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A behind-the-scenes look at Tyla’s BBMAs performance for the 2024 Billboard Music Awards. Richard Godfrey:The building we’re sitting in the pub, the Counting House, is 500 years old, and we’re right in the heart of London, in the Old City of London. And the good thing is the pub has been renovated in that time, […]
Jimmy Fallon and Jonas Brothers’ Yuletide team-up “Holiday” ascends to the top of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart (dated Dec. 21). Fallon earns his first Adult Contemporary No. 1 – and his first ruler on a Billboard radio airplay chart – with his second top 10 on the tally, after “Wrap Me Up,” with Meghan Trainor, […]
Billboard has revealed its much-anticipated Year-End Charts, which includes Top New Latin Artists. While Bad Bunny, once again, finished off the year as Billboard’s Top Latin Artist, five breakthrough artists also made strong waves. With his raw spirit of corridos tumbados and tender romanticism, Mexican-American artist, Xavi, tops the Year-End Top Latin Artist – New […]
George Birge notches his first leader on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Cowboy Songs” moseys two spots to No. 1 on the Dec. 21-dated survey. The song increased by 14% to 28.9 million audience impressions Dec. 6-12, according to Luminate.
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“Cowboy Songs” is from Birge’s same-named album, released in April. He co-authored the single with Lalo Guzman, Matt McGinn and Michael Tyler. Guzman and McGinn produced the track about a love interest who “only dances to cowboy songs.” (“That steel guitar’ll steal her heart,” Birge sings.)
“Having the No. 1 song on the Billboard Country Airplay chart is an absolute dream come true,” Birge says. “It’s wild to think that the song I wrote about chasing my wife across dusty dive bars in Austin, Texas, is now sitting at the top. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the year.”
Birge’s first Country Airplay leader follows his rookie entry, “Mind on You,” which hit No. 2 in January.
Before launching his solo career, and signing to Records Nashville in 2021, Birge was half of duo Waterloo Revival with Cody Cooper. (The pair made two appearances on the lower reaches of Country Airplay in 2015.)
At Home in the Top 10
Dan + Shay earn their 12th Country Airplay top 10 as “Bigger Houses” rises 11-10 (17.3 million, up 2%).
The song, which the duo’s Dan Smyers co-wrote, is the title cut from the pair’s LP that entered at its No. 9 Top Country Albums high in September 2023, becoming the twosome’s fifth top 10.
The act — Smyers and Shay Mooney — logged its initial Country Airplay top 10, and first of eight No. 1s, with “Nothin’ Like You,” which dominated for one week in December 2015. The tandem most recently reigned with “Glad You Exist” for a week in August 2021.
Sabrina Carpenter claims her fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart – all earned in 2024 – as “Taste” tops the radio ranking dated Dec. 21.
The song, released on Island Records and promoted to radio by Republic, follows Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which led Pop Airplay for two weeks in September; “Espresso” (three weeks, July); and “Feather” (one week, April).
Carpenter joins only Doja Cat and Lady Gaga in having scored four Pop Airplay leaders in a single year, dating to the chart’s 1992 launch. Doja Cat reigned in 2022 with “Need to Know,” “Woman” and “Vegas” and as featured on Post Malone’s “I Like You (A Happier Song).” Gaga dominated in 2009 with “Just Dance” (featuring Colby O’Donis), “Poker Face,” “LoveGame” and “Paparazzi.”
Carpenter this year and Gaga in 2009 are the only artists with as many as four Pop Airplay No. 1s in a single year all in lead roles.
“Taste,” meanwhile, is the third Pop Airplay No. 1 from Carpenter’s LP Short n’ Sweet. The album, released in August, is the first to spin off at least three Pop Airplay leaders since Selena Gomez’s Revival in 2016, and the 10th to achieve the feat in the chart’s history.
Albums With 3 or More Pop Airplay No. 1s:Artist, Album, No. 1s, Year(s)
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet: “Espresso,” “Please Please Please,” “Taste” (2024)
Selena Gomez, Revival: “Good for You” (feat. A$AP Rocky), “Same Old Love,” “Hands to Myself” (2015-16)
Justin Bieber, Purpose: “What Do You Mean?,” “Sorry,” “Love Yourself” (2015-16)
Maroon 5, Overexposed: “Payphone” (feat. Wiz Khalifa), “One More Night,” “Daylight” (2012-13)
Katy Perry, Teenage Dream: “California Gurls” (feat. Snoop Dogg), “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “E.T.” (feat. Kanye West), “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “The One That Got Away” (2010-12) (*The album’s The Complete Confection reissue generated an additional No. 1, “Wide Awake.”)
