Greatest Pop Stars Podcast: 2024 Nos. 2 & 1: Sabrina Carpenter & Kendrick Lamar

This week on the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we are finally up to the top two of our Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 list — and even though it’s been an insane year for pop stars, and we’ve discussed some absolutely incredible ones on this podcast already, these are the two who ended up best personifying pop greatness all throughout 2024 to us.

On this final episode of the 2024 series, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard hip-hop writer Michael Saponara and branded producer and social manager Meghan Mahar to talk about those top two Greatest Pop Stars, which we just unveiled this Monday (Dec. 23). We start at No. 2 with Sabrina Carpenter, an artist on the cusp of pop stardom as 2023 started who became a no-doubt A-lister over the course of her 2024. We discuss the unique things that made Carpenter such an ideal pop star for this year, the smart influences she integrated for a short n’ sweet package entirely her own, and of course, the perfect pop songs: some of the year’s absolute best, with great videos and live performances to match.

Then (at 26:30), we dive into the deep end with our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of 2024: Kendrick Lamar. We start off with a reminder of just how far removed Lamar was from this discussion going into this year — and really for the whole decade up until this point — and then get into how he changed the narrative and ended 2024 atop a historically packed pop star class. Of course, we also get into all things Drake-related, from “Like That” to “Not Like Us” to the Pop Out concert and everything in between. Then, we talk about the late-game drop of his GNX album — and how that might have simplified what was shaping up to be an impossibly difficult decision going into these rankings — and whether Kendrick is already setting up 2025 to be just as dominant a pop star year for him as 2024.

Check it out above, and thanks for following along all December with our Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 list and podcast! Happy Holidays, and we’ll see you again in 2025.