That year’s finale was infamous because Ruben Studdard won the whole thing over Aiken by a total of just 134,000 votes-a small margin, given that 24 million votes were cast. And in my house growing up, Clay Aiken was worshipped-namely by my mother, who was glued to the second season of American Idol like it was scripture. Matt Mitchell, Assistant Music Editorĭon’t get me wrong here, Clay Aiken can sing. From songs by Ludacris to Jennifer Lopez to 50 Cent to Eminem, here is every #1 hit from 2003 ranked. 2003 offered up a great mix of former stars now in obscurity and legends still churning out great work. But, these artists put in the work and got to the promised land. To score a #1 hit is an achievement that makes your career immortal in some capacity-whether the songs are good, great or just plain awful (see many of the songs on this list).

This is our first true instance of pop becoming the full, titanic guiding force in music. There’s a great absence of rock ‘n’ roll on this list, as hip-hop and R&B dominated the mainstream. There are four unshakeable entries, while the remaining eight are pretty subpar. I would argue that much of this list is unlistenable 20 years later. Beyoncé spent a total of 17 weeks atop the charts across two songs, while two legendary, all-time Y2K tracks bookended the year with ferocity.Īs is the case with the era these songs come from, there are quite a few duds. Today, we’re looking at all 12 tracks that found musical immortality in 2003. That number ticks up one this time around.

It was a light list, with 11 entries during the year’s 52-week span. Last week, we looked at what 1993 had to offer-including chart-toppers from Mariah Carey, Meat Loaf, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston. From the start of July through August 2023, we’re ranking every Billboard #1 hit from 1973, 1983, 1993, 20 from worst to best in each respective year.

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