On this week’s Scoreboard: Kesha is back and takes #1; Cardi B’s single climbs the charts
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated September 2, 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 | Kesha | 1 | 1 | 22: Praying |
| 2 | Bruno Mars | 10 | 2 | 8: That’s What I Like |
| 3 | Ed Sheeran | 6 | 2 | 9: Shape Of You |
| 4 | Imagine Dragons | 9 | 2 | 5: Believer |
| 5 | Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 4 | 17: Humble |
| 6 | DJ Khaled | 3 | 2 | 2: Wild Thoughts |
| 7 | Shawn Mendes | 25 | 1 | 7: There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back |
| 8 | Justin Bieber | 110 | 3 | 1: Despacito (Remix) |
| 9 | Charlie Puth | 156 | 1 | 6: Attention |
| 10 | Sam Hunt | 41 | 1 | 10: Body Like A Back Road |
The summer of 2017 is one for record-setting runs on the Billboard charts. Last week Scoreboard unpacked the success of Sam Hunt‘s “Body Like A Back Road,” which extends its record to 28 weeks at #1 on Hot Country Songs this week. “Despacito (Remix),” by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber, this week earns its 29th week at #1 on the Hot Latin Songs charts and its 15th week on top of the Hot 100, becoming only the second song in nearly 60 years of the Hot 100 to reach 15 weeks on top. At least there is some disruption on top of the Billboard 200 and the Artist 100, where Kesha is back at #1 with comeback album Rainbow. Kesha’s return also puts an end to the all-male Artist top 10 seen on last week’s chart.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have the impossible-to-resist summer jam of 2017
Kesha Finds Her Rainbow
Kesha’s career took off with Billboard’s #1 hit of 2010, “Tik Tok,” but the hits abruptly stopped after 2013’s “Timber,” a #1 for Pitbull on which Kesha owned the chorus. Over the last three years, Kesha has been embroiled in a series of lawsuits against her producer Dr. Luke. Most of Kesha’s allegations have been dismissed and she still has to record for Dr. Luke’s label, though he is conspicuously absent as a producer on the new album. On the comeback single “Praying” Kesha moves beyond the legal battle, having learned how to “fight for myself.”
Free from Dr. Luke’s control Kesha flourishes on the new album. She turns up the cursing, but does not come off as offensive. Instead she is irreverent, loose, and fun. She drops the F bomb joyfully throughout “Woman,” something that is hard to envision any other pop star doing successfully today. Kesha 2.0 runs through pop, country, and rock, with a novelty song thrown in as a bonus. The country side of Kesha especially comes out on “Old Flames (Can’t Hold A Candle To You),” a duet with Dolly Parton, which was written by Kesha’s mother Pepe Sibert in 1978. The retro cover demonstrates that Kesha’s comeback is on her own terms. With Rainbow coming in at #1, the comeback is also a vindication for Kesha as an artist who has escaped Dr. Luke’s shadow.
Kesha gets to see the eclipse and to see herself back at #1 on the charts this week
Cardi B Makes Moves
Yes, “Despacito (Remix)” has been on top for 15 weeks on the Hot 100, but that does not mean that the singles chart has been inactive. One newcomer to the Hot 100’s top 10 is Belcalis Almanzar, better known as Cardi B, who this week makes it to #3 with single “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves).” @iamcardib first attracted social media attention when she worked as a stripper, but today she is a model and television personality, having starred on VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop: New York. Her rap career started less than two years ago. After releasing two mixtapes @iamcardib signed a major label deal with Atlantic Records and today she has the loudest new voice in hip-hop. “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” is unmistakably New York, where Cardi B grew up (specifically in the Bronx and in Washington Heights). Check out the official music video for the hit below, in which @iamcardib shows that she has arrived not only as a social media star, but also as a genuine rapper:
