Queen sits atop this year's Top 2000 for 19th time; Coldplay rises to #5

Queen is at the top of the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 for the nineteenth time this year. Listeners could vote for their favorite songs until Wednesday afternoon, with the top 2,000 selections played in a radio marathon that ends just before the turn of the new year.

The full list will be revealed on Thursday. The broadcast of the Top 2000 starts on Christmas Day at midnight.

This year's number 1 track, Bohemian Rhapsody, will be played as 2022 draws to a close. Danny Vera, which sat at number 1 in 2020, took second place for the second straight year with his hit, Roller Coaster. Hotel California by the Eagles rounds out the top three. Coldplay rose from 11th to 5th place with Fix You. Highlights of the list were revealed on Wednesday by Ruud de Wild in the Top 2000 Café at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum.

English rock band Procol Harum completely disappeared from the top 10. The band rose from 153rd to third place last year with A Whiter Shade of Pale. People had voted en masse for the song, which was Peter R. de Vries's favorite track. The journalist was shot and killed earlier in 2021. Golden Earring, which took sixth place with Radar Love last year, also fell out of the top 10.

Queen has two tracks in this year's top 10, with Love of My Life rising from 12th to 10th place. The other notable tracks in the top 10 are Billy Joel with Piano Man (4), Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven (6), Black by Pearl Jam (7), Boudewijn de Groot with Evening (8) and Metallica with Nothing Else Matters (9).

Queen fell out of the number 1 spot just five times since the Top 2000 started in 1999. Aside from Danny Vera, the British band was pipped by Boudewijn de Groot in 2005, the Eagles in 2010 and 2014, and John Lennon in 2015.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
2. Roller Coaster by Danny Vera
3. Hotel California by the Eagles
4. Piano Man by Billy Joel
5. Fix You by Coldplay
6. Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
7. Black by Pearl Jam
8. Evening by Boudewijn de Groot
9. Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
10. Love of My Life by Queen