Lady Gaga, The Fame: “Just Dance” (feat. Colby O’Donis), “Poker Face,” “LoveGame,” “Paparazzi” (2009)
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds: “SexyBack,” “My Love” (feat. T.I.), “What Goes Around…Comes Around,” “Summer Love” (2006-07)
Avril Lavigne, Let Go: “Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “I’m With You” (2002-03)
Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill: “Ironic,” “You Learn,” “Head Over Feet” (1996)
Ace of Base, The Sign: “All That She Wants,” “The Sign,” “Don’t Turn Around” (1993-94)
“I called it Short n’ Sweet for multiple reasons,” Carpenter mused to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe ahead of the album’s release. “It was not because I’m vertically challenged [‘5 feet, to be exact,’ per ‘Taste’]. It was really, like, I thought about some of [my] relationships, and how some of them were the shortest I’ve ever had, and they affected me the most.”
All charts dated Dec. 21 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Dec. 17.
Here we go again.
On Dec. 9, the technology activist group Fight for the Future announced that 300 musicians signed an open letter denouncing the lawsuit that labels filed against the Internet Archive for copying and offering free streams of old recordings under its “Great 78” project. The letter essentially says that labels need to focus less on profit and more on supporting creators, by raising streaming service royalty rates — and partnering with “valuable cultural stewards” like the Internet Archive.
This is exactly and entirely backward. Labels have to focus on making money — they’re companies, duh — and they are always trying to raise streaming royalties in a way that would help them, as well as artists. It would help if streaming services raised prices, which they would have an easier time doing if less unlicensed music was available for free on both for-profit pirate sites and services like the Internet Archive. And one of the worst possible groups to offer advice on such matters is Fight for the Future, which has consistently opposed the kind of copyright protection that lets creators control the availability of their work.
Most people think of the Internet Archive, if they think of it at all, as the nonprofit organization that runs the Wayback Machine, which maintains a searchable archive of past and present Internet sites. But it also preserves and makes available other media — sometimes in ways that push the boundaries of copyright. After the label lawsuit against the Internet Archive was shifted to alternative dispute resolution in late July, an appeals court affirmed book publishers’ victory in their lawsuit against the organization for making electronic copies of books available without a license under the self-styled concept of “controlled digital lending.” On Dec. 4, the deadline passed for the Internet Archive to file a cert petition with the Supreme Court, making that decision final.
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It sometimes seems that part of the purpose of the Internet Archive, which was founded in 1996 by technology activist Brewster Kahle, is to push the boundaries of copyright. In 2006, Kahle sued the government for changing the copyright system from opt-in to opt-out. (His side lost in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.) Later, the Internet Archive began buying and scanning books and distributing digital files of the contents on a temporary basis, according to how many copies of the volume the organization owned. (The digital copies became unusable after a certain amount of time.) During the pandemic, it launched a “National Emergency Library” and announced it would begin lending out more digital copies than the number of physical copies of books it owned. Two months later, three major publishers and one other sued, arguing that this controlled digital lending — a theoretical model that’s not recognized in U.S. law — infringed copyright.
The Internet Archive argued that it was a library and that its digital lending qualified as “transformative use,” an aspect of the fair use exception to copyright law that in some cases allows copyrighted works to be used for a different purpose. (The thumbnail images seen in search engine results qualify as a transformative use, for example, since they are used to help users find the images themselves.) The copyright exceptions for libraries and archives are very specific, though, and it’s hard to imagine how borrowed digital copies of books are so different from the digital books that have become an increasingly important part of the publishing business. The Second Circuit Appeals Court treated the dispute as a straight fair use case — it barely mentioned the National Emergency Library — and ruled for the publishers.
“Fair use is an important part of the law, and no one would disagree,” says Maria Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, the trade group that handled the lawsuit. “But this this was a gross distortion of fair use — they wanted to normalize that it’s OK to reproduce millions of works.”
The label lawsuit — Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Concord sued under the auspices of the RIAA — could end up being just as straightforward. (Kahle is also personally named in the lawsuit, along with other entities.) The Great 78 Project makes 400,000 recordings digitized from 78 rpm records available to stream online. The idea is to “make this less commonly available music accessible to researchers,” according to the project’s web site.
