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Dutch Top 2000 facts – Top2000feitjes website

Absolute Beginners

David Bowie

Absolute Beginners by David Bowie (released in 1986) appeared in 26 of the 27 editions of the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000. Its highest chart entry was position 586 in 2016. The song first appeared on the list in 2000 and is still on it in 2025.

26editions on the list
586highest position
2016in edition
2000first edition

Chart history

19001800199920042009201420192025

All positions by edition

EditionPosition
20251309
20241021
20231072
20221118
20211082
20201048
2019981
20181076
2017859
2016586
20151342
20141146
20131116
20121007
20111591
20101244
20091391
20081497
20071788
20061568
20051534
20041333
20031228
20021108
20011414
2000651

More by David Bowie

How the song fared

On average, Absolute Beginners was at position 1196.5 in the 26 editions in which it was on the list. Its lowest chart entry was position 1788 in 2007. It reached the top 10 0 times and the top 100 0 times. The longest consecutive run was 26 editions (up to and including 2025). The biggest rise came in 2016: from position 1342 to position 586 (+756). The biggest fall came in 2001: from position 651 to position 1414 (-763). In 2025, the song was at position 1309 (in 2024: position 1021).

Compared with all songs

In total, 4,925 different songs have appeared in the Top 2000. With 26 editions, this song shares that score with 163 other songs, and 531 songs were on the list in more editions. There are 1,587 songs that have ever ranked higher than position 586.

Also released in 1986

96 other songs from 1986 are in the Top 2000. The highest chart entries:

Neighbours in the 2025 list

In 2025, this song was at position 1309. We Didn't Start The Fire (Billy Joel) was at position 1308, one place higher; Let's Go Crazy (Prince & The Revolution) was at position 1310, one place lower.

Frequently asked questions

How often was Absolute Beginners by David Bowie in the Top 2000?

Absolute Beginners was on the list in 26 of the 27 editions (1999 to 2025), first in 2000 and most recently in 2025.

What is the highest position of Absolute Beginners in the Top 2000?

The highest chart entry was position 586 in 2016.

How high was Absolute Beginners in the 2025 Top 2000?

At position 1309.

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The Top 2000

The Top 2000 is an annual listener chart from NPO Radio 2: the 2000 favourite songs of the listeners, broadcast between Christmas and New Year, from number 2000 to number 1. In 2026 it is the 28th edition.

How is the list put together?

Listeners vote in advance for their favourite songs. NPO Radio 2 counts the votes and turns them into the list. In 1999 you still voted with a coupon from the free newspaper Spits; now you do it via the NPO Radio 2 website.

How did it start?

Radio 2 came up with the list around the turn of the millennium and originally meant it as a one-off. It became so popular that it returned in 2000, and every year after that. More about this on the History page.

The broadcast

Since 2010 the broadcast has come from the Top 2000 Café at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) in Hilversum. In 2025 the broadcast lasted 168 hours, with number 1 just before midnight on 31 December. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was number 1 in 22 editions.

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About The Jumping Fox

Listen live

Listen live to NPO Radio 2 here. The sound only starts after a click.

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The music keeps playing while you navigate this site; on the other pages the little speaker is at the top right. Reloading a page or leaving the site stops the radio.

The stream runs a few seconds behind the radio itself. Prefer to listen on nporadio2.nl? (opens in a new tab)

About this site

A personal project by Pim Uijttewaal: all Top 2000 lists since 1999 in one database, with facts, records and statistics. It is an extension of Alweer dat nummer? (opens in a new tab), my radio statistics for Dutch radio stations.

Listen live

You can also listen live to NPO Radio 2 here, and the music keeps playing while you navigate the site. For the song that is playing now you can see straight away whether and where it appeared in the Top 2000, with a link through to the artist and the song, plus the NPO Radio 2 programme and the presenter.

On a computer or iPad you will also see a camera icon in the live player, to the left of the gear. It opens the live studio images of NPO Radio 2 (Top 2000 Café) in a window on the page. You choose from three sizes, drag the window wherever you like and close it with the cross, while the radio just keeps playing. If you choose Watch live in the menu, the radio switches off and the window opens straight away with sound.

Tip! Want to enjoy the Top 2000, or just a regular Radio 2 day, even more? Drag the video and the radio next to each other. That way you see the stories about the artist and the record right away, with every song.

Navigating

On a computer or iPad you can place the windows as you like. Grab a window by its title bar and drag it wherever you want; with the arrow keys on the title bar you can nudge it too.

The live studio images come in three sizes: small, medium and full screen. Grab the little grip at the bottom right and you can pull the window larger or smaller; the picture keeps its proportions. Escape takes you back out of full screen. The cross closes the window.

You detach the live block with the radio using the icon to the left of full screen, or by dragging its top line outward. It then becomes a floating window that stays put as you navigate through the site. If you grab the grip at the bottom right, you can make the window larger or smaller; the size is remembered. The full-screen icon fills the whole screen. The cross puts the block back in the page.

