Billie Eilish Reigns, Nipsey Hussle Remembered On Elite 100

JB Lacroix / Getty Images – Billie Eilish
Paradigm agent Tom Windish points to client Billie Eilish, pictured performing at Apple’s holiday campaign launch party Nov. 20 in Santa Monica, as an example of an artist who could play larger venues but is not skipping steps in artist development.

Teenage electropop princess Billie Eilish has arrived in a big way, taking the top spot on this week’s Elite 100 Artists chart.

Eilish logged 236 million on-demand streams for the week ending April 4, leading the chart in that category, after the March 29 release of her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Eilish also logged 173,300 album sales and 95,000 song sales, for a total of 379,700 album units.

Recently the subject of a Pollstar cover feature, the 17-year-old Eilish is already establishing herself as a live performer, having just been booked as a headliner for Diplo’s Mad Decent Festival at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

“Anyone that’s seen a Billie show knows she has opened the door on mental health,” Paradigm’s Sara Bollwinkel told Pollstar. “She will ask fans at every show, ‘Who here hates themselves?’ It kind of freaks out the adults out in the room, but there’s all this applause and cheering and then she launches into ‘I’m here because of you guys, I’m here because you saved me.’”

After his untimely death, the music of Nipsey Hussle surged in popularity, logging 130,100 album units on the week. His best metric was streams, with 101 million on demand streams on the week, alongside 59,700 song sales and 24,600 album sales.

Hussle famously owned his own masters, so the sale of that music will likely directly benefit his heirs.

The artist’s commitment to re-investing into his native community of Crenshaw in Los Angeles inspired countless admirers. A suspect in his shooting has been arrested.

Another notable climb on the chart came from George Strait, whose latest album, Honky Tonk Time Machine, dropped March 29. The country icon moved 55,300 album units on the week, largely thanks to his 31,300 album sales. He led the chart in that category for the week.

Strait’s influence in country music can’t really be overstated, as the genre’s powerhouse promoter Louis Messina traces a direct path to Strait with much of what he does, including Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney.

Strait recently set a new attendance record at NRG Stadium for the closing show of Houston Live Show and Rodeo.

Other Elite 100 newcomers/re-entries include Yelawolf at No. 59; I Prevail at No. 69; and Ben Platt at No. 72.

Next week’s chart will include data for releases from Khalid, Reba McEntire, Sara Bareilles, Brooks & Dunn, Idlewild, Jai Wolf, Amanda Cook, Don Felder, Priests, and PUP.

Also, be on the lookout this week for new projects from BTS, Melissa Etheridge, Anderson .Paak, Damien Jurado, The Chemical Brothers, Pete Rock, Shovels and Rope, Broken Social Scene, Aaron Lewis, Bruce Hornsby, and Riff Raff.