), spawned two U.S. number-two singles, "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down". Having sold more than 50 million albums—including 32 million in the U.S.—and 150 million singles, Swift is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. As a songwriter, she has received awards from the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was included in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015. Her other accolades include 10 Grammy Awards, one Emmy, 23 Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness world records, and appearances in Time's 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015, 2019). She also ranked first in the Forbes Celebrity 100 (2016 and 2019), and was the youngest to be featured in the magazine's listing of the 100 most powerful women (2015).
  • Dua Lipa
    2

    Dua Lipa

    1,127 votes
    Dua Lipa (born August 22, 1995) is an English singer, songwriter, and model. Her musical career began at age 14, when she began covering songs by other artists on YouTube. In 2015, she was signed with Warner Music Group and released her first single soon after. In December 2016, a documentary about Lipa was commissioned by The Fader magazine, titled See in Blue. In January 2017, she won the EBBA Public Choice Award. Her self-titled debut studio album was released on June 2, 2017. The album spawned seven singles, including two UK top-10 singles "Be the One" and "IDGAF" and the UK number-one single "New Rules".
  • Adele
    3

    Adele

    825 votes
    Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. After graduating from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a recording contract with XL Recordings. In 2007, she received the Brit Awards Critics' Choice award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified eight times platinum in the UK, and three times platinum in the US. The album contains her first song, "Hometown Glory", written when she was 16, which is based on her home suburb of West Norwood in London. An appearance she made on Saturday Night Live in late 2008, boosted her career in the US. At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Adele released her second studio album, 21, in 2011. The album was critically well received and surpassed the success of her debut, earning numerous awards in 2012, among them a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; two Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year; and three American Music Awards, including Favorite Pop/Rock Album. The album has been certified 17 times platinum in the UK, and is overall the fourth best-selling album in the nation. In the US, it has held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified diamond. The best-selling album worldwide of 2011 and 2012, 21 has sold over 31 million copies. The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of World Records. She was the first female artist to simultaneously have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the first woman in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three simultaneous top 10 singles as a lead artist, with "Rolling in the Deep", "Someone Like You", and "Set Fire to the Rain", all of which also topped the chart. 21 is the longest-running number one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and US Album Charts. In 2012, Adele released "Skyfall", which she co-wrote and recorded for the James Bond film of the same name. The song won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, as well as the Brit Award for British Single of the Year. After taking a three-year break, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in 2015. It became the year's best-selling album and broke first-week sales records in the UK and US. 25 was her second album to be certified diamond in the US and earned her five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and four Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year. The lead single, "Hello", became the first song in the US to sell over one million digital copies within a week of its release. Her third concert tour, Adele Live 2016, visited Europe, North America and Oceania, and concluded with finale concerts at Wembley Stadium in late June 2017.In 2011, 2012, and 2016, Adele was named Artist of the Year by Billboard. At the 2012 and 2016 Ivor Novello Awards, Adele was named Songwriter of the Year by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2012, she was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music. Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2016. Her 2016–2017 tour, saw her break attendance records in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, and the US. With sales of more than 100 million records, Adele is one of the world's best-selling music artists.
  • Ariana Grande
    4

    Ariana Grande

    1,162 votes
    Ariana Grande (born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. A multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her wide vocal range, which critics have often compared to that of Mariah Carey. Born in Boca Raton, Florida, Grande began her career in 2008 in the Broadway musical, 13. She rose to prominence for her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series, Victorious (2010–2013) and in its spin-off, Sam & Cat (2013–2014). As she grew interested in pursuing a music career, Grande recorded songs for the soundtrack of Victorious and signed with Republic Records in 2011 after the label's executives discovered videos of her covering songs that she uploaded onto YouTube. She released her debut album, Yours Truly, in 2013. A 1950s doo-wop-influenced pop and R&B album, it debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and spawned her first US top-ten single, "The Way", featuring rapper Mac Miller. Grande's second studio album, My Everything (2014), continued the pop-R&B sound of its predecessor and incorporated EDM elements. It topped the Billboard 200 and featured four US top-ten singles: "Problem", "Break Free", "Bang Bang", and "Love Me Harder", the most of any artist that year. Grande's pop-R&B styles extended on her third studio album, Dangerous Woman (2016), which was her first of three consecutive number-one albums in the UK, and spawned top ten hits such as the Grammy nominated title track and "Side to Side". On her next two albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), Grande experimented with trap while maintaining her characteristic pop-R&B tones; being projects with her most creative control yet and showing a more personal and vulnerable side, both debuted at number one in several countries and were acclaimed by music critics. The former won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album and spawned the international top three hit "No Tears Left to Cry", while the latter broke several streaming records. Grande became the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously when "7 Rings", "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" and "Thank U, Next" did so in 2019. She is also the first artist to have the lead singles from each of their first five studio albums debut within the top ten in the US. Grande has received various accolades, including one Grammy Award, one Brit Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. All five of Grande's full-length albums have been certified platinum by the RIAA. As one of the leading streaming pioneers in the world, she has amassed over 30 billion streams on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music and is the most listened female on the latter two. An influential figure on social media, she is an outspoken feminist and supporter for LGBT rights. She asserts control over her public image and is known for her ponytail hairdo and bold fashion statements. In February 2019, she became the most followed woman on Instagram. Forbes ranked her amongst the highest-paid celebrities in 2019, and Time named Grande as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016 and 2019. Billboard recognized her as the "Woman of the Year" in 2018.
  • Billie Eilish
    5

    Billie Eilish

    969 votes
    Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell (born December 18, 2001), known professionally as Billie Eilish, is an American singer and songwriter signed to Interscope Records. Her first experience with music occurred when she was 8 years old with the Los Angeles Children's Choir. She crafts most of her music with her brother Finneas O'Connell, who she dubbed her "partner-in-crime" in an interview with Vogue. Her debut single, "Ocean Eyes" (originally recorded for her dance teacher & released in November 2015), went viral and has racked up over 35 million streams on Spotify alone as of February 2018. Her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me (stylized as dont smile at me) was released in August 2017. Following the EP's success, Apple named Eilish as its newest Apple Music UPNEXT artist a month later in October 2017.
  • Olivia Rodrigo
    6
    Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (born February 20, 2003) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence with her lead roles on the Disney television programmes Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. After signing with Interscope and Geffen Records, she released her debut single "Drivers License" in 2021, which broke various streaming records and finished as one of the best-selling songs of the year along with its successors "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U". Rodrigo's debut studio album, Sour (2021), topped charts globally and received widespread critical acclaim. She is nominated in seven categories at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year for Sour, and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Drivers License."