Here’s Every Top New Artist of the Year Since 1977

Billboard’s yearly Top New Artists chart is, naturally, comparable to the Grammy Awards’ best new artist trophy. Perhaps surprisingly, in the nearly half-century that both honors have existed, they’ve aligned only seven times (going by year-end Billboard charts and Grammys awarded the following year). The first four double-ups occurred in a five-year span in the early 1980s: Christopher Cross (1980), Sheena Easton (1981), Culture Club (1983) and Cyndi Lauper (1984). The other three claimed both honors in the last decade-plus: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (2013), Billie Eilish (2019) and Rodrigo (2021).

Eilish led Top New Artists for 2019 as her LP When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? ruled the year-end Billboard 200 Albums recap. The only other acts to wrap at No. 1 on Top New Artists and Billboard 200 Albums simultaneously: Daughtry, with its self-titled set (2007); Spice Girls, with Spice (1997); Ace of Base, with The Sign (1994); and Asia, with its eponymous album (1982).

Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy launched atop the Billboard 200 in April 2018. The set sports her first two Hot 100 No. 1s – “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” for three weeks in October 2017, and “I Like It,” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, for a week in June 2018 – as she became the first female rapper with two leaders.

“I am so grateful for everybody that decided to be on my album because as an artist, I know how busy artists are,” Cardi B said that April. “Everything came out how I wanted it to come out … perfect hooks, perfect verses. It was just like, ‘Jesus loves me, I must have done something right in my life.’ ”

The pair ruled Top New Artists for 2013 as its single “Thrift Shop,” featuring Wanz, topped the year’s Hot 100 Songs chart. The only other newcomers to double-up at No. 1 on Top New Artists and Hot 100 Songs: Kesha, with “TiK ToK” (2010); Lifehouse, with “Hanging by a Moment” (2001); Next, with “Too Close” (1998); Ace of Base, with “The Sign” (1994); and The Knack, with “My Sharona” (1979).

Up All Night became the boy band’s first of four Billboard 200 No. 1s through 2014 and spun off the group’s first Hot 100 hit, the No. 4-peaking “What Makes You Beautiful.”

Lady Gaga’s album The Fame launched her into the spotlight, generating the Hot 100 No. 1s “Just Dance,” featuring Colby O’Donis, for three weeks in January 2009, and “Poker Face,” for a week that April, along with the top 10s “LoveGame” and “Paparazzi,” all of which she co-wrote.

The superstar has since branched out to such genres as jazz and rock and was nominated for the best actress Academy Award for her role in A Star Is Born – whose hit “Shallow,” with Bradley Cooper, won the Oscar for best original song in 2019. She told Billboard for a 2009 cover story, “The mark of a great song is how many genres it can embody. It’s about honesty and connection; look at a song like ‘I Will Always Love You.’ Whitney [Houston] killed it as a pop song, but it works as a country song, a gospel song, everything. If I can play a song acoustic, or just on the piano, and it still works, I know it’s good.”

Stefani translated her success in No Doubt to her debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., which rose to No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in June 2005. The LP’s “Rich Girl,” featuring Eve, reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 that March, while “Hollaback Girl” reigned for four weeks that May.

As with Gwen Stefani becoming a solo star outside of No Doubt, Timberlake soared with his first album, Justified, apart from *NSYNC. The set reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and produced two top five Hot 100 hits: “Cry Me a River” (No. 3 peak, February 2003) and “Rock Your Body” (No. 5, that May).

Spears’ debut album …Baby One More Time bounded in atop the Billboard 200 dated Jan. 30, 1999, beginning a six-week reign, as its title cut started a two-week run at No. 1 on the Hot 100. “I had been in the studio for about six months listening to and recording material, but I hadn’t really heard a hit yet,” Spears told Billboard in 1998. “When I started working with Max Martin in Sweden, he played the demo for ‘…Baby One More Time’ for me, and I knew from the start it was one of those songs you want to hear again and again. It just felt really right. I went into the studio and did my own thing with it, trying to give it a little more attitude than the demo.”

Only two acts have wrapped at No. 1 on both the overall Top Artists chart and the Top New Artists tally simultaneously (aka, MVP and rookie of the year in the same season): Ace of Base, in 1994, and New Kids on the Block, in 1989. The former group was fueled by its album The Sign, and its hit title track, which topped the Hot 100 for six weeks, and the latter by its LP Hangin’ Tough, which yielded the Hot 100 No. 1s “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)” and its title song.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s self-titled debut album debuted on the Billboard 200 in March 1985 and ultimately reigned for 14 weeks. It also produced her first three Hot 100 No. 1s – “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know” and “Greatest Love of All” – as Houston linked a record seven consecutive No. 1 Hot 100 hits through 1988. In the 1985 year-end Billboard issue, critic Brian Chin praised Houston as an “intelligent, serious talent. Bravo, and brava.”