Blake Shelton Blasts to No. 1 on Billboard Artist 100

As his album 'Bringing Back the Sunshine' debuts atop the Billboard 200, Shelton becomes the first country act to crown the Artist 100.

Blake Shelton is the top artist in the U.S., soaring 19-1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart. The jump makes him the first country act ever to top the tally.

The Artist 100 provides the first weekly ranking dedicated to measuring artist activity across Billboard's most influential charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, Billboard 200 albums chart and the Social 50. The Artist 100 blends data measuring album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.

Shelton shoots to his first week atop the Artist 100 as his album Bringing Back the Sunshine debuts atop the Billboard 200 with 101,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. He becomes the first country act to top the chart since it launched in July. (That's excluding Taylor Swift, given her declaration of an outright segue to pop with the release of her latest hit "Shake It Off"; she tallied 19 top 10s on Hot Country Songs between 2006 and 2013.)



Shelton soars by 167 percent in Artist 100 chart points, with album sales accounting for 80 percent of his total. Radio airplay (9 percent) and digital song sales (8 percent) follow, as the new set's lead single, "Neon Light," lifts 6-4 on Hot Country Songs.

As a country act tops the Artist 100 for the first time, the genre also shines throughout the top 10. Lady Antebellum bounds 78-6, fueled by the debut of its album 747 (74,000 sold), and Jason Aldean rises to a new peak (10-7). As they join Shelton at No. 1, three country acts rank in the Artist 100's top 10 for the first time in more than two months.

In another notable coup for country, Carrie Underwood claims her best Artist 100 rank, re-entering at No. 20, as her new single "Something in the Water" flies 48-2 on Hot Country Songs and debuts at No. 1 on Hot Christian Songs. As the inspirational track enters Digital Songs at No. 4 with 125,000 downloads sold, digital song sales drive 72 percent of her Artist 100 points sum.

Below Shelton on the Artist 100, Maroon 5 rebounds 5-2; Meghan Trainor dips 1-3 after a week at the summit; Swift slips 3-4; Ariana Grande lifts 6-5; Sam Smith holds at No. 8; and Nicki Minaj drops 7-9.

Rounding out the Artist 100's top 10, One Direction roars 51-10 (up 215 percent) for its first week in the region. Fueling the jump, the boy band's new single "Steal My Girl" launches on Digital Songs at No. 3 (186,000) and the Hot 100 at No. 13. Digital song sales account for 64 percent of the group's Artist 100 total. Album sales will surely take over as the top contributor after 1D's new album Four arrives on Nov. 17.

View the complete Billboard Artist 100 chart here and in the new issue of Billboard magazine (dated Oct. 18), on sale tomorrow (Oct. 10).

http://www.billboard.com/articles/co...ard-artist-100