Getty Images; Design by Nathan Arizona
They may be young, but they’re dominating streaming and driving the conversation, hitting 1 billion streams (Billie Eilish), reinvigorating indie rock (Snail Mail) and hooking Kanye up with his biggest hit in ages (Lil Pump).
METHODOLOGY: A committee of Billboard editors and reporters weighed a variety of factors in determining the 2018 21 Under 21 list, including but not limited to impact on consumer behavior, as measured by such metrics as album sales, track sales, streaming volume, social media impressions, and radio and TV audiences reached; company growth; career trajectory; reputation among peers; and overall impact in the industry specifically during the past 12 months. Where required, record-label market share was consulted using Nielsen Music market share for album plus track-equivalent and stream-equivalent album consumption units. Unless otherwise noted, Billboard Boxscore and Nielsen Music are the sources for tour grosses and sales/streaming data, respectively.
Contributors: Kat Bein, Tatiana Cirisano, Leila Cobo, Bianca Gracie, Lyndsey Havens, Tamar Herman, Steven J. Horowitz, Carl Lamarre, Taylor Weatherby.
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21 Under 21 2018: Music’s Next Generation
Image Credit: Getty Images; Design by Nathan Arizona They may be young, but they’re dominating streaming and driving the conversation, hitting 1 billion streams (Billie Eilish), reinvigorating indie rock (Snail Mail) and hooking Kanye up with his biggest hit in ages (Lil Pump).
METHODOLOGY: A committee of Billboard editors and reporters weighed a variety of factors in determining the 2018 21 Under 21 list, including but not limited to impact on consumer behavior, as measured by such metrics as album sales, track sales, streaming volume, social media impressions, and radio and TV audiences reached; company growth; career trajectory; reputation among peers; and overall impact in the industry specifically during the past 12 months. Where required, record-label market share was consulted using Nielsen Music market share for album plus track-equivalent and stream-equivalent album consumption units. Unless otherwise noted, Billboard Boxscore and Nielsen Music are the sources for tour grosses and sales/streaming data, respectively.
Contributors: Kat Bein, Tatiana Cirisano, Leila Cobo, Bianca Gracie, Lyndsey Havens, Tamar Herman, Steven J. Horowitz, Carl Lamarre, Taylor Weatherby.
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Shawn Mendes
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave Total streams: 3.91 billion
In 2018, the arena headliner notched his third consecutive No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his self-titled album (and scored his best first-week sales to date with 182,000 units), making him the third-youngest solo artist to debut three albums at the top of the chart (behind Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus). He also became the first artist to land four No. 1s on the Adult Top 40 tally before turning 20 with “In My Blood,” marking his 11th Billboard Hot 100 hit.
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Image Credit: Austin Hargrave Total streams: 3.27 billion
Khalid, 20, earned his 14th Hot 100 hit and second top 10 this year with the Normani-assisted "Love Lies,” peaking at No. 9. He only dropped his debut album, American Teen, in 2017, but already the R&B star has become one of music’s hottest commodities as a collaborator, releasing songs with 21 Under 21 peers like Shawn Mendes and Billie Eilish. Outside of music, he’s become a brand ambassador as well, working with Forever 21 and Hollister and partnering with Champion for a line of exclusive merch. “I do get tired,” the El Paso, Tex. native admits, “but I always want to give my best.”
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3. Lil Pump, 18
Image Credit: Brad Ogbonna Total streams: 2.4 billion
He’s got a gleefully outrageous top 10 hit with Kanye West, a new album and tour on the way and — with a jail stint behind him — seemingly nothing to hold him back. But can Lil Pump overcome his own proclivity for chaos?