The reality, the labels’ lawsuit alleges, is that among the recordings available are Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” all of which have considerable commercial life on streaming services. “The Internet Archive’s ‘Great 78’ project is a smokescreen for industrial-scale copyright infringement of some of the most iconic recordings ever made,” RIAA chief legal officer Ken Doroshow said in a statement. The Internet Archive did not respond to a request for comment.
The Internet Archive seems to be appealing both of these cases to magazines, making the case that the $621 million RIAA lawsuit threatens “the web’s collective memory” (Wired) and the “soul of the Internet” (Rolling Stone). Maybe. But neither book publishers nor labels object to the Internet Archive’s actual archive of the actual Internet. In both pieces, Kahle positions himself as a librarian and a preservationist, never mind that “White Christmas” doesn’t need preserving and that the Music Modernization Act has a provision that allows libraries to offer certain unavailable pre-1972 recordings if they follow a process. (The labels’ complaint says the organization didn’t do this; Kahle told Rolling Stone that “we talked to people, it wasn’t a problem.”) The fact that some of the recordings are scratchy, which Kahle and his allies make much of, is legally beside the point.
It’s reasonable to hope that the labels don’t put the Internet Archive out of business, because the Wayback Machine is so valuable. But it’s also reasonable to wonder why Kahle let the Internet Archive take such big legal risks in the first place. If the Wayback Machine is so important, why distribute books and music in a way that could be found to infringe copyright, with the enormous statutory damages that come with that? Unless, of course, that’s actually part of the organization’s work in the first place.
Some of these issues can get pretty abstract, but the way they’re settled could have serious consequences in the years to come. If one wanted to assemble a collection of scanned books in order to train an artificial intelligence, one might go about it in exactly the way Kahle did. Same goes for old recordings. Indeed, artificial intelligence companies are already arguing that mass copying of media doesn’t infringe copyright because it qualifies as “transformative,” and thus as fair use. There is no evidence that the Internet Archive copied books and recordings for this reason, but it’s certainly possible that the organization might have wanted to set precedents to make it easier for AI companies to argue that they use copyrighted work for training purposes compensating rightsholders.
The letter from Fight for the Future points out that “the music industry cannot survive without musicians.” But there’s a chance that the kind of large-scale copying of music that it’s convincing musicians to defend could represent a first step toward the technology business doing exactly that.
Donning a fitted navy blue suit and with a cocktail in hand, Joey Bada$$ stands to address the lucky few patrons invited to dine with him inside New York’s lavish Caribbean fusion restaurant Tatiana By Kwame Onwuachi. Braised oxtail, honeynut piri piri salad and half-drunken palomas blanket each table inside the dimly lit eatery. Industry luminaries like KidSuper’s Colm Dillane, and Cordae can be spotted mingling amongst the crowd, but as Joey stands, a powerful hush falls over each table.
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Joey and his longtime collaborator Sophia Chang remind everyone why they’re here, in support of something bigger. The dinner – sponsored by Tres Generaciones who also awarded the rapper with the Impact Award at Billboard’s Power Players Event last September – is to support Joey’s ImpactMENtorship program, which launched last year to provide free mentorship and support for men of color.
“I think people sleep on the fact of how important it is, especially for communities of color, to have proper representation,” Joey tells the crowd as silverware and glasses clatter around him. “I’ve been navigating this industry for the last 12 years of my life, and every room and every table I come into, the circumstances are the same. There’s not enough people who look like [us] in positions of leadership.”
While patrons begin to applaud in approval, Joey quiets that down to continue his stirring speech.
“This ain’t about me,” He says. “Making music is cool, having platinum records and stuff like that is cool. Starring in TV shows and all of that, it’s cool. But this, this is my greatest creation to date.”
While Joey also thanks everyone for attending, the Pro Era leader has another big announcement: Next semester he’ll be serving as the first Artist Scholar in Residence at Columbia University’s Edmund W. Gordon Institute. This now marks the rapper’s second residency at a prestigious university, having been an Artist in Residence at New York University’s Tisch School back in October.
Teaching at the collegiate level is just the latest feather in Joey’s cap. The Bed-Stuy Brooklyn rapper-turned actor-turned-philanthropist has been stacking up artistic accolades for over a decade. After debuting some serious acting chops in 2016’s Mr. Robot, Joey Bada$$ took a brief hiatus from music in 2019 to explore that outlet. The following years found him delving entirely into 50 Cent’s Power universe as the fan-favorite character Unique in Book III: Raising Kanan. Come 2022, Joey finally got back in the booth and dropped off 2000, the follow-up to his seminal mixtape 1999. The point is, the polymath has a lot going on. He’s even got a new album due out in 2025. When I spoke with Joey earlier in the week, it took a moment for the busy multi-hyphenate to register why I was chatting with him.
