Shawn Mendes Tops Pollstar Elite 100, A$AP Rocky Racks Up Streams

AP Photo / Leo Correa – Shawn Mendes
Shawn Mendes performs during Rock In Rio at Rock City in Rio de Janeiro Sept. 16.

A number of shakeups have hit the Elite 100 Artists chart for the week ending May 31, starting with the No. 1 position, which is now occupied by Shawn Mendes.

Shawn hit the top slot on the strength of his eponymous album, which helped him log 77,000 album sales, 76,800 song sales and 31.3 million on demand streams, for a grand total of 105,500 album units.

Mendes is locked in to play 95.8 Capital FM Summertime Ball in London on June 9, followed by a run of festivals in North America, Europe and Japan. He also has headline dates booked into August of 2019. In case you were wondering, Shawn Mendes has become quite a big deal.

At No. 2 this week was A$AP Rocky, who shot up the chart thanks to his new album, Testing, released May 25. The artist, one of the foremost figures of the A$AP Mob, had the second-most streams of the week, with 57.8 million, behind only Drake (No. 4), who logged 59.8 million.

Behind Drizzy was rapper Pusha T, who engaged the OVO leader with a track on his recent album Daytona, and after a response from Drake, fired another explosive diss. Pusha is a longtime figure in hip-hop, but few would argue that a legitimate feud with one of the most successful artists in the game has done wonders for his streaming numbers. For the week in question he logged 32.1 million streams.

Pusha T recently performed at Governors Ball festival in New York, signing on at the last minute to fill the spot vacated by Brockhampton. Pollstar had the chance to speak with Founders Entertainment’s Jordan Wolowitz, who spoke on the story of how Pusha T got the slot, giving full credit to his agent Cara Lewis.

Other artists climbing the Elite 100 include Lil Baby, whose collaboration with Drake thrust him into the spotlight, and who released the Harder Than Ever album May 18. Lil Baby sits at No. 7 on the Elite 100 this week, between J. Cole and Imagine Dragons. His strongest metric is streams, with 29.8 million, though he did also sell 4,500 songs.

Other notable entries on the chart are: BTS at No. 13; Chvrches at No. 17; Five Finger Death Punch at No. 25; Nav at No. 29;  and Snow Patrol at No. 54.

Next week look on the charts for Kanye West, Father John Misty, Roger Daltrey, Black Thought, Neko Case, and Ghost, all of whom have new projects available for listening now.

Also, be ready for forthcoming projects from Kanye West & Kid Cudi, Dierks Bentley, Dave Matthews Band, Jorja Smith, The Get Up Kids, Freeway, and Wifisfuneral.