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4. Billie Eilish, 16
Image Credit: Yuri Hasegawa Total streams: 1 billion
When Billie Eilish hit her preteens, “My 11-year-old brain was so sad and I didn't know how to deal with it,” she says. Taking cues from her musician older brother and songwriting mother, the Los Angeles native turned to music to vent her youthful frustrations, and by 13, she’d released her explosive debut single “Ocean Eyes,” a coming-of-age realization of the power someone can hold on you. As she lives out those adolescent epiphanies in real-time, the reaction has been substantial: Last year’s don’t smile at me EP peaked at No. 3 on Alternative Albums, and “lovely,” her meditative duet with Khalid, hit No. 78 on the Hot 100. Next, she’s trying to capture the energy of her live shows — she headlined a sold-out U.S. tour of clubs last October — on her debut full-length, out in 2019.
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5. Juice WRLD, 19
Image Credit: Cara Robbins Total streams: 1.82 billion
The Chicago MC exploded onto the scene in 2018 with the Sting-sampling “Lucid Dreams,” a singsong reflection on the wreckage of a breakup that hit the top 10 of the Mainstream Top 40 chart. That sort of honesty and genre-traipsing has made Juice (real name Jarad Higgins) one of emo hip-hop’s hottest commodities. His debut album, Goodbye & Good Riddance, which he released in May, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and he has been busy collaborating in the studio with artists including Diplo, Ski Mask the Slump God and Lil Yachty.
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6. Bhad Bhabie, 15
Image Credit: Joel Barhamand Total streams: 528.2 million
Rising to viral fame as the “Cash Me Outside” girl after appearing on Dr. Phil in 2016, Danielle Bregoli rebranded in 2017 as Bhad Bhabie. Unlike most of the polished young stars on this list, the hyperconfident Florida rapper stokes feuds and brushes off haters on social media. (She has 15.4 million Instagram followers.) Her pugnacious persona is the driving force behind 2017 Hot 100-charting singles “Hi Bich” and “These Heaux,” both found on her September debut mixtape, 15. Next, she’ll hit the road with Lil Yachty, who features on her new hit, “Gucci Flip Flops.”
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7. Daya, 19
Image Credit: Joel Barhamand Total streams: 681.8 million
In 2016, Daya’s pop-leaning debut single, “Hide Away,” and follow-up hit “Sit Still, Look Pretty” both cracked the top 10 of Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart, while her Chainsmokers collab, “Don’t Let Me Down,” hit No. 3 on the Hot 100 and earned the singer, now 19, her first Grammy. But while she has got as much right as any young pop artist in music to rest on her laurels, she insists, “I don’t ever want to get too comfortable.” The Pennsylvania native is trying on new genres — she’d love to work with Anderson .Paak — and making sure her music has a message. Recent downtempo single “Safe” launched with the #Safeis campaign, encouraging fans to use the hashtag on social media and share what makes them feel comfortable.
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Sabrina Carpenter
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave Total streams: 513.9 million
“I’ve felt like the past year [equaled] five years of growth,” says the Pennsylvania native, who spent much of her teens starring on the Disney Channel, and, in that time, also released two albums. (Her second, EVOLution, debuted at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 in 2016.) Now, she’s charting post-Mouse House stardom with a seamless transition into slick dance-pop for grown-ups, like her Dance Club Songs chart-topper “Alien” with Jonas Blue and sultry new single “Almost Love.” Carpenter will release her “confident and empowered” third project, Singular, this winter, but hasn’t left acting behind: She appears in the socially conscious YA adaptation The Hate U Give, opening wide Oct. 19.
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Jaden Smith of ‘Skate Kitchen’
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave Total streams: 422.7 million
After getting his start as an actor in the late 2000s, Smith has let his freak flag fly as one of rap’s more eccentric personalities. In 2017, he dropped his futuristic debut, Syre, reaching No. 24 on the Billboard 200, and gave it an unlikely rehash with the July EP Syre: The Electronic Album. In November 2017, the MC released the Nicky Jam-assisted “Icon,” peaking at No. 46 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and landing a remix featuring his father, Will Smith. His next album arrives Nov. 17.
