As this point, it would probably be easier to list the charts on which The Weeknd isn’t No. 1.
As The Weeknd is the top musical act in the U.S. again, logging a sixth cumulative week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Sept. 26), he tops the list thanks to his domination on the Billboard Hot 100, with his smash single “Can’t Feel My Face,” and the Billboard 200 with his album Beauty Behind the Madness. Dating to the Artist 100’s July 2014 launch, The Weeknd is the first solo male to top the Artist 100, Hot 100 and Billboard 200 in the same week.
Only one act had previously scored such a hat trick (a fitting term, by the way, since The Weeknd is from Canada): Taylor Swift, for seven weeks in December 2014-January 2015, with her album 1989 and singles “Shake It Off” (two weeks) and “Blank Space” (five).
Swift, meanwhile, rises 3-2 on the Artist 100. With Swift having led the chart for 31 total weeks and The Weeknd, now six, they boast the longest two reigns over the survey’s first 14 months.
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across Billboard‘s most influential charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, Top Album Sales and the Social 50. The Artist 100 blends data measuring album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
The Weeknd remains atop the Artist 100 with streaming activity (30 percent) just outpacing album sales (29 percent) for his greatest points contributor. Digital song sales (22 percent) and radio airplay (16 percent) follow.
(Since the Artist 100 is so relatively young, it’s worth musing about The Weeknd’s place in deeper history. Had the chart existed long before last year, male superstars including Eminem in 2010, Justin Timberlake in 2006, Usher in 2004, Nelly in 2002 and, of course, Michael Jackson, in various periods in the ’80s and ’90s, surely would’ve tripled up at No. 1 as top artist and for top song and album, since each of those acts led the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 simultaneously for multiple weeks.)
Below The Weeknd and Swift on the Artist 100, hard rock band Five Finger Death Punch debuts at No. 3, driven by its album Got Your Six, which launches at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with 114,000 sold, according to Nielsen Music. Justin Bieber drops from his No. 2 peak to No. 4, with his digital song sales down by 51 percent, as his “What Do You Mean?” slides by 53 percent to 159,000 sold in its second week, while Drake (5-5) rounds out the Artist 100’s top five.
