Zach Bryan Is Billboard’s Top New Artist of 2023

Keith Caulfield
·1 min read
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Zach Bryan closes out 2023 as Billboard’s Top New Artist, the same year he claimed his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (with his self-titled set) and his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (“I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves).

The 27-year-old singer-songwriter made a mainstream splash in 2022 with his American Heartbreak album and its hit single “Something in the Orange,” which peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 in January 2023. The country-rock artist has since charted six more albums on the Billboard 200, including his 2023 self-titled album, which debuted atop the list in September. (His self-titled album and American Heartbreak additionally hit No. 1 on both the weekly Top Rock Albums and Top Country Albums charts.)

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Explore All of Billboard’s 2023 Year-End Charts

American Heartbreak rounds out 2023 at No. 8 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums ranking, while his self-titled set sits at No. 50. Bryan is also the No. 6 overall Top Artists ranking, while “Something in the Orange” is No. 13 on the year-end Hot 100 Songs recap and “I Remember Everything” is No. 74.

As Bryan’s output on the charts is classified as country and rock (charting on both our Top Country Albums and Top Rock Albums tallies), in turn, he is the first rock act to be the year’s No. 1 Top New Artist since Daughtry achieved the distinction in 2007. Moreover, Bryan is the first country act to be the year’s Top New Artist since Billboard began compiling the Top New Artists category, combining performance on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, in 1977.

Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Nov. 19, 2022, through Oct. 21, 2023. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the November-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate. The Top New Artists categories ranks the best-performing new acts of the year based on activity on the Billboard 200 albums and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as well as Billboard Boxscore (touring) data, for the 2023 tracking period.

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