Song · David Bowie
“Blackstar” by David Bowie
“Blackstar” by David Bowie appears on 8 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 2016 and 2026. Its best result is #30 on The Current Top 89 Songs of 2016. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #104 indie & aaa song of 2016 and #3,421 indie & aaa song of all time.
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David Bowie wrote and produced "Blackstar" and put it out on 19 November 2015 as the first single from his 26th and final studio album, which shares its name. At 9:57 it's a long, strange, unsettling trip of a song, and its length made history: it passed Harry Chapin's "A Better Place to Be (Live)" as the longest song ever to enter the Billboard Hot 100, a record it held until Tool's "Fear Inoculum" came along in 2019.
It went out ahead of "Lazarus" and won both Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance at the 59th Grammy Awards, not bad for a record that refuses to behave like a rock single at all.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 30 | The Current Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | The Current Top 89 Songs of 2016 | 89 |
| 2016 | 52 | WFUV New York, NY | WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2016 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 137 | WTMD | WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018 | 896 |
| 2020 | 1110 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2024 | 74 | WXPN | WXPN The 885 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century (2024) | 885 |
| 2024 | 252 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
| 2025 | 606 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century | 909 |
| 2026 | 290 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
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