The Top 2000

According to the countdown at the top, the 28th edition starts on 25 December 2026 at 00:00, at the start of the first Christmas night, and runs until New Year’s Eve. Since 2010 the broadcast has come from the Top 2000 Café at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) in Hilversum.

A few facts: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen was No. 1 in 22 of the 27 editions, The Beatles have the most songs in the list (60), and 4,925 different songs have appeared in it, 531 of them in all 27 editions. Many more facts, such as one-hit entries, the oldest and youngest songs and artists who suddenly vanished, can be found on the Facts page.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen: 22 of the 27 editions between 1999 and 2025. There were five other winners: ‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles (twice), ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, ‘Avond’ by Boudewijn De Groot and ‘Roller Coaster’ by Danny Vera.

The Beatles: 60 different songs and 1,185 chart entries in 27 editions, ahead of The Rolling Stones (783 entries) and Queen (647). Collaborations with other artists are counted here under a name of their own; NPO and the press sometimes add them together, so you may also see higher numbers.

In the editions from 1999 to 2025 inclusive, there were 4,925 different songs by 2,125 artists (counted by name). There are 531 songs that appeared in the list in all 27 editions.

Listeners vote on their favourite songs in advance, NPO Radio 2 counts the votes and turns them into the list. 2008 was the only year in which no voting was possible: the list was then compiled from the votes of earlier editions. More in History.

A different team of Radio 2 DJs each year, more than a dozen in recent years. You can read who, when and how often on the Presenters page.

Yes. With the ‘Listen live’ button at the top of the home page you listen live to NPO Radio 2, the station of the Top 2000. The sound only starts after a click and keeps playing while you navigate around this site. On a computer or iPad, the ‘Watch live’ button in the menu lets you also watch the live images from the NPO Radio 2 studio. The stream runs a few seconds behind the radio itself. Prefer to listen on the station itself? Go to nporadio2.nl.

Once the broadcast begins, you will see at the top of this page almost live which song and which programme is playing on NPO Radio 2, and where the song stood in earlier years.