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10. Why Don’t We, 17-20
Image Credit: Zack Caspary Total streams: 462.8 million
Since signing to Atlantic Records in August 2017, the quintet has released a five-song EP, a holiday-themed EP, one-off single “These Girls” and debut album 8 Letters, which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 9 in September. That more-is-more approach, inspired by R&B/hip-hop artists who release music at a rapid-fire pace, helps cater to the attention spans of a social media-driven world: “Content is king,” says member Corbyn Besson. The group’s persistence led to an international tour that took up half of its 2018 schedule. All that work may be typical for a boy band, but the act’s stage show differs: “We’re definitely not the dancing group,” says Besson. “We’re just trying to be us.”
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CNCO
Image Credit: Rose Marie Cromwell Total streams: 630.9 million
Since forming in 2015, the Latin boy band has become the modern-day answer to Menudo, selling out venues worldwide and getting pointers from mentor (and Menudo alum) Ricky Martin. For the quintet — hailing from Ecuador, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the United States — representing Latin youth by pushing the genre into the mainstream is top priority. So far, the group has found success with 2016 debut Primera Cita and this year’s CNCO, which both hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, while the act’s collaboration with Little Mix, “Reggaetón Lento (Bailemos),” reached No. 35 on the Mainstream Top 40 tally in January.
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Noah Cyrus
Image Credit: Ramona Rosales Total streams: 401 million
In September, Cyrus broke new ground with her Good Cry EP. “Enough of this sugarcoating shit,” she says of the project, which followed her high-profile breakup with boyfriend and “Live or Die” collaborator Lil Xan. (She also teamed up on tracks with MØ, Gallant and MAX in 2018.) “Social media [trolls] had a lot to do with why my self-esteem was so low for so long,” says Miley’s little sister, whose fans, called Cyrens, include 4.5 million Instagram followers. “I’ve gotten stronger — I’m finally doing what’s making me happy.”
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13. Grace VanderWaal, 14
Image Credit: Justin Bettman Total streams: 248.8 million
VanderWaal — who won America’s Got Talent in 2016 at age 12 — once feared she would be remembered as “the girl with the ukulele.” But in the last year alone, the Kansas native released her plucky uptempo debut (2017’s Just the Beginning), sold out her first headlining tour of 1,000-capacity venues and three months later landed an opening slot on Imagine Dragons’ arena trek. Next up, she’s embracing her beginnings by launching her own line of ukuleles with Fender — as the guitar brand’s youngest collaborator — and starring in her first movie, Disney’s Stargirl, set for release in 2019. Now, she’s less concerned with being pigeonholed by her reality show pedigree: “I feel like I really understand my generation,” she says, “and people can hear that.”
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PRETTYMUCH
Image Credit: Eric Michael Roy Total streams: 90.4 million
Found by Simon Cowell in 2016, this quintet has stuck to the boy band basics: singing harmonies and hitting slick choreography. But it’s the group’s sound — an amalgamation of pop, R&B and old-school hip-hop — that sets the act apart. “We’re trying to find that middle lane of what America is residing on right now,” says member Edwin Honoret. That has been a hallmark of the collective’s spate of singles (including the Ed Sheeran-penned “Summer on You” and Latin-flavored “Solita” featuring Rich the Kid) that culminated in debut release PrettyMuch an EP in April, as well as a performance at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards.
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Whethan
Image Credit: Aaron Richter Total streams: 83.7 million
The 19-year-old DJ born Ethan Snoreck has landed collaborations with Charli XCX and Dua Lipa (“High” hit No. 12 on Dance/Electronic Songs) and played Coachella this summer. That’s in part due to his sophisticated sound, which is sizable enough for radio while deviating from standard dance-pop structure. Even with his résumé, he says that he gets strange looks from bouncers when he goes to a gig. “I look like I’m 12 years old,” says Whethan, currently on a 29-date North American tour in support of his upcoming Life of a Wallflower Vol. 1 EP. “But age is just a number. Good music and cool ideas can come out of any person.”
