Idles Debut at No. 1 on Emerging Artists Chart

British rock group Idles debuts at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart (dated Oct. 10) to become the top emerging act in the U.S. for the first time, thanks to the band’s third LP Ultra Mono.

The new set, released via Partisan Records/Knitting Factory, enters at No. 6 on Top Rock Albums and No. 7 on Alternative Albums with 13,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. It also begins as the band’s first entry on the Billboard 200 at No. 54.

The group previously posted three entries on the Heatseekers Albums chart, in 2018-19: second LP Joy as an Act of Resistance (No. 4); EP Meat/Meta (No. 24); and A Beautiful Thing: Idles Live at le Bataclan (No. 17).

Idles is the second act to debut at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists chart in 2020, following country up-and-comer Andrew Jannakos two weeks ago. Three artists opened at No. 1 in all of 2019: Tomorrow X Together, Foals and Knocked Loose.

Among other Emerging Artists chart moves, Sarahbeth Taite makes her Billboard chart debut this week, arriving at No. 29 on the strength of her single “Long Way.” The track debuts at No. 4 on Country Digital Song Sales (with 6,000 downloads sold), No. 16 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart and No. 47 on the multi-metric Hot Country Songs ranking. Like Jannakos, noted above, Taite first gained traction for her song on TikTok.

Plus, BRS Kash opens at No. 38 on Emerging Artists thanks to his single “Throat Baby (Go Baby).” The song tallied 3.7 million U.S. streams (up 5%) in the tracking week and also starts at No. 43 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (2.9 million radio audience impressions, up 20%). BRS Kash inked a deal with LVRN and Interscope Records in August.

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, Billboard 200 and the Social 50. (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.

Photo: Tom Ham / Idles

Source: billboard.com