Scoreboard: Khalid’s Arrival

This week Scoreboard starts previewing the Grammys with Khalid

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated December 9, 2017

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

This week on the Billboard charts, Taylor Swift maintains her hold on top of the Artist 100 and the Billboard 200 with her new album Reputation, which in one week became the biggest-selling album of the year. Although @taylorswift withheld the album’s tracks off of streaming services, that came to an end on December 1, when Reputation became available across major streaming platforms. According to Rolling Stone “it’s unclear what the reasoning was behind the pause in Reputation’s streaming availability,” but here on Scoreboard my theory is that Swift needs all the help she can get with the album’s first three singles struggling at #24, #44, and #86 on the Hot 100. It took Swift eight months to make her prior album 1989 available to stream; the three weeks it took for Reputation to become available to stream reflects the power of a business model over an individual artist, and also reflects the lack of traction Reputation’s singles have generated.

Post Malone and 21 Savage keep their hold at #1 of the Hot 100 for the seventh week with “Rockstar“

A Big Week for Country Stars

Compared to other music genres, country music careers last longer and this fall the charts proved it. Shania Twain returned to the top of the Billboard 200 seven weeks ago with Now, her first studio album in 15 years. She spent most of the album basking in happiness, a feeling that probably comes from having the best-selling album of all time by a female artist (1997’s Come On Over). Then three weeks ago we had Kenny Chesney, who had his first Hot 100 hit in 1998, take #1 on the Billboard 200 with Live In No Shoes Nation, a compilation of live cuts from the last decade. Three of the songs on the new album were newer live versions of the same songs that appeared on Chesney’s 2006 Live: Live Those Songs Again. This week we get Garth Brooks at #10 on the Artist 100, helped by the release of The Anthology: Part I, The First Five Years, a five-disc set of rare cuts from 1989 to 1993. The anthology accompanies the release of a Brooks memoir of the same name that is sure to please the die-hard Garth Brooks fan in your family.

While @garthbrooks revisits the past, this week brings a new album of duets from country’s #1 power couple, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. The two have collaborated on many singles over the last two decades, but The Rest Of Our Life is the first joint album released by the husband and wife. It debuts at #2 on the Billboard 200 and its title track comes in at #98 on the Hot 100. Back in 2000 McGraw was on top of the country world. His hit “My Next Thirty Years” was a celebration of his age and his rosy outlook for the future. In one verse he was looking to “raise a little family and hang out with my wife” in his next 30 years. Now, 17 of those 30 years have passed and while McGraw is still a household name, he and @faithhill have to work harder to not become a retro act. On “The Rest Of Our Life” they sing that “even if time takes its toll / we’ll stay young for the rest of our lives,” a statement intended not just for the two of them but for the country fans who grew up with them. The new album demonstrates not only how the next thirty years are not that easy, but also that the McGraw/Hill union has successfully persevered through time and changes in the music industry.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are embarking on the #Soul2Soul tour in 2018

Grammys Preview: Khalid

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, both in the Andy Williams sense and in the fact that the year-end brings “Best Of” lists and Grammy nominations, which came out on November 28th. In the weeks leading up to the awards, Scoreboard will spotlight nominated artists and today we start with the 19-year-old Khalid, who is nominated for five Grammys, including Best New Artist. He arrived on the Hot 100 in January with “Location,” an earnest R&B ballad establishing @thegr8khalid as a mature and distinctive voice that recalls Frank Ocean and another R&B newcomer Bryson Tiller. Khalid grew up in the U.S. and Germany as his mother worked for the U.S. Army, but everything came together for him in El Paso, Texas, where he began writing and recording songs as a high school senior. Khalid uploaded a homemade version of “Location” to SoundCloud in May 2016 and found Kylie Jenner posting it on Snapchat the day of his high school graduation. A record deal with RCA quickly followed. Tunji Balogun, the executive who signed him, also worked with Tiller and described Khalid as a “once-every-20-years kind of artist.”

Khalid’s debut album American Teen came out in March and started at #9 on the Billboard 200 (it’s at #15 on this week’s chart, 37 weeks later). The album showed that there are more sides to Khalid than the romantic of “Location.” The title track serves as the album’s thesis and demonstrates that Khalid can own a high-energy song. The hit “Young, Dumb & Broke” is a more nuanced take on the state of the American Teen, which Khalid mashed up with Imagine Dragons and their “Thunder” at the American Music Awards. And then there’s Khalid’s appearance on Logic‘s suicide prevention track “1-800-273-8255,” which also features Best New Artist competitor Alessia Cara. On that song Khalid delivers the final verse, letting his emotion out on the last line, “I don’t wanna die anymore.” That #3 Hot 100 hit is nominated for Song of the Year. Chances are that Khalid will win something in New York City on January 28th given his five Grammy nominations. Check out the Grammy-nominated video for “1-800-273-8255” below and check Scoreboard every week before the Grammys for more artist highlights.