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d4vd‘s star is officially on the rise, and Spotify has taken notice. The 18-year-old singer — who broke through with the 2022 tracks “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” — is one of a handful of performers selected by the music streamer to participate in its #PopRisingOnTour, which shines a light on the artists featured […]
Noah Kahan reveals five things you didn’t know about him to Billboard. Noah Kahan:I’m Noah Kahan, and these are five things that you don’t know about me unless you’re a weird weirdo who knows all these things, in which case — leave me alone. The first is that I can speak Spanish. I lived in […]
K-pop girl group (G)I-DLE reveals five things you didn’t know about the members. (G)I-DLE:Hi, we are (G)I – DLE and this is five things about us. Soyeon:I did my nail in LA. (G)I-DLE:Oh! So pretty! Minnie:Today, I had breakfast with Yuqi and Shuhua and we had scramble eggs. Yuqi:Oh, and you waited for about 20 […]
Sierra Ferrell and The War And Treaty are both officially Billboard Hot 100-charting artists, thanks to their featured appearances on Zach Bryan’s new smash LP Zach Bryan.
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The set debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 200,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week (Aug. 25-31) in the U.S., according to Luminate. It’s the third No. 1 country album of 2023, so far, after Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and the first rock No. 1 of the year. (The set is categorized as both a country and rock album.)
Bryan’s “Holy Roller,” featuring Ferrell, debuts at No. 37 on the Hot 100 purely on the strength of its first-week streaming sum: 12.1 million U.S. streams earned. That total helps the song open at No. 20 on the Streaming Songs chart. Genre-wise, it also starts at No. 14 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and No. 17 on Hot Country Songs. (The Hot 100, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Country Songs charts all blend streams, sales and airplay data for their respective rankings.)
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Ferrell, from Charleston, West Virginia, is a newcomer to Billboard’s charts. The country/folk/bluegrass singer-songwriter scored her first overall chart appearance in September 2021, when her third, and most-recent LP, Long Time Coming, reached No. 15 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart and No. 25 on Top Album Sales.
She’s returned to Billboard’s charts once since then with her featured appearance on Ray LaMontagne’s “I Was Born To Love You.” The song climbed to No. 38 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart in June 2022.
Outside of the charts, she’s released two additional solo LPs: Pretty Magic Spell in 2014, and Washington By The Sea in 2016. She’s also collaborated with Diplo (“Rain on My Mind,” also with Paul Cauthen), Shakey Graves (“Ready Or Not”), and Old Crow Medicine Show (“Belle Meade Cockfight”).
Next year, she’s scheduled to open for Bryan on his stops in Las Vegas and Denver on his Quittin Time Tour.
Bryan’s “Hey Driver,” featuring The War And Treaty, debuts at No. 14 on the Hot 100, also largely on the strength of its first-week streaming sum: 18.3 million U.S. streams, plus 1,000 downloads sold. The streaming sum also generates a No. 5 debut on the Streaming Songs chart. It concurrently debuts at No. 2 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and No. 5 on Hot Country Songs.
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The War And Treaty are a husband-and-wife duo, based in Albion, Mich., comprising Tanya and Michael Trotter Jr.
The pair are relatively new to Billboard’s charts. The act first appeared on a chart in 2018 with its second studio album Healing Tide. The set climbed to No. 11 on the Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 26 on the Independent Albums chart. Two years later, in 2020, the couple notched its first song entry on Billboard’s charts with “Five More Minutes.” It peaked at No. 20 on Adult Alternative Airplay.
Since then, the act’s third and fourth albums both charted on the Top Current Album Sales ranking: Hearts Town reached No. 70 in October 2020 and Lover’s Game peaked at No. 56 in March.
Aside from the charts, the War And Treaty have also collaborated with Shovels & Rope (“Tomorrow”), Blues Traveler (“Need Your Love So Bad”), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (a star-studded cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin,” also with Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle and Jason Isbell), and Dierks Bentley (a live cover of U2’s “Pride (In The Name of Love)”).
Outside of the War and Treaty, Tanya Trotter (née Blount) forged a successful career as a solo act in the ‘90s. She charted three solo songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list (billed as Tanya Blount): “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” (No. 57 peak in 1994), “Through The Rain” (No. 27; 1994) and “Hold On” (No. 66; 1995).
