Oldest and youngest
The oldest and newest songs on the list, and the artists born longest ago or most recently.
The oldest songs
The release year of each song as in the database. The last column is the year the song first appeared on the list.
The youngest songs
The newest songs at the time of their first chart entry, with their position then.
| Released | Song | Artist | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Kan Je Me Zien | Bente | 391 |
| 2025 | Niemand | Suzan & Freek | 400 |
| 2025 | The Fate Of Ophelia | Taylor Swift | 694 |
| 2025 | Where Is My Husband! | RAYE | 779 |
| 2025 | Ordinary | Alex Warren | 815 |
| 2025 | Man I Need | Olivia Dean | 834 |
| 2025 | Atlas | Pommelien Thijs | 1545 |
| 2025 | Golden | HUNTR/X | 1829 |
| 2025 | The Subway | Chappell Roan | 1872 |
| 2024 | Die With A Smile | Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars | 110 |
| 2024 | Europapa | Joost Klein | 139 |
| 2024 | The Emptiness Machine | Linkin Park | 145 |
Long time coming
Songs that first entered only after the list began in 1999, ranked by the longest time since their release.
| Song | Artist | Released | First chart entry | Years later |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonlight Serenade | Glenn Miller | 1939 | 2006 | 67 |
| Strange Fruit | Billie Holiday | 1939 | 2005 | 66 |
| Surfin' U.S.A. | The Beach Boys | 1963 | 2025 | 62 |
| Blue Suede Shoes | Elvis Presley | 1956 | 2018 | 62 |
| So What | Miles Davis | 1959 | 2021 | 62 |
| I Walk The Line | Johnny Cash | 1957 | 2016 | 59 |
| Hound Dog | Elvis Presley | 1959 | 2018 | 59 |
| At Last | Etta James | 1960 | 2018 | 58 |
Songs per decade
| Decade | Songs |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 1 |
| 1930s | 5 |
| 1940s | 4 |
| 1950s | 72 |
| 1960s | 794 |
| 1970s | 1.242 |
| 1980s | 985 |
| 1990s | 556 |
| 2000s | 520 |
| 2010s | 539 |
| 2020s | 207 |
The oldest and youngest artists
By year of birth, individual people only (no groups). Only artists that MusicBrainz recognises unambiguously are counted.
Born longest ago
| Artist | Born | Deceased | Chart entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Gershwin | 1898 | 1937 | 5 |
| Duke Ellington | 1899 | 1974 | 2 |
| Louis Armstrong | 1901 | 1971 | 32 |
| Marlene Dietrich | 1901 | 1992 | 20 |
| Bing Crosby | 1903 | 1977 | 10 |
| Glenn Miller | 1904 | 1944 | 17 |
| Louis Prima | 1910 | 1978 | 10 |
| Gene Kelly | 1912 | 1996 | 5 |
| Frankie Laine | 1913 | 2007 | 10 |
| Muddy Waters | 1913 | 1983 | 21 |
| Charles Trenet | 1913 | 2001 | 15 |
| Billie Holiday | 1915 | 1959 | 26 |
Most recently born
| Artist | Born | Deceased | Chart entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roxy Dekker | 2005 | - | 3 |
| Olivia Rodrigo | 2003 | - | 9 |
| Benson Boone | 2002 | - | 2 |
| Billie Eilish | 2001 | - | 27 |
| Froukje | 2001 | - | 15 |
| Pommelien Thijs | 2001 | - | 1 |
| Lola Young | 2001 | - | 1 |
| S10 | 2000 | - | 8 |
| Bente | 2000 | - | 1 |
| Alex Warren | 2000 | - | 4 |
| Meau | 2000 | - | 6 |
| Gracie Abrams | 1999 | - | 1 |
Deceased artists
Of the people recognised, at least 286 have died according to MusicBrainz (not every death has been recorded there yet). In 2025 they accounted for at least 229 of the 2,000 chart entries (11%).
Lived to old age
| Age | Artist | Born | Deceased |
|---|---|---|---|
| 103 | Vera Lynn | 1917 | 2020 |
| 97 | Doris Day | 1922 | 2019 |
| 96 | Sue Thompson | 1925 | 2021 |
| 96 | Harry Belafonte | 1927 | 2023 |
| 95 | Drs. P | 1919 | 2015 |
| 94 | Toots Thielemans | 1922 | 2016 |
| 94 | Pete Seeger | 1919 | 2014 |
| 94 | Charles Aznavour | 1924 | 2018 |
Died young
| Age | Artist | Born | Deceased |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Ritchie Valens | 1941 | 1959 |
| 21 | Eddie Cochran | 1938 | 1960 |
| 21 | Sid Vicious | 1957 | 1979 |
| 22 | Buddy Holly | 1936 | 1959 |
| 24 | Notorious B.I.G. | 1972 | 1997 |
| 25 | 2Pac | 1971 | 1996 |
| 26 | Otis Redding | 1941 | 1967 |
| 27 | Amy Winehouse | 1983 | 2011 |
Source: MusicBrainz (core data is freely available, CC0), matched to the Top 2000 database on artist name. Only artists that can be identified unambiguously by name are counted: 1,708 of the 2,310 artists, accounting for 93% of all chart entries. Names that resemble several artists (such as Typhoon or Lucifer) and unknown names are not counted, so the real numbers are higher. Country is the country of origin according to MusicBrainz.
Source: own calculation based on the Top 2000 database (NPO Radio 2 charts 1999 to 2025, Top 2000 Database by Erwin Groenhof). Tables count by artist name as it appears in the chart: collaborations count separately, for example ‘Queen & David Bowie’ (NPO and the press often count those too). A song is the same song when artist and title match.