This week on Scoreboard country singer Thomas Rhett has the new #1 album and we spotlight Sam Smith’s new single
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated September 30, 2016
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 | Thomas Rhett | 1 | 1 | 47: Unforgettable |
| 2 | Taylor Swift | 57 | 2 | 1: Look What You Made Me Do |
| 3 | Imagine Dragons | 13 | 2 | 9: Believer |
| 4 | The National | 2 | – | |
| 5 | Ed Sheeran | 16 | 1 | 16: Shape Of You |
| 6 | Lil Uzi Vert | 4 | 4 | 20: XO Tour Llif3 |
| 7 | Odesza | 3 | – | |
| 8 | Sam Smith | 40 | 1 | 5: Too Good At Goodbyes |
| 9 | Bruno Mars | 23 | 2 | 18: That’s What I Like |
| 10 | Kendrick Lamar | 8 | 2 | 23: Humble |
After Taylor Swift spent two weeks as the #1 Artist in the U.S. there’s a change at the top of the Billboard Artist 100 this week. Country singer Thomas Rhett takes over at the top of that chart while also taking the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 with his third album Life Changes. Nonetheless, Swift is #1 for the third week on the Hot 100 with “Look What You Made Me Do,” which continues to hold off Cardi B and “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” from topping that chart.
Indie rock veterans The National have the week’s #2 album with their new release Sleep Well Beast
Thomas Rhett’s Life Changes
Country singer Thomas Rhett dropped out of college at age 20 to pursue a career as a country singer music singer and songwriter. Unlike most other aspiring singers and songwriters in Nashville, Rhett had the benefit of knowing the industry as his father Rhett Akins had a successful country music career in the 1990’s and 2000’s. It also helped that Rhett’s moment came during the explosion of bro country. Rhett not only wrote hits like “Round Here” for Florida Georgia Line, but also had his own flirty country chart-toppers such as “Get Me Some Of That.” His first two albums together generated eight country airplay #1s and with Life Changes he is back for more.
On the new album @thomasrhettakins continues with smooth country-pop that made him famous including the duet “Craving You” with Maren Morris, which became Rhett’s ninth country airplay #1 this summer. Second single off the album, “Unforgettable,” has nothing to do with French Montana or Swae Lee, but name checks a “mango-rita” and a Coldplay song, which should give it enough runway on country radio to become Rhett’s tenth #1. Yet @thomasrhettakins has experienced life changes: he is married and a father of two children now. While he can still “Drink A Little Beer,” he also sings about sipping wine with his wife on “Sixteen,” an updated take on Tim McGraw‘s “My Next Thirty Years.” In spite of life changes, “Sixteen” shows that @thomasrhettakins and his family will be alright.
#1 and #9 artists on this week’s Artist 100 hanging out
Sam Smith’s Comeback
Sam Smith had his American breakthrough in 2014, winning four Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, and finishing as Billboard’s #13 artist of the year. Since then Smith also picked up an Academy Award (for “Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre) and has stayed busy working on his upcoming second album. This week his comeback single “Too Good At Goodbyes” starts at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the single we get the melodic melancholy that made Smith famous, with a choir backing him up on the chorus. Because he is a good at goodbyes, @samsmithworld escapes a bad romance, and that worked in his native Britain where the single went to #1 upon release. Check out the video for the single below and visit Scoreboard every week to see if Smith can take #1 on the Hot 100.