Meet 2019's Chartbreakers: Megan Thee Stallion, Lewis Capaldi & More Each Month
Your monthly introduction to rising artists who are climbing the charts, and ready for a breakout.
Chartbreaker is Billboard's series spotlighting an artist making their introduction to the charts. Last year, notable Chartbreakers included Lil Xan, Ella Mai, King Princess and more -- and 2019 is already following suit. Check back each month to find out who's up next.
Ava Max
Ava Max, born Amanda Ava Koci, remembers sitting in the backseat of her parents’ car on the way to elementary school in Virginia, listening to Mariah Carey on the stereo. Now, the 25 year old rising pop diva has landed a Hot 100 top 10 with her debut single "Sweet But Psycho," performed at the MTV EMAs and closed out 2019 with a gig at the west coast edition of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
Calboy
Born Calvin Woods, Calboy grew up on Chicago’s South Side playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band and listening to Lil Wayne, 2Pac, Michael Jackson, All-American Rejects and local legend Chief Keef. But after watching YouTube videos in middle school to learn how to record and mix music, he started releasing his own material — and took off. His track "Envy Me" hit the Hot 100, he played Rolling Loud Miami and Lollapalooza and come 2020 he'll release a new project on RCA.
Read his full profile here.
Oliver Tree
Oliver Tree rides Razor Scooters, shares memes of himself sitting in a bathtub full of Flaming Hot Cheetos with his near 600 thousand Instagram followers, and releases “behind the scenes” videos that feel like Spinal Tap for the post-Vine generation. His strategy has paid off so far: he's hit the Alternative Songs chart's top five and Rock Airplay's top 10 with breakout hit "Hurt," collaborated with DJ Whethan and is slated to perform at Hangout Fest in 2020.
Read his full profile here.
Megan Thee Stallion
Born Megan Pete, rising rapper Megan Thee Stallion's influences include The Notorious B.I.G., H-town icon Pimp C and her own mother, Holly Thomas, who rapped as Holly-Wood (Thomas died in March). In 2016, Megan Thee Stallion went viral after a cypher of her freestyling over Drake’s “4pm in Calabasas” hit social media. But in 2019, Megan exploded. She landed three Hot 100 hits, dominated an entire season with the track "Hot Girl Summer" featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign and closed out the year by being honored with the Powerhouse Award at Billboard Women In Music 2019.
Read her full profile here.
YK Osiris
Growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., YK Osiris admits he was “very shy.” Born Osiris Williams (and named after the Egyptian god), he was nicknamed YK, for “Young King,” by his teacher; it stuck. Even though he has a less-than-royal upbringing, the rising R&B artist found success through music in 2019 with his Hot 100 hit "Worth It."
Read his full profile here.
Lewis Capaldi
The 22-year-old Scotland native had a breakout year: his debut LP, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, dropped in May and nabbed the biggest week for an album in the United Kingdom so far in 2019. The project’s most prominent single, “Someone You Loved,” saw similar success, also hitting No. 1 in the U.K. earlier this year and — eventually — No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Read his full profile here.
Runaway June
A year after writing and recording “Buy My Own Drinks," the empowering track became the Runaway June's first top 20 hit on both the Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts, later hitting No. 88 on the Hot 100. Most recently, the trio was nominated for the Country Radio Seminar 2020 New Faces of Country Music Show.
Read their full profile here.
Blanco Brown
Blanco Brown has collaborated with Pitbull (“Goalie Goalie”) and Fergie (“M.I.L.F. $”), but in 2019 he broke out on his own and coined the term “trailer trap” to describe his country-rap fusion. His breakout hit "The Git Up" hit No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and was later remixed by Ciara, and by the end of 2019 he had released a debut album and performed for the first time at the Ryman Auditorium.
Read his full profile here.
Summer Walker
Following the Drake-assisted remix of her track “Girls Need Love” peaking at No. 37 on the Hot 100 earlier this year, Walker scored her first solo Hot 100 hit with the sultry “Playing Games,” which entered the chart at No. 87. Also this year, she released her acclaimed debut, Over It, which earned the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album by a woman, and hit No. 1 on the R&B Songwriters chart.
Guaynaa
Jean Carlos Santiago, the Puerto Rican artist better known as Guaynaa, has spent the last year embracing newfound virality with his explosive reggaeton hit “ReBoTa,” which climbed to No. 35 on the Hot Latin Songs chart in April and has collected over 300 million views on YouTube. The track became so big that it made a fan out of Bad Bunny, who invited Guaynaa to perform it onstage with him during a concert in Puerto Rico’s biggest indoor arena.
Ingrid Andress
Ingrid Andress' breakout hit “More Hearts Than Mine” became the only song by a solo female artist in 2019 to crack the Country Airplay top 20. She later wrapped the year by attending the Songwriters Camp at Record Plant, in partnership with She Is The Music, where she worked with Alicia Keys, and come 2020 she'll head out on an arena tour opening for Dan + Shay.