“Through The Rain” also crossed over onto the Hot 100, reaching No. 90 in October 1994. The track appears on Trotter’s sole solo album, Natural Thing (released via Polydor Records), which climbed to No. 58 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
She first rose to prominence after she was cast in the 1993 Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit—as the role of Tanya. She has a breakout moment in the film, when she sings “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” alongside future No. 1 Hot 100 artist Lauryn Hill. The duet appears on the soundtrack to the film, which reached No. 74 on the Billboard 200 in 1994.
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Source: @leftysm_ / Instagram
Rising rapper Lefty SM, who had been creating a serious buzz in his home country of Mexico, was shot and killed. He was 31 years old.
The tragic demise of Lefty SM, also known as Juan Carlos Sauceda, was confirmed by his label and Billboard Español. “Dear Alzada friends and family, with profound sadness we’re informing you about the death of our brother, Lefty SM, Juan Carlos Sauceda,” Alzada Records confirmed, in Spanish, on its Instagram page on Sunday (September 3). “Our love and prayers are with his wife María Isabel and their two daughters.”
Carlos Félix, a PR rep for Alzada, confirmed that Lefty SM was shot twice near his home and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. He offered no further comment on a possible motive for the murder. The Mexican government in the Jalisco region was expected to release a formal report on the incident on Monday (September 4).
News of his death caused shock to his peers and fans. MC Davo, a friend and colleague, had just performed with Lefty SM last Friday (September 1) at a show held at the Teatro Metropólitan in Mexico City. “How is this possible? I can’t believe it, really, I can’t believe it man,” he said tearfully in a now-deleted video sent through his Instagram Stories. He would later post a photo of them hanging out at the beach. “Just a few hours ago we were enjoying life. May God have you in his glory.”
Lefty SM had built a solid career in rap and Hip-Hop, starting off in 1992. It wasn’t until 2017 when the native of San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, started to amass a huge following thanks to his YouTube channel. He built upon that with collaborations, including hits with the Santa Fe Klan such as “Si me caigo”, “Con los ojos rojos” and “Por mi México”. The group expressed their grief over the news online. “This isn’t possible, brother,” they wrote in an Instagram post. “Tell me it’s a lie.”
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It’s a good time to be a country artist.
2023 has been an unusually exceptional year for country music. From Morgan Wallen to Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, Oliver Anthony Music and more, country acts are reaching historic highs across Billboard’s charts – including, most notably, on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
As of the latest list (dated Sept. 9), four country songs (defined as those that have also appeared on the Hot Country Songs chart) have hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 this year: Wallen’s 16-week juggernaut “Last Night,” Jason Aldean’s one-week leader “Try That in a Small Town,” Oliver Anthony Music’s two-week viral No. 1 “Rich Men North of Richmond,” and, as of this week, Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves. Dating to the Hot 100’s launch in 1958, only one other calendar year has brought four-or-more country No. 1s: 1975, when five reached the summit (listed below in chronological order of when they topped the Hot 100):
“(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” B.J. Thomas“Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” Freddy Fender“Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” John Denver“Rhinestone Cowboy,” Glen Campbell“I’m Sorry,” John Denver
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“Last Night” has been particularly historic, as its 16 weeks atop the Hot 100 from March to August mark the most weeks ever at No. 1 for a non-collaboration, and tie it for the second-most overall. It also became the first chart-topper by an unaccompanied solo male country artist in over 42 years, since Eddie Rabbitt’s 1981 hit “I Love a Rainy Night.”
Meanwhile, Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” has spent eight weeks at its No. 2 high on the Hot 100, becoming his top-charting song. It has also crowned the all-format Radio Songs chart, Country Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, and has reached the top 10 on Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary.
Even further, 11 country songs have hit the Hot 100’s top 10 this year, almost quadruple the three that reached the region in all of 2022 (Combs’ “The Kind of Love We Make” and Wallen’s “You Proof” and “Don’t Think Jesus”). Three country hits also appeared in the top 10 in 2021 (Gabby Barrett’s “I Hope,” featuring Charlie Puth, Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” and Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like”), after four did in 2020 (“I Hope,” Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours,” Combs’ “Forever After All” and Wallen’s “7 Summers”). “10,000 Hours” was the only country song to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 in all of 2019.
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Zach Bryan has also achieved historic heights. This week, he becomes just the second country artist to chart at least 18 songs on the Hot 100 in a single week, after Wallen. “I Remember Everything” also becomes the first song to ever to top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts. Before this week, his breakout song “Something in the Orange” climbed to No. 10 on the Hot 100 in January, later becoming the longest-charting country song by a male artist, spending 66 total weeks on the survey.