When the radio window and the studio images are both open, you can drag them independently of each other. The window you click comes to the front.

From radio to picture

If the radio is playing and you click the camera icon in the live block, the site asks whether to switch the radio off and let the video take over the sound. If you choose Yes, the radio goes off and you hear the sound of the studio images, with a volume slider and a mute button. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.

If you choose Watch live in the menu, the site does it all in one go: the radio goes off, the picture opens with sound on the left, and the radio window detaches and sits next to it on the right. Both windows start just below the LP at the top left and together fill the width of the screen. After that you drag and resize them as you like. If you then click a menu item, that page opens as a window above the two windows; use the cross or Esc to close the page and see the windows again. Even if the picture was already open, Watch live puts both windows back in that fixed place. If the radio is not playing, the picture also opens with sound. On a phone there is only the radio and the facts: the studio images and detaching windows are for computer and iPad.

Search

At the top right, next to the “About this site” button, and at the bottom of every page, there is a magnifying glass. Use it to search the whole site: by artist, song, presenter or fact. Typos are fine, and a result immediately opens the matching explanation while the radio keeps playing. With the / key (or Ctrl/⌘ + K) you can also open the search without a mouse.

Under the Top 2000 results is the Basement League: artists and songs that never made the Top 2000, labelled Never charted. An artist from it has their own card with all songs by year of release. If an artist is also in the Top 2000, you see the Basement League songs under their regular card. If you only want the Top 2000, untick Also Basement League above the results.

Listen to a song

Click a song and its song card opens with the stories behind it. At the top of that card are two icons: Apple Music and Spotify. For almost every song the Apple Music icon takes you straight to the song itself; the Spotify icon searches for it. Both open in a new tab, so the radio keeps playing.

What have I done?

  • All editions from 1999 to 2025 combined: 27 lists of 2000 positions each.
  • The top 100 of every edition compared position by position with other sources. No real discrepancies were found, only spelling variants of titles.
  • Facts and records calculated from that data, and news facts looked up, always with a source.

Where does the data come from?

  • The lists themselves come from the Excel database by Erwin Groenhof (top2000database.wordpress.com). The original source is NPO Radio 2.
  • Checked against: top2000nl.com, Wikipedia, Ziggo and news reports.
  • Photos only come from Wikimedia Commons, with the creator's name and licence included.
  • The Basement League (artists and songs that never made the Top 2000) comes from MusicBrainz and Wikidata (both free to use) and Wikipedia. That data is maintained by volunteers and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

A look behind the technology

The lists are stored in a SQLite database; the pages themselves are generated statically with Jekyll. For the near-live section, my own collector checks what NPO Radio 2 is playing every 30 seconds and matches it to the position in the list. It is the same technique as on the radio page.

What has changed? An overview of the biggest changes to the site, with dates.

Want something like this made?

This site is an example of what I build. More in the explanation of the database, or get in touch via The Jumping Fox.

Logo and rights

The Top 2000 logo belongs to NPO Radio 2. This site is not run by or on behalf of NPO.

About The Jumping Fox

Top2000feitjes.nl

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The Jumping Fox

The top2000feitjes.nl website was developed by Pim Uijttewaal, owner of The Jumping Fox: smart IT solutions and apps. A robust site with smart features and database integration.

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What has changed?

The biggest changes to the site, with dates. The newest comes first.

Friday 6 November 2026

Thursday 5 November 2026

Wednesday 4 November 2026

Tuesday 3 November 2026

Monday 2 November 2026

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If you choose Yes, the radio switches off and you hear the sound of the studio images. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.
SQLITEone file

What is SQLite?

SQLite is a database in one ordinary file. There is no separate database server around it: the program that needs the data opens the file and queries it, in the language SQL. That makes it light, fast and reliable, and easy to move or back up: you simply copy the file.

Why here?

The entire Top 2000 since 1999 fits in a file of about 5 megabytes: 27 editions of 2000 songs each, making 54,000 chart entries for almost 5,000 different songs. A few queries to that database bring out the records and facts on this site, such as the highest new entries, the heavy hitters and the one-hit entries. The results are baked into static pages in advance, so visitors never notice the database and the site stays fast.

A well-known technique

SQLite is free software (public domain) and one of the most widely used databases in the world. Your phone, your browser and many apps quietly use it for their own data. I use the same approach for the radio statistics, and for the Basement League: a SQLite file of about 460 megabytes with over 4 million songs, in which search takes a fraction of a second.

This is just an example

This site shows what I can build. I can make something like it for you, for your business, club or subject:

I build it, maintain it and make it available to you, under your own name or domain.

Need a quality website? Or custom software? I make that through The Jumping Fox. Tell me what you want, and I will help you think it through.

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