Europarade Top 30

The first attempt at a Europe-wide chart was the Europarade, which was started in early 1976 by the Dutch TROS radio network. The chart initially consisted of only six countries: the Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain.^[2][3] In 1979 Italy and Denmark were added and during 1980, Austria and Switzerland were included. Ireland was added as the eleventh country in October 1983.^[4] 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. The "Europarade" was published in Music Week from the early 1980s, and in the Dutch magazine Hitkrant. 1984 was the year in which the length of the chart was increased from a top 30 to a top 40.^[5]

Euro Hot 100

In March 1984, Music & Media magazine in Amsterdam started their own singles chart, "European Top 100 Singles", which they published in the Eurotip Sheet for the first two years until issue April 19, 1986,^[6][7] after which its name was changed to Music & Media from issue April 26, 1986.^[8] The chart was based on national singles sales charts in sixteen European countries: Austria, Belgium (separately for Flanders and Wallonia), Denmark, Finland, France, West Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.^[9] This chart was accumulated by taking the chart positions in each country combined with the national sales percentage of records in that particular country.

In 1986, the official Eurochart also became a music TV show on Music Box with Dutch presenter Erik de Zwart.^[10] It was known as the 'Coca-Cola Eurochart Hot 100 Singles' from May 1988 to the end of 1992.^[11] As a syndicated show, it was also introduced on UK commercial radio and was definitely being broadcast in summer-autumn 1989 and January to April 1991; however, its precise start and end dates are not known. By September, 1989, the 'Coca-Cola Eurochart Hot 100' chart was being broadcast on 65 European radio stations.^[12]

Hosted by Pat Sharp,^[13] it was broadcast on a number of stations including Radio Trent, BRMB, Viking FM and GWR FM. A TV version was broadcast on Super Channel during 1989 and 1990,^[14][15] and it was hosted by Dutch presenter Caroline Tensen. The Eurochart quickly gained momentum, as it started to include more countries.^[9]

Billboard became Music & Media's financial partner in 1985 and later owned the magazine.^[16] When Music & Media closed in August 2003, Billboard continued to compile the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles.^[17] The last European Hot 100 Singles chart to appear in Billboard magazine was in the issue dated December 11, 2010, but Billboard only ever published the top 20 of the chart.^[18] However, Billboard continued to publish a Euro Digital Songs chart which was a top 10 and which was discontinued after February 12, 2022.

Artists achievements

Songs achievements