It’s a brilliant time for female pop stars on the Billboard charts in 2026, with veteran icons still thriving, rising hitmakers continuing to level up, and brand new artists breaking through in a major way. But look among the top tiers of pop stars on the charts this year, and you’ll find precious few Black women among them — and fewer still succeeding with projects actually from 2026, as many such Black artists release some of the most exciting, urgent and seemingly irresistible pop music of the year, yet still seem to meet with unseen levels of resistance.
On this episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, Billboard staff writer Kyle Denis — now also the solo host of the excellent new video podcast Billboard Up & Coming — stops by to discuss his essential October essay about this very topic: “The Future of Pop Music Is Approaching and Black Women Are Leading the Charge — Why Aren’t They Also Leading the Charts?” We discuss the many factors that led us to this point in pop music history, and the forces that continue to press on Black female pop stars that their white counterparts never seem to have to worry about in the same way.
Along the way, we also answer many of the most urgent questions in this discussion: Why do pop and hip-hop seem so much further apart in 2026 than at any other point this century? What happened to the wave of the early 2020s that elevated so many female rappers to pop superstardom? How did Ravyn Lenae go from having one of the biggest hits of the mid-2020s to not appearing anywhere on the Billboard charts? Why does Rachel Chinouriri still struggle to level up at the same rate as her fair-skinned counterparts? Does the level of success achieved by Tinashe’s Popstar suggest a bigger breakthrough is on the way, or is she already bumping against a ceiling? And perhaps most importantly: What should we do as pop fans to help support these artists, and to make this discussion a little less fraught?
Check it out above, and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
Find Kyle’s essay here, find all about his Up & Coming podcast here, and watch the first episode (with Bella Kay) here.
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Destination Tomorrow
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Human Rights Campaign – In Your Area
Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