The genre’s 2023 success doesn’t end with Wallen, Combs and Bryan, though. Multiple other country artists have also scored their first Hot 100 entries this year, including Tyler Childers (“In Your Love”), Hailey Whitters (“Everything She Ain’t”) and Warren Zeiders (“Pretty Little Poison”).
As Billboard reported in July, country music consumption in the United States increased by 20.3% year-over-year in the first 26 weeks of 2023, according to Luminate. That’s a significant improvement from the 2.5% growth that it experienced over the same period in 2022. Only K-pop (up 46.2%) and Latin (up 20.6%) saw sharper growths. While that surge is driven mostly by Wallen, a whole new crop of country artists is also contributing, including Bailey Zimmerman, Jelly Roll, and Nate Smith.
As country music continues its chart domination into 2023’s fourth quarter, here’s a look at every country music milestone and record that’s been broken on the Hot 100 in 2023, recapped in chronological order.
Most Country Songs in the Top 50 of the Hot 100 in a Single Week
Zach Bryan lands his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as his new self-titled set bows atop the tally (dated Sept. 9). The 16-song country-rock effort, his fourth full-length studio album, launches with 200,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 31, according to Luminate — the largest week for any rock album in four years. It’s also the first rock effort to hit No. 1 in more than a year. The set’s opening frame is largely powered by streaming activity — and the album boasts the biggest streaming week ever for a rock album.
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Beyond Bryan’s rock achievements, his self-titled set also marks the third country title to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2023, and garners the fifth-largest debut streaming week for a country album.
Country and rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Country Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, respectively. Bryan is among a handful of recent acts that have placed a genre-blending album on both the Top Country Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. Others include Jelly Roll, HARDY, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Koe Wetzel.
Bryan’s first No. 1 comes after sustained momentum on the Billboard 200 in the last year-plus from his previous studio effort, American Heartbreak. It debuted and peaked at No. 5 in June 2022 and spawned the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Something in the Orange.” Heartbreak has yet to depart the weekly top 40 of the Billboard 200 in its 67 consecutive weeks on the list (it climbs 16-14 on the new tally).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 9, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Sept. 6 — one day later than usual due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 4, in the U.S. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Zach Bryan’s 200,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 31, SEA units comprise 181,000 (equaling 233.09 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 16 songs — the largest streaming week ever for a rock set, and the fifth-largest streaming debut week for a country album), album sales comprise 17,000 (it was only available to purchase as a digital download, as its CD and vinyl LP are due out on Oct. 13) and TEA units comprise 2,000.
As noted above, Zach Bryan is the first rock album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in more than a year. The last to do so was Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love, which spent one week at No. 1 — its debut frame — on the list dated April 16, 2022. Zach Bryan also logs the largest week, by equivalent album units earned, for a rock album in four years, since Tool’s Fear Inoculum launched at No. 1 on the Sept. 19, 2019, chart with 270,000 units.
A little over a year ago, Bryan earned his first Billboard 200 chart entry with his third studio album — and major label debut — American Heartbreak, debuting and peaking at No. 5 on the June 4, 2022-dated list. The album has generated 2.6 billion on-demand official streams for its songs in the U.S. and has been a consistent streaming star since its debut. The set has been among the week’s top 20 most-streamed albums, by on-demand streams, in all but three weeks since its debut.
The Heartbreak single “Something in the Orange” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, reached the top three on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, and hit No. 10 on the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Following Heartbreak, Bryan placed five more titles on the list, including his new self-titled effort.
Four former No. 1s trail Bryan on the new Billboard 200. Travis Scott’s Utopia falls to No. 2 (91,000 equivalent album units earned; down 44%) after spending its first four chart weeks at No. 1. Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time dips 2-3 (83,000; down 8%), Taylor Swift’s Midnights rises 5-4 (49,000; down 8%) and SZA’s SOS vaults 11-5 (48,000; up 15% after increased sales and streams generated by its current single “Snooze,” including the release of its official music video and new remixes).
The Barbie soundtrack falls 4-6 (48,000 equivalent album units earned; down 14%) and Peso Pluma’s Génesis climbs 9-7 (43,000; down 3%). Swift has two more former leaders in the top 10, as Lover in a non-mover at No. 8 (43,000; down 8%) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) dips 7-9 (41,000; down 14%). Rounding out the top 10 is Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album, holding steady at No. 10 with 40,000 units (down 5%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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