After spending several weeks atop the Billboard Emerging Artists Chart, Gabby Barrett is conspicuously absent from this week’s listing.
No, it is not because she suddenly lost traction. Rather, it is because she no longer qualifies for the chart.
Her breakthrough single “I Hope” rises eight places to a new peak of #22 on this week’s Hot 100. By entering the Top 25, it disqualifies Barrett from the Emerging Artists chart. Once artists achieve a Top 25 hit on the Hot 100 or Billboard 200, or a pair of Top 10s on a “Hot” genre songs chart or “Top” genre albums chart, they are no longer considered “emerging.” They, as far as Billboard’s charting goes, have fully arrived.
“I Hope” meanwhile rises to #2 on the genre-specific Hot Country Songs chart, trailing only Maren Morris’ multi-format hit single “The Bones.”