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16. Mason Ramsey, 11
Image Credit: Nick Swift Total streams: 60.2 million
Ramsey is not yet a teen, but he is a viral veteran. He quickly became a household name in April when a videoclip of him singing Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” while shopping introduced him to the internet as “Walmart Yodeling Boy.” “People say that I’m an artist [now],” says Ramsey. “Some people like me, and some people don’t.” That hasn’t slowed him. After the video racked up a combined 77 million views on Twitter and YouTube, the Golconda, Ill., native performed at Coachella and checked the Grand Ole Opry off his bucket list — twice. He is now signed to Atlantic Records/Big Loud, and debut single “Famous” shot to No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
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Christian Nodal
Image Credit: Sami Drasin Total streams: 513.7 million
“I’m a regional guy who’s proud of his flag,” says Mexican music’s most promising heartthrob. The 19-year-old, who performs contemporary mariachi, realized early on that to break out, he would have to be accessible through social media — he posted videos on YouTube of himself singing for three years prior to signing with Universal Music Latin in January 2017. Following his debut that same year, Me Deje Llevar, which peaked at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums and No. 69 on the Billboard 200, Nodal secured four No. 1s on the Regional Mexican Songs list. Now, he says, “I’d like to produce and write more music,” and has already written 12 out of the 14 songs on his upcoming sophomore album.
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Willow Smith
Image Credit: Nate Hoffman Total streams: 250.3 million
As Smith settled into her mid-teens, she explored spirituality in her music, most notably on her 2017 experimental, neo soul-inspired second album, The 1st. It marked a departure from the pre-teen pop star behind the 2010 hit “Whip My Hair,” which peaked at No. 11 on the Hot 100. After she dropped the project, she contributed vocals to brother Jaden’s inventive 2017 LP, Syre, and set out on a fall tour with fellow genre-breaker Jhené Aiko. She’s now recording new music with her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith.
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Madison Beer
Image Credit: Austin Hargrave Total streams: 191.5 million
After Justin Bieber tweeted the former YouTube star’s soulful cover of the Etta James classic “At Last” in 2012, he personally helped Beer sign to Island Records and with his manager, Scooter Braun. But after dealing with others in the industry, Beer soon realized that she’s the only person she can count on: “It’s important that I’ve learned to see through people’s bullshit, frankly,” explains the Long Island singer-songwriter, who has been independent since 2016. In February, she released her pop-R&B debut EP, As She Pleases, spawning singles “Dead” and “Home With You” (which earned a combined 173 million Spotify listens), and in September, Beer made her late-night debut on The Late Late Show With James Corden. “I’m the reason that I have this,” she says. “I persevered.”
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20. NCT Dream, 16-19
Image Credit: Courtesy of SM Entertainment Total streams: 36.7 million
Since forming in 2016, the seven-member boy band NCT Dream has made waves in the K-pop world with its retro hip-hop and funk-infused take on dance-pop. One of three subgroups of modular boy band NCT (the units often share members), NCT Dream’s debut track, “Chewing Gum,” landed the collective at No. 2 on the World Digital Song Sales chart — the first of five singles on the tally. Soon, NCT Dream’s lineup will change, according to a self-imposed rule: Members will age out of the boy band when they reach 19, the official age of adulthood in South Korea. It’s unclear whether new members will be added now that the first of the original lineup is departing, but the act is only growing stronger: In September, NCT Dream peaked at No. 4 on the Social 50, the highest rank for any NCT unit at the time.
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21. Snail Mail, 19
Image Credit: Michael Lavine Total streams: 17.3 million
As Snail Mail, Baltimore-area native Lindsey Jordan, 19, channels the coming-of-age intimacy of ’90s Liz Phair through indie-rock confessionals. Her debut, Lush, hit No. 20 on Billboard’s Alternative Albums chart, etching a spot as the youngest in a new class of guitarist singer-songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Her edge? No one can convey the whirlwind of being a teen like a teen.
Read Snail Mail's exclusive Billboard interview here.
21 Under 21 2017: See who made last year's ranking here.
This article originally appeared in the Oct. 13 issue of Billboard.