Musk, Biden, Navalny and Taliban Co-Founder: Time Unveils List of 100 Most Influential People of 2021

The list is presented in six categories

Time magazine has published its annual list of 100 most influential people from around the world in 2021.

By tradition, the annual Time ranking includes politicians, activists, entrepreneurs, actors, musicians, scientists and athletes.

The magazine divides the winners into six categories: “Icons,” “Pioneers,” “Innovators,” “Titans,” “Artists” and “Leaders.”

We tell about the most notable winners of Time's list of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

“Icons”

At the very top of the “Icons” category are Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

Also in this category is jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The article about Navalny for Time was written by chess player Garry Kasparov. 

American singer Britney Spears also made it into this category after her fight for independence from the conservatorship of her father, under which she had lived since 2008.

The list also includes Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, American lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, singer Dolly Parton, baseball player Shohei Ohtani, poet Cathy Park Hong, artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, lawyer Narsin Sotoudeh, activists Manjusha P. Kulkarni, Russell Jeung and Cynthia Choi, and Muna El-Kurd and Mohammed El-Kurd.

“Pioneers”

The “Pioneers” category is headed by young American singer Billie Eilish. 

Also on the list is lawyer Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd, an African American killed by a police officer.

The category also features public figures, activists, athletes and politicians.

“Titans”

The magazine ranked American gymnast Simone Biles at the top of the “Titans.” She is a four-time Olympic champion from 2016 and a 19-time world champion.

The category also includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, screenwriter Shonda Rhimes, producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, and American football player Tom Brady.

“Artists”

The category of the most influential art celebrities includes actresses Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson, and director Chloé Zhao, who this year won the Oscar for the film “Nomadland.”

Actors Jason Sudeikis, Daniel Kaluuya and Omar Sy, and rapper Lil Nas X also appeared on the list.

“Innovators”

The “Innovators” category includes the head of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk, American immunologist Barney Graham and Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian researcher who became known for developing mRNA vaccine technology, which underpinned the development of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.  

Also in the category are Ethereum blockchain platform creator Vitalik Buterin and NVIDIA President Jensen Huang.

“Leaders”

The most controversial category of Time's ranking is “Leaders.” For example, it includes co-founder of the Islamist movement Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan, Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The category also features former US President Donald Trump, who in 2021 called on citizens to storm the Capitol, an event that later resulted in bloodshed.

Other controversial figures in the category include Xi Jinping, head of the People's Republic of China, who has been noted for authoritarianism and an attempt to create a digital dictatorship in China based on total control of information.

The category also includes the first woman to head the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.