These 10 Country Stars Are on Top in 2021

Thomas Rhett has done it old-school this year. The country star released an album filled with songs rooted in traditional country values and sat back to let fans absorb it — and, because of that, is one of the hottest artists in the genre in 2021.

The efficiency of Country Again, Side A is welcome relief after other artists (including some on this list of the 10 biggest artists of the year) fed fans supersized projects that took hours to digest. Had Rhett, the 2020 ACM Entertainer of the Year, chosen to release Side A and Side B simultaneously, he could have set streaming marks, the new golden calf for commercial artists.

Instead, he split them up and trusted the song quality. There's no gimmickry across 11 songs sure to sound good on the radio and on stages this summer. He kept it simple. He kept it country.

Meet all 10 of the country artists taking over in 2021 below:

Country Music's 10 Hottest Artists of 2021

The culmination of the annual Taste of Country Hot List is the 10 Hottest Country Artists list, a true measure of the songs, the tours and the intangibles, combined. Luke Combs was No. 1 in 2020, but he had trouble holding off a few artists for this year's list.

Just six of the 10 artists featured last year make the 2021 version — a collection that gets to consider touring plans and award achievements. We've had four new Entertainer of the Year of the Year winners in the past eight months, and three are featured below. One misses out for taking a year off the road and the radio, but we're confident she'll be back soon.

This list is an effort to combine and assess an artist's commercial success, fan appeal, touring demand and social media presence. Emphasis was placed on what's coming, not what has happened so far.

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10 Hottest Songs for Summer 2021

Summer 2021 needs a great soundtrack, and country music's biggest stars and hottest newcomers are supplying. Find songs from Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert on this 10 Hottest Songs for Summer 2021 list.

Newcomers Willie Jones and Walker Hayes also make the list with earworms we don't want to quit. Not every hot summer song needs to be a good-time party song, and not every good party song will make a great summer playlist. Our Top 10 embraces a range of emotions and experiences. What would summer be without summer love or summer heartache, or a bit of nostalgia?

Scroll down to see all 10 songs on this list of the hottest summer country songs. It's part of Taste of Country's summer Hot List, an annual report on the songs and artists set to bake this year.

Source: These 10 Country Stars Are on Top in 2021

Filed Under: best of 2021, Editor's Picks, Thomas Rhett

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