Colter Wall hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart (dated July 29), thanks to the arrival of his fourth studio album, Little Songs.
The set, released July 14 via La Honda/RCA Records, debuts at No. 4 on Americana/Folk Albums, No. 17 on Top Country Albums and No. 75 on the Billboard 200 with 12,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, according to Luminate. It also starts at No. 8 on Vinyl Albums (5,000 sold on vinyl) and No. 9 on Top Album Sales (8,000 in total album sales).
Little Songs is Wall’s third, and highest-charting, album to hit the Billboard 200, following 2018’s Songs of the Plains (No. 180 peak) and 2020’s Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs (No. 103).
Wall is the fourth country act to top the Emerging Artists chart this year, following Jelly Roll (who led for nine weeks in 2023, among 28 total weeks on top), Nate Smith (one week in May) and Megan Moroney (four weeks in May-June).
Rounding out the top five on Emerging Artists, NewJeans dip 1-2, C418 jumps 8-3, Kaliii falls 2-4 and Coco Jones rises 7-5.
Just outside the Emerging Artists top five, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real re-enter at No. 9, ranking on the chart for the first time since 2021, thanks to the band’s new album, Sticks and Stones. The set, released July 14 on 6ACE/Thirty Tigers, debuts at No. 37 on Top Album Sales with 3,000 copies sold.
The top debut on the Emerging Artists chart this week belongs to JT, at No. 24. The former City Girls member bows thanks to her new solo single “No Bars,” released via Quality Control/Motown/Capitol Records. The track debuts at No. 38 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
City Girls spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists chart in 2019-20. That’s the fourth-longest reign since the list launched in 2017, after Jelly Roll (28 weeks), NLE Choppa (24) and Lauv (14).
The Emerging Artists chart ranks the most popular developing artists of the week, using the same formula as the all-encompassing Billboard Artist 100, which measures artist activity across multiple Billboard charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200. (The Artist 100 lists the most popular acts, overall, each week.) However, the Emerging Artists 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.
