The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Songs with Featured Artists Reveal

What does it take to be a featured artist? We talk to Sam Smith, John Martin and Jess Glynne collaborator Route 94 to find out, plus we take a look at the Top 10 biggest selling ‘featured artist’ tracks of all time.

They are the two holiest members of the alphabet for any pop fan – that only they would understand. Yes, that all-important 'FT' (for 'featuring') can be the difference between a track getting a “yeah, it’s OK” and a “wow, that’s amazing”.

It’s pretty common nowadays to find the credits on your favourite song shared by more than one artist – collaborations can be a great way to boost a popstar’s profile, stage a comeback or, in most cases, just make a tune extra brilliant.

JUMP TO: Check out the Official Biggest Selling Songs with Featured Artists

John Martin knows all about being a featured artist and what it can do for a potential popstar’s career. Since his first credit on huge Swedish House Mafia’s massive Number 1 single Don’t You Worry Child back in 2012, John has seen his career go stratospheric, although he contributed more than his vocals.

“Don’t You Worry Child was written by me and Michel Citron, my friend that I write with, so we wrote that song and we gave it to Swedish House Mafia and they produced it.”

But is it difficult not to have a song all to yourself? John reckons he got a pretty good deal.

“It was a fantastic start, because that gave me time to still be in the shadows and prepare myself for what’s going to happen,” John tells OfficialCharts.com. “A featured artist can do different types of music, but you still have my voice, and even it it’s a dance track, or a hiphop track, people are gonna recognise my voice, like ‘Oh, that’s John!’”

Another plus of being a featured artist is the freedom to try different genres. Speaking of his collaboration with Tinie Tempah, John tells us: “It’s not a song I would do on my own, but that will show my voice for an audience might not have heard it before.”

Featuring on a song is a good way of getting your name out there. Just ask Sam Smith – he got his big break with his Naughty Boy collaboration La La La, which went on to be one of the biggest selling singles of 2013. He’s since scored two Number 1 singles by himself – Money On My Mind and Stay With Me – and has to admit topping the charts solo does feel different. “It was amazing when La La La went to Number 1,” says Sam. “I mean, I wrote quite a lot of that song and it was kind of just as much mine as it was Naughty Boy’s… but having my own song at Number 1 is just absolutely incredible!”

But the one thing a featured artist needs more than anything? The one thing they can’t exist without? Why it’s a track to feature on, of course!

Route 94 had his first Number 1 earlier this year with My Love, featuring the vocal talents of Jess Glynne, who had topped the chart just a month earlier thank to a feature on Clean Bandit’s Rather Be.

But when it comes to collaborators, what is Route 94 – aka Rowan Jones – looking for? “I like someone who’s got their own stuff going on, he told OfficialCharts.com. “For me to work with someone they can’t be like everywhere, you know it’s gotta be someone who sort of has their own profile.”

And Rowan insists any collaboration he’d be involved with would have to be a natural thing – but could he work with anybody he didn’t get on with? “If we could record the tune really quick and get ‘em out of the studio, and the track was absolutely amazing, we wouldn’t have a problem with it,” he jokes.

“It probably would matter if I didn’t like them,” he continues. “I wouldn’t want someone to have an association with me that was a weirdo.”

Rowan’s ideal collaboration would be none other than Adele. On Twitter, the power-lunged songstress has said she’s a big fan of My Love, so it could happen, right? Fingers crossed for you, Rowan!

Official Top 10 Biggest Selling Songs with Featured Artists

But when it comes to tracks with a featured artist, what are the big ones? There's only room for one 'FT Index' in pop, so we take a look at the Top 10 songs that include a featured artist credit. (We don’t count duets or collaborations where artists got equal billing.)

Robin Thicke’s monster hit Blurred Lines comes out on top of course, thanks to not one but two featured artists in the shape of T.I. and Pharrell. The track has sold over 1.5 million copies since its release a year ago.

Next up is Coolio’s 1995 Number 1 Gangsta’s Paradise FT LV. Thanks to a super-quotable rap and soaring strings sampling Stevie Wonder, this tune was a mega hit with 1.5 million sold. The video for this is amazing. Michelle Pfeiffer's "concentrating on the verse" face is the best.

Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger is the only track on our Top 10 not to have made Number 1. The 2011 hit had Christina Aguilera as a special guest, but peaked at Number 2.

Gotye was a good old one-hit wonder (so far, anyway) and his haunting Somebody That I Used To Know spent five weeks at Number 1 in 2012 to be our fourth bestselling track with a featured artist, thanks to collaborator Kimbra.

Other notable entries

Pharrell gets another look-in with Daft Punk’s Get Lucky at Number 5, and Tony Christie’s Is This The Way To Amarillo has Peter Kay as a featured artist, even though he only appeared on the video and not the recording of the song. If we didn’t include Tony and Peter, Rihanna would have two entries in the ‘featured’ Top 10 – as lead on We Found Love FT Calvin Harris (6) and Love The Way You Lie, Rihanna’s feature on Eminem’s track, would sneak in at Number 10.

See the full Top 10:

© 2014 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.