Khalid Takes Elite 100 Crown; Lil Nas X Hits No. 4

Taylor Hill / Getty Images – Khalid,
who is speaking at Pollstar Live!, performs during the Y100 Jingle Ball at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., Dec. 16.

This week’s Pollstar cover subject, Khalid, has reached the summit of the Elite 100 mountain for the week ending April 11.

The singer released his new album, Free Spirit, April 5 and logged a total of 195.6 million on-demand streams for the week. He led the chart in that category and in album sales, with 90,300 for the week.

Speaking about the astronomical rate at which Khalid has taken off, his manager Courtney Stewart told Pollstar: “I’m not going to lie and say that I knew that things would happen the way they happened. I did have the faith that he would be at this level one day. But it takes artists years and multiple albums to get to where Khalid has gotten to, so it has really been a blessing. I’m grateful to be on this journey with him.”

The singer performs at Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival this weekend in Indio, Calif. After that, he has arena headline dates, starting June 20 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. He will also be playing Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tenn., and Hangout Beach Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., this year.

Billie Eilish, last week’s leader, came in at No. 2, with 138,300 total album units for the week. She was particularly strong in song sales (63,700) and streams (178 million), just behind Khalid in both categories. She is still riding high on the release of her album, When We Sleep, Where Do We Go, and logged 20,000 album sales on the week, and just had a very high-profile set at Coachella, with some major fellow artists taking notice.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>. <a href=”https://twitter.com/billieeilish?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@billieeilish</a> I’m seeing these live clips and you’re killin! A vibe like that at 17? sheesh</p>— Bruno Mars (@BrunoMars) <a href=”https://twitter.com/BrunoMars/status/1117489674694479872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 14, 2019</a></blockquote>

Nipsey Hussle’s music is still surging after his tragic death, and his funeral was held April 11 in Los Angeles.

Lil Nas X’s hit song “Old Town Road” propelled him to the No. 4 position on the chart with a remarkable 132,800 song sales on the week, the chart leader in that category for the week. He also logged 89.1 million on-demand streams, which is particularly impressive, as he only has three songs available on Apple Music and Spotify.

Sara Bareilles also made noise on the chart after the release of her latest album, Amidst the Chaos. Her best metric was 29,600 album sales, second only to Khalid in that category on the week. She came in at No. 26 overall, with 40,900 total album units.

Korean girl group Blackpink released an EP, Kill This Love, with five tracks. The band logged 6,200 album sales, 22,300 song sales and 20 million on demand streams for the week, getting it the No. 41 position for the week.

Brooks & Dunn came in at No. 48, with its strongest metric being 29,300 song sales for the week. The band also released a new album April 5, Reboot.

Blake Shelton’s new track, “God’s Country” continues to perform, as he sold 40,000 songs for the week, good enough to get him to the No. 80.

Next week’s chart will include data for releases 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.

Also be on the lookout for new projects this week from Wiz Khalifa, Cage the Elephant, Lizzo, Tech N9ne, The O’Jays, and Aaron Lewis.