This week on Scoreboard Kelly Clarkson finds “The Meaning Of Life” and Camila Cabello moves up the Hot 100
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated November 18, 2017
See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100
| Billboard Artist Top 10 | Name | Billboard 200 Album Rank | Billboard Hot 100 Singles | Highest Charting Single |
| 1 | Kenny Chesney | 1 | 1 | 97: All The Pretty Girls |
| 2 | Kelly Clarkson | 2 | 1 | 47: Love So Soft |
| 3 | Ed Sheeran | 8 | 2 | 11: Perfect |
| 4 | Imagine Dragons | 12 | 2 | 5: Thunder |
| 5 | Post Malone | 5 | 5 | 1: Rockstar |
| 6 | Taylor Swift | 83 | 3 | 19: Ready For It |
| 7 | Cardi B | – | 3 | 3: Bodak Yellow (Money Moves) |
| 8 | Chris Brown | 3 | 3 | 51: Pills And Automobiles |
| 9 | Demi Lovato | 16 | 1 | 8: Sorry Not Sorry |
| 10 | Sam Smith | 64 | 1 | 10: Too Good At Goodbyes |
This week’s chart topper on both the Billboard 200 and the Artist 100 is No Shoes Nation leader Kenny Chesney. The country star takes #1 with Live In No Shoes Nation, a collection of live tracks from his tours over the last 10 years that includes rare concert collaborations with Dave Matthews, Zac Brown, and Taylor Swift. 11 of the tracks were recorded at Foxborough in Massachusetts, and the album’s release is bundled with tickets to Chesney’s 2018 tour, which just went on sale. This is not Chesney’s first live album – in 2006 he released Live: Live Those Songs Again. The new live album is extra large (30 tracks vs 14) and brings back new live versions of three songs from Live Those Songs Again – “Young,” “I Go Back,” and “Anything But Mine.” I guess if it ain’t broke in No Shoes Nation, don’t fix it. Chesney’s big week blocked Kelly Clarkson from reaching the top with new album Meaning Of Life; yet Scoreboard is definitely interested in finding out what that is from @kellyclarkson. Over on the Hot 100, Post Malone and 21 Savage are #1 for the fourth week in a row with “Rockstar,” although they are facing a new challenge from Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug.
Chris Brown’s surprise release Heartbreak On A Full Moon comes in at #3 on the Billboard 200 this week
Kelly Clarkson Finds the Meaning Of Life
Just two weeks ago Billboard’s chart topper was Pink, a veteran of the early 2000’s pop scene who had the year’s biggest debut album thus far by a female artist. This week Kelly Clarkson comes in at #2 behind Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes train, demonstrating unlikely staying power for the first champion of American Idol. Like Pink, @kellyclarkson had to surf the choppy waves of pop in the last 15 years and she succeeded by putting the voice (but not The Voice) first. Meaning Of Life is Clarkson’s eighth studio album, on which she turns to channeling soul, and especially her favorite singer Aretha Franklin. It is enjoyable to hear Clarkson let loose, whether on the sassy lead single “Love So Soft,” or on the confident “Whole Lotta Woman,” a mission statement for Clarkson’s newly independent, post-RCA career. And then there is the title track on which @kellyclarkson finally tells the world about the “Meaning Of Life,” which, based on its lyrics, has something to do with finding a true love. The triumph of “Meaning Of Life,” the track, and Meaning Of Life, the album, is in how Clarkson is feeling. She has the energy, the attitude, and the perseverance to keep going, and her #2 landing on the Billboard 200 and the Artist 100 shows that despite what she sang in 2009, @kellyclarkson is far from being already gone.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbS6PIAH_0y/?taken-by=dremovie__music
You can follow @theknockturnal and @dremovie__music for chart updates on Instagram, including Kelly Clarkson’s achievements
Camila Cabello Takes Us to Havana
Yes, @pink and @kellyclarkson have persevered, and @taylorswift is drowning out everybody else with her new album, but Camila Cabello’s is also having her chart moment. @camila_cabello was born in Cuba in 1997 and spent her childhood living in Havana, Mexico City, and Miami. Her breakthrough came after auditioning for The X Factor and being paired with other female contestants to form the pop group Fifth Harmony. Cabello quickly emerged as the star in the group, making a Zayn move by going solo in early 2016 and quickly achieving a hit with a Shawn Mendes duet “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” By summer 2017 Cabello was opening for Bruno Mars on tour and this week she achieves a solo peak on the Hot 100, surging to #2 with “Havana,” a sizzling collaboration with Young Thug that follows this year’s Caribbean hits such as Luis Fonsi‘s “Despacito” and the Santana-sampling “Wild Thoughts” by DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller. The single precedes Cabello’s debut album The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving., which promises to heat up the charts this winter. Depending on how much staying power @postmalone and @21savage have, “Havana” may even take #1 on the Hot 100, it would be the first time Cabello’s hometown is in the title of a #1 song in the U.S. Check out the music video for “Havana” below and go to Scoreboard every week to find out who’s on top of the charts.
