Better Oblivion Community Center Debuts on Emerging Artists Chart, Ava Max Holds at No. 1
The duo of Conor Oberst & Phoebe Bridgers bows thanks to its new album.
Better Oblivion Community Center, the side project of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, debuts at No. 47 on Billboard‘s Emerging Artists chart (dated Feb. 9), as the duo’s debut self-titled LP arrives at No. 6 on Heatseekers Albums and No. 12 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart with 4,000 equivalent album units (2,000 in traditional album sales), according to Nielsen Music.
Oberst and Bridgers are no strangers to Billboard‘s charts. Oberst has landed five solo albums on the Billboard 200, plus seven with the band Bright Eyes and one each with Monsters of Folk (the group also including Jim James, Mike Mogis, M. Ward and Will Johnson) and Desaparecidos.
Bridgers has sent two albums onto Billboard surveys. Her debut solo set Stranger in the Alps hit No. 13 on Heatseekers Albums last March and her collaborative effort with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, as Boygenius, reached No. 3 on the tally, and No. 24 on Alternative Albums, in November.
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.
Ava Max logs her third week atop Emerging Artists, as her breakout single “Sweet But Psycho” hits a new high on the Hot 100 (35-32) and reaches the Digital Song Sales chart’s top 10 (11-9; 14,000 sold, up 2 percent).
Rounding out the Emerging Artists top five, Lauv rises 4-2, Dean Lewis dips 2-3, Blueface jumps 19-4 and Louis Tomlinson leaps 20-5.
Plus, Long Beach, California-based blues-rockers Rival Sons debut at No. 7 on Emerging Artists, as the quartet’s sixth LP Feral Roots arrives at No. 1 on Heatseekers Albums and No. 139 on the Billboard 200 with 7,000 units (6,000 sold). The set is the band’s third Heatseekers No. 1, following 2014’s Great Western Valkyrie and 2016’s Hollow Bones.
Check out this week’s full Emerging Artists chart here.