The Best-Selling Albums and Songs of 2003
The cleanest sweep of the decade: 50 Cent had the No. 1 album, the No. 1 song and all three of Billboard’s artist titles.
Artists of the Year
Top 10 Albums of 2003 Billboard 200
- 1Get Rich or Die Tryin’50 Cent
- 2Come Away with MeNorah Jones
- 3Up!Shania Twain
- 4HomeDixie Chicks
- 5Let GoAvril Lavigne
- 6MeteoraLinkin Park
- 78 MileSoundtrack
- 8FallenEvanescence
- 9Tim McGraw and the Dancehall DoctorsTim McGraw
- 10StrippedChristina Aguilera
Top 10 Songs of 2003 Hot 100
- 1In da Club50 Cent
- 2Ignition (Remix)R. Kelly
- 3Get BusySean Paul
- 4Crazy in LoveBeyoncé ft. Jay-Z
- 5When I’m Gone3 Doors Down
- 6UnwellMatchbox Twenty
- 7Right ThurrChingy
- 8Miss YouAaliyah
- 9PictureKid Rock ft. Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer
- 10Bring Me to LifeEvanescence ft. Paul McCoy
What the 2003 Charts Show
- 50 Cent held both the No. 1 album and the No. 1 song of 2003 — the rarest double on the year-end charts.
- 50 Cent swept all three artist titles in 2003: combined, albums and singles.
How the 2003 charts were compiled
Every position here is a chart placement — measured sales, radio airplay and, in the years Billboard counted it, streaming across its tracking year — not an editorial ranking. Albums come from the year-end Billboard 200, songs from the year-end Hot 100.
Billboard’s tracking year runs from roughly late October to mid-October rather than January to December, which is why a late-autumn release can win the following year and why a song can appear on two consecutive year-end lists.
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