“Oh OK, so we’re talking about that,” Joey says when I mention the Gordon Institute. Long story short, Joey hosted his first annual Impact Summit with them back in June, and the school reached back out to him following its success. “One plus one just equaled to two,” Joey quips.
Billboard spoke to Bada$$ about his recurring mentorship, his new residency and creating a safe space for men of color.
What about this opportunity are you most excited about?
I’m just excited to expand and just to kinda create a new — how can I say it — a new norm for people like me. I don’t think people expect rappers to be doing this type of thing, or rappers to be scholars themselves. I’m just kinda excited about challenging the status quo.
At your IMPACT Mentorship summit, you spoke about the importance of creating a safe space for men of color. In your opinion, how does education factor into that? How can education be more inclusive?
Mentorship is a matter of exchanging information and providing wisdom for people who are looking for it. A slept-on idea is the confidence that it gives people, especially men of color. We grew up in this world where we’re told our ideas or opinions or even our emotions are not valid. So to be sharing space with people who look like us, who are further along on these paths we may wanna take, means everything/ Sometimes, people just need reassurance because they’ve never gotten it before.
Other rappers like Lupe Fiasco have also taught at the collegiate level. What role do you think education plays in hip-hop?
I think it plays one of the biggest roles. Hip-hop was founded in the beginning as a means of spreading messages through communities. The first rappers were, in every sense of the word, neighborhood reporters. So I think education is key, and hip-hop is the channel that we can spread a lot of information quickly.
As a high school dropout yourself, how has education come back into your own life and shaped you as your career has gone on?
Education is everything. Your ideology is a reflection of the education you get. It affects your mindset, which affects the way you navigate the world. You’re talking to someone who dropped out of high school and never got his high school diploma, but who is now having residencies at Ivy League schools. That was all with the self-education I had to pursue, and it’s clearly made all of the difference in my life. I shouldn’t be here, statistically speaking.
At what point did you realize that you had to seek out that eduction yourself?
When you’re seeking growth, you realize that education is a vital part of that process. Otherwise, you’re just waiting on experience. Experience doesn’t necessarily happen every day. Sometimes, it takes months in between something significantly happening to you or in your life that you learn from and it’s a lot of chop wood, carry water, same thing every day. So, in that interim, there’s things like creativity and education which ultimately pushes you towards that growth space. I guess that’s how it happened for me, I’ve always been attracted to self improvement. I call myself a self-improvement junkie. I’m always looking for ways to better myself.
JOEY BADA$$
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Do you have a message for young people who might not feel seen or heard in more mainstream education spaces across the country, like the classroom?
I’m not sure if I have a message for them apart from, “Don’t give up.” Keep trying and know that you are not alone. That was one of the biggest lessons I had to learn through my time and experiences of feeling like I wasn’t heard, it was realizing I was not the first and I was not alone. The more that I vocalized or I fought for my right to speak, the more those people came out from the shadows. If there’s anything, I’d tell them don’t be discouraged.
Do you think a good education can foster more creativity? How can learning make art better?
Yeah, I always talk about this concept of walking around with this bucket of inspiration, and we all have it. We all pull from it to create or to show up however we show up. I think one of the main ways to fill that bucket up is with knowledge or education. For me, if I find myself having writer’s block, one of the things I do to refill the bucket is pick up a book. I go fill my head up with something that I didn’t have before.
As Billboard unveils its 2024 year-end charts this Friday (Dec. 13), anticipation was met with familiar results at the top of the Top Latin Artists survey. Despite releasing no new albums this year, a notable achievement emerged as a Puerto Rican megastar continued his reign — can you guess who? — marking a record-setting sixth consecutive year leading the charts. This milestone solidifies his status as the only artist to claim the coveted title since the category’s inception in 2011. Yes, Bad Bunny does it again, maintaining his chart dominance at No. 1.
In a continued rise, Fuerza Regida, who last year held the fourth slot, just behind Karol G and Peso Pluma, comes in strong at second place this year. The prolific San Bernardino band released Pa’ La Babys y la Belikeada late last year, which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 14, followed by an EP Dolido Pero No Arrepentido, and another album this year, Pero No Te Enamores, charting at No. 69 and 25 respectively.
