Australian neo-soul group Hiatus Kaiyote debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart (dated July 10), becoming the top emerging act in the U.S. for the first time, thanks to the act’s third LP, Mood Valiant.
The set arrives at No. 8 on Alternative Albums, No. 12 on Top R&B Albums and No. 103 on the Billboard 200 with 9,500 equivalent album units earned, according to MRC Data. It’s the group’s second appearance on the Billboard 200, following 2015’s Choose Your Weapon, which reached No. 127.
Hiatus Kaiyote is just the second group to rule the Emerging Artists chart this year, after Black Pumas for a week in March.
Lucy Dacus debuts at No. 2 on Emerging Artists on the strength of her third studio LP, Home Video. The set opens at No. 3 on Americana/Folk Albums, No. 9 on Alternative Albums and No. 104 on the Billboard 200, marking her first entry on the lattermost list, with 9,500 units.
“Brando,” the fourth single from Home Video, rises 34-29 on the Adult Alternative Airplay. The set’s previous single, “Hot & Heavy,” hit No. 24 in June.
Dacus, from Virginia, previously appeared on the Emerging Artists chart in another iteration. She reached No. 28 in 2018 as a member of Boygenius, with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. (Bridgers ranks at No. 26 on the latest chart.)
This week marks the first in which two acts have debuted at Nos. 1 and 2 on Emerging Artists simultaneously, dating to the chart’s inception in 2017.
Meanwhile, The Marias debut at No. 8 on Emerging Artists as their third LP Cinema opens at No. 22 on Alternative Albums and No. 176 on the Billboard 200 (7,200 units), and Faye Webster enters at No. 9 as her I Know I’m Funny Haha starts at No. 10 on Americana/Folk Albums (4,700 units).
The Emerging Artists chart measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity. The chart excludes acts that have notched a top 25 entry on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200, as well as artists that have achieved two or more top 10s on Billboard’s “Hot” song genre charts and/or consumption-based “Top” album genre rankings.
