How Tinashe Scored the Biggest Album of Her Career With ‘Popstar’
Categoria: Musica
“The music industry moves fast,” says her manager Simonne Solitro, adding, “We constantly need to think outside the box and build intriguing, fresh campaigns.”
Por Billboard | 09/10/2026
For Tinashe , the resurgence started years ago. The singer, songwriter, producer and DJ had first broken out in 2014, when her debut album Aquarius (RCA) and its breakout single “2 On” feat. ScHoolboy Q , which peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, announced her as a new voice to watch. But a series of albums that produced diminishing returns saw her leave her record label and strike out on her own as an independent artist, with a devoted fan base but not much commercial chart success to show for it. Related Let Time Do Its Thing: How Tinashe, Kehlani & Jhené Aiko Are Redefining R&B’s Long Game Hilary Duff to