Karol G maintains her strong presence, securing the No. 3 spot on this year’s list, consistent with her ranking from last year. She remains the only female Latin artist in the top 10, with Kali Uchis just missing the cut at No. 11. Shakira follows at No. 26, Young Miko at No. 30, Becky G at No. 34, and Anitta at No. 40. Additionally, the Colombian hitmaker achieves this remarkable feat for the sixth consecutive year.
While the top 10 Latin artists are featured below, the broader landscape of the top 20 includes, Carín León (No. 12), Myke Towers (13), Natanael Cano (14), Tito Double P (15), Luis R. Conriquez (16), Cris MJ (17), Oscar Maydon (18), Floyymenor (19), and Eslabon Armado (20). Explore the full 50 Top Latin Artists and our category-spanning 2024 year-end charts.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 28, 2023 to October 19, 2024. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
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Capping a banner breakthrough year, Tyla roars to No. 1 on the year-end Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Artists recap for 2024. The South African singer, who finished at No. 14 last year, leaps into first place thanks to a flurry of hits from her self-titled debut album, released in March, and its runaway hit “Water,” which wraps the year as the No. 1 title on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs year-end chart.
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Tyla, who records for Fax Records/Epic Records, became widely known through “Water,” which reached No. 1 on the weekly U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart in October 2023, just in time for the 2024 chart year, which ran from the charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, to Oct. 19, 2024. The single drowned the competition and charged to a 51-week domination on the list during the chart year, stepping aside for only one week during that time, for Asake and Travis Scott’s one-week champ, “Active.”
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
After “Water” opened the gates, Tyla’s self-titled debut album reinforced her standing on U.S. Afrobeats Songs, where 10 of the album’s standard edition’s 14 tracks reached the chart. In addition to “Water,” three more tracks land in the top 10 on the year-end recap: “Truth or Dare” (No. 4), “Jump,” with Gunna and Skillibeng (No. 5) and “Art” (No. 9).
Tems, the top U.S. Afrobeats Artist two years ago, comes in at No. 2 on the 2024 edition thanks to the impact of her anticipated full-length debut, Born in the Wild. The set, released on Since ‘93/RCA Records in June, produced 15 charting titles on the weekly U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, including three different tunes that each peaked at No. 3: “Me & U,” “Love Me JeJe” and “Not An Angel.” The foremost pair’s extended trajectories help them finish at No. 3 and No. 7, respectively, on the year-end rankings.
Notably, with “Water,” “Me & U,” “Truth or Dare” and “Jump” accounting for four of the top five year-end slots on U.S. Afrobeats Songs, the only non-Tyla or Tems song in the region is the 2024 runner-up, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down.” The track, which reigned atop the 2023 standings, nabs the silver medal due to its steady streaming levels. Though the collaboration has waned from its highest point, when it set a record 59-week run atop the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, a consistent level of streams has allowed the single to remain within the chart’s top three positions for the entirety of the charting year.
With help from “Calm Down,” Rema captures the No. 3 spot on the year-end artist rank for U.S. Afrobeats Songs, though it’s not the sole reason for his success. The Nigerian performer debuted 16 additional songs on the list in the 2024 chart year, from both his November 2023 EP, Ravage, and 2024 full-length album, HEIS. Chief among them was “Yayo,” which reached No. 9 in July and became his third top 10 hit on the chart.
Last year’s champ, Burna Boy, picks up the No. 4 position on the 2024 year-end artist recap, largely through cuts from his August 2023 release, I Told Them…, continuing their chart runs into the year. Notably, the international superstar achieved a new top 10 – his 14th total – with “Higher,” which managed a No. 6 high in July.
Asake, meanwhile, rounds out the top five on the 2024 class for the U.S. Afrobeats Songs Artists chart. While a run of 14 top 10s had already established the 29-year-old’s chops, he finally unlocked the penthouse in August with his first No. 1, the Travis Scott collaboration “Active.” A-list pairings proved a winning formula for Asake, with further hits coming via team-ups with Wizkid on the No. 7-peaking “MMS” and Gunna (“Happiness,” also with Sarz) and Central Cee (“Wave”), which both reached No. 8.
In 2024, Elevation Worship, the music collective based in Charlotte, N.C., leads Billboard’s Top Christian Artists in the overall year-end recap. The group also rules as the leading duo/group of 2024.
Elevation Worship’s eight-song album, Can You Imagine?, is Billboard’s No. 1 Top Christian Albums title of 2024. The set, which spent 14 weeks at No. 1 during the 2024 eligibility period (charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024), has remained in the top five on the weekly ranking for most of the chart year.
