Battle of the Divas: Queen Gaga, NY Beyonce, and Italy still loves Madonna

Hello all-

Some more datafaction for you today. First up, which diva is ruling the internets? Let us consult the might oracle Google to see which artist tops the search engine out of Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Madonna, and Keisha (without the money sign).

Figure 1. Search volume index versus time for the search terms Gaga, Beyonce, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Ke$ha. Data provided by Google Trends(c) and accessed on May 18th, 2010.

Lady Gaga's popularity exploded and has cast her as the dominant diva to date.  Even Taylor Swift's drama dwarfs the peak searches for Lady Gaga.  Beyonce comes in a distant second with Taylor Swift and Madonna coming in about third.  Keisha (or Kei$ha) will be discussed at the end.  However, do not discount the power of Beyonce, let's zoom into New York City.

Figure 2. Search volume index for New York City, NY for the search terms Gaga, Beyonce, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Keisha. Data provided by Google Trends(c) and accessed on May 18th, 2010.

While Lady Gaga may be Queen of the World, Beyonce dominates her in the City that Never Sleeps.  And Madonna still has global staying power, look at Italy.

Figure 2. Search volume index for Italy for the search terms Gaga, Beyonce, Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Keisha. Data provided by Google Trends(c) and accessed on May 18th, 2010.

NOTE: In the bar graphs, Kesha is spelled wrong, the search term was correct though.

Now back to Kesha (or Ke$ha, or what have you). The problem she is facing is that most people know her song and not her. Nearly as many people have searched for the song "Tik Tok" as they have "Kesha". So, she hasn't reached stardom yet, her music is just a little catchy (and poppy annoying).