Ultratop facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Ultratop

Type	Nonprofit
Purpose	Record charts
Location	Belgium
Official language	Dutch

Ultratop is the organization that creates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium. Think of it as the official scoreboard for the most popular music in the country. It was started in 1995 by the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), which is part of a worldwide group that supports the music industry.

Because Belgium has different regions that speak different languages, Ultratop makes two main sets of charts. One is for Flanders, the part of Belgium where people mostly speak Dutch. The other is for Wallonia, the region where people mostly speak French. This way, the charts show what's popular in each part of the country.

How Ultratop Charts Work

Ultratop's charts are a big deal in Belgium. They are shown on TV channels and played on several radio stations. Every week, more than two million people tune in to see or hear the latest charts.

To create the charts, Ultratop tracks music sales from about 500 stores across Belgium. They also count legal music downloads and streams online. A company called GfK helps them gather all this information to make sure the charts are accurate.

In 2005, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Ultratop released a special book. It listed every single that had ever been on the charts—that's 15,282 songs from 5,882 different artists!

The Main Charts

The most famous Ultratop charts are for the best-selling singles and albums. Because of Belgium's different languages and cultures, there are separate charts for the Dutch-speaking Flanders region and the French-speaking Wallonia region.

Ultratop 50 Singles

This is the chart for the 50 most popular songs.

• Flemish Chart: The chart for Flanders is called the Ultratop 50. It started on March 31, 1995. Before that, other charts existed, but Ultratop became the official one. It is presented in Dutch and broadcast on the radio station MNM.
• Walloon Chart: The chart for Wallonia also started in 1995, but it was originally the Ultratop 40. On September 4, 2010, it expanded to include 50 songs, just like the Flemish chart, and was renamed the Ultratop 50.

Ultratop 200 Albums

This chart ranks the 200 most popular albums of the week.

• Flemish Chart: This chart, presented in Dutch, shows the top-selling albums in Flanders. It started as a Top 50 chart, then grew to a Top 100, and is now the Ultratop 200.
• Walloon Chart: This is the French-language version for Wallonia, showing the top 200 albums sold in that region.

All Ultratop Charts

Besides the main singles and albums charts, Ultratop produces many other lists for different types of music.

What Was Ultratip?

For many years, Ultratop also had a chart called Ultratip, or Ultratip Bubbling Under. This was a list of songs that were becoming popular but hadn't made it into the main Ultratop 50 chart yet. It was a way to see which new songs might become big hits.

The Ultratip chart was discontinued on May 29, 2021. There was a list of 100 songs for Flanders and 50 songs for Wallonia.

How Streaming Affects the Charts

Today, listening to music online through streaming services is very popular. To keep the charts modern, Ultratop started including streaming numbers in its calculations. They began counting streams for singles in 2016 and for albums in July 2017.

Ultratop doesn't say exactly how many streams equal one sale. For albums, they have a special rule to keep things fair. They only count the streams from the 12 most-played tracks on an album. This prevents artists from getting an unfair advantage just by adding lots of songs to an album.

See also

In Spanish: Ultratop para niños

• List of number-one hits (Belgium)
• List of best-selling Belgian music artists
• Music of Belgium