As the year begins to wind down and near a close, it’s time to start looking back at 2017 and what the past year has brought us. Sure, there’s been a whole load of steaming garbage in the news on a regular basis, but that’s not to say there have not been any saving graces. Take, for example, Instagram and the myriad joys it brings us. There are the filters, the memes, and the now familiar anxiety that comes with any social media platform. But Instagram is so huge that important pop culture moments originate almost entirely on the app, like Beyoncé's iconic pregnancy announcement with a beautiful photo back in February. Wasn't that a good time for everyone?
In fact, that memorable pic has been confirmed as the year’s single most-liked post with over 11 million likes. That makes Beyoncé the highest paid woman in music and the proud owner of the single most-liked photo on Instagram. Must be nice.
But Beyoncé also snagged the No. 4 spot of most-liked 2017 pictures, and it also had to do with the twins. Her July 14 post that shared the first image of her newborn babies and included their names, Sir and Rumi, raked in well over 10 million likes.
Besides Beyoncé, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and Selena Gomez alternated spots on the list of the top 10 most-liked Instagram posts of the year. Ronaldo had the No. 2, No. 5 and No. 8 most-liked photos, while Selena took No. 3, No. 6, No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10.
Of course, in order to get a lot of likes on your Instagram shots, you need a lot of people to see it in the first place, so it helps to have as many followers as possible. In 2017, the top 10 most-followed music artists on Instagram were the following:
- Selena Gomez (@selenagomez): 130M+ followers
- Ariana Grande (@arianagrande): 115M+ followers
- Beyoncé (@beyoncé): 108M+ followers
- Taylor Swift (@taylorswift): 104M+ followers
- Justin Bieber (@justinbieber): 93M+ followers
- Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj): 83M+ followers
- Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus): 73M+ followers
- Jennifer Lopez (@jlo): 70M+ followers
- Katy Perry (@katyperry): 68M+ followers
- Demi Lovato (@ddlovato): 62M+ followers
Although 2017 has introduced us to a host of new artists and celebrities, the list of the top 10 music artists who gained the most Instagram followers this year is still a list of the biggest names in the industry.
- Selena Gomez (@selenagomez): Gained 34.4M+ followers
- Ariana Grande (@arianagrande): Gained 31.5M+ followers
- Justin Bieber (@justinbieber): Gained 24.7M+ followers
- Beyoncé (@beyoncé): Gained 24.4M+ followers
- Miley Cyrus (@mileycyrus): Gained 20M+ followers
- Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj): Gained 19M+ followers
- Jennifer Lopez (@jlo): Gained 18.7M+ followers
- Shakira (@shakira): Gained 18M+ followers
- Taylor Swift (@taylorswift): Gained 17.7M+ followers
- Demi Lovato (@ddlovato): Gained 15.8M+ followers
But aside from these massive, hard-to-comprehend numbers, one of the most interesting parts of Instagram is that among its 800 million users are some of our favorite celebrities sharing the same kind of stuff we do. Like this shot of Kendrick Lamar and J Cole, which is just as cool and iconic as whatever photo of you and your buddy that you shared two weeks ago, and that definitely got as many likes (nearly 1 million, making it Kendrick’s most-liked post of the year.)
Every photo of Chance the Rapper and his daughter is adorable, and a real trap for those Instagram hearts. This one at Disney’s Magic Kingdom was the artist’s second-most-liked pic with over 882,000 likes.
There’s also Drake, sharing a characteristically humble snap of his accomplishments. This one got almost 2 million likes, making it the Toronto rapper’s most-liked upload.
But Rihanna’s jaw-dropping pic of her outfit for the Barbados Cropover festival got more love than any of those ones: 4.6 million likes, making it her most-liked photo of the year, and with damn good reason.
Cardi B, who undoubtedly had a knockout 2017, what with her rap career really taking off and her engagement to Offset, also had success on the ‘gram. This outfit shot was only her second-most-liked photo with over 1.6 million likes.