The week that the album arrived at the summit, group frontman Chris Brown told Billboard: “We’re blown away by the response to our new album and how it’s pointing people to Jesus,” he said. “It’s reminding us that He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine in and through our lives.”
Explore All of Billboard’s 2024 Year-End Charts
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate
Additionally, Elevation Worship’s “Praise” featuring Brandon Lake, Chris Brown and Chandler Moore leads multiple major year-end song charts: the multimetric Hot Christian Songs, along with the radio rankings Christian Airplay Songs and Christian AC Airplay Songs, and even Christian Streaming Songs.
“Praise” hit No. 1 on the weekly Hot Christian Songs chart in March and became the act’s third chart-topper among 15 top 10s. It was the first leader for Brown, Lake’s third of five and Moore’s first. It spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Christian Songs during the 2024 chart year.
Meanwhile Singer-songwriter Brandon Lake, who is featured on “Praise,” leads Billboard’s Top Christian Artists – Male roundup. Lake, who hails from Dallas, is No. 2 on the overall Top Christian Artists recap.
Lake’s 2023 hit “Gratitude,” which led Hot Christian Songs for 13 weeks during the 2024 chart year, finishes at No. 6 on the year-end Hot Christian Songs recap. The singer-songwriter banked two additional Hot Christian Songs No. 1s: “Praise You Anywhere” rang up six weeks in the penthouse starting in November 2023, and “That’s Who I Praise” became his fifth leader in the final week of the 2024 chart year (Oct. 19, 2024).
Lake notched his first No. 1 on Top Christian Albums with Coat of Many Colors which debuted atop the Nov. 4, 2023 dated tally. The 16-song Colors ranks at No. 5 on the year-end roundup. The 34-year-old from Charleston, S.C., also posts the No. 14 album of 2024, House of Miracles. It peaked at No. 6 on the weekly Top Christian Albums chart in June of 2023, but continued to have a sustained chart run into the 2024 eligibility period.
Billboard’s Top Christian Artists — Female of 2024 is Lauren Daigle, who was 2023’s overall Top Christian Artist. She finishes fourth in the latter category this year. The singer-songwriter who hails from Lafayette, La., has the No. 6 spot on the 2024 top albums survey with her 2023 self-titled album.
Daigle released the initial 10-song self-titled album with the promise that the deluxe version with 10 more tracks would come later. The LP paired the 33-year-old Daigle with new producer Mike Elizondo and was her first through Atlantic Records, which her longtime label, Centricity, formed a partnership in early 2023.
The first version of the LP entered at the summit on May 27, 2023, returning to the apex that September with the deluxe version, which added 13 tracks to the original release. It led on Sept. 23, 2023, with 13,000 units and has remained on Top Christian Albums throughout 2024.
Meanwhile Daigle’s earlier albums remain extremely popular. Her third of four No. 1 sets, Look Up Child from 2018, is No. 3 on the Top Christian Albums year-end ranking.
The No. 2 female of the year (and No. 5 overall) is Anne Wilson. She is notable as her music is being promoted to both Christian and country radio (by Capitol Christian and Capitol Nashville, respectively). The two-sided promotion between these two genres is still not all that common. While she has not impacted Country Airplay yet, her single “Strong,” hit No. 3 on Christian Airplay and No. 2 on Christian AC. Wilson has earned five top 10s on each of the lists to date.
Queen Is ‘New’ King
At No. 1 on the 2024 year-end Top New Christian Artists ranking is Josiah Queen. He concurrently cracks the top 10 on the overall Top Christian Artists list, coming in at No. 9.
His independently released debut set, The Prodigal, opened atop Top Christian Albums in June. Queen’s rookie single, the album’s title track, reached No. 4 on Hot Christian Songs in May becoming his first top 10. The 21-year-old from Tampa, Fla. initially accumulated traction by posting videos on TikTok, where he has more than 100,000 followers.
Speaking of artists who springboard from social media, Forrest Frank, who was 2023’s Top New Christian Artist, is No. 3 among all acts this year. Frank’s “Good Day” is the No. 2-ranked Hot Christian Songs title of 2024. “Good” reached No. 2 on the weekly version of the list in March, becoming his first of three top 10s. His duet with Connor Price, “Up!”, peaked at No. 8 in April, while “Never Get Used to This,” with JVKE, climbed to No. 6 in August.