European Hot 100 Singles
The Eurochart Hot 100 is the main European singles popularity chart. It has been compiled by Music & Media magazine since March 1984. The chart is based on national singles sales charts 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
History
The first Eurochart began as the "Europarade", which was started in early 1976 by TROS Radio in the Netherlands. The chart consisted of only six countries (the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain). The compilers collected the top 15 records from each country and then awarded corresponding points, depending which positions between 1 and 15 each record stood at. Italy and Denmark wered added in 1979 and during 1980, Austria and Switzerland were included. Ireland was added as the 11th country in October 1983.
In March 1984, Music & Media in Amsterdam started their own Eurochart, "The Eurochart Hot 100", which they published as a Euro Tip sheet for the first two years. This chart was accumulated by taking the chart positions in each country combined with the national sales percentage of records in that particular country.
The Eurochart quickly gained momentum, as it started to include more countries and Music & Media became a Billboard publication in January 1986. The number of participating countries in the Eurochart, which is now the EURO 200, grew to 25 in 2004 and 27 in 2007.
From 1982 to 1986 the "Europarade", as published in Music Week and the Dutch magazine Hitkrant, was used.
Since November 1986, the Music & Media Eurochart Top 20 was used as source, as Billboard started publishing the chart until today.
Artists with the most number one hits
- Madonna (16)
Number 1 Hits
See List of number-one hits (Europe)