Ariana Grande - Featured Artist

Ariana Grande is the top artist in the U.S. this week, as she vaults 4-1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart, marking her first week atop the ranking. She also becomes the first female artist to lead the list.

The Artist 100 (which launched six weeks ago) provides the first weekly ranking dedicated to measuring artist activity across Billboard's most influential charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200 and Social 50, among others. The Artist 100 is modeled after the formula utilized to compile Billboard's annual Year in Music Top Artist list (as well as the Billboard Music Awards Artist of the Year category), blending information from album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.

Grande takes over at the Artist 100 summit with a 54 percent surge in overall points, and with digital song sales the biggest driver (47 percent) of her total weekly activity. She boasts three songs in the Digital Songs chart's top six: "Bang Bang" (with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj; 131,000 sold in the week ending Aug. 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan); "Break Free" (featuring Zedd), which blasts 14-4 with a 54 percent gain to 116,000 after its video premiered on Aug. 12; and "Best Mistake" (featuring Big Sean), which bows at No. 6 with 104,000 sold in its first week.

Grande is the only woman to claim three of the top six titles on Digital Songs simultaneously, and the first artist to manage the feat since Michael Jackson following his death in 2009. She also rebounds 15-11 on Digital Songs with her former three-week No. 1 "Problem" (featuring Iggy Azalea) (83,000, up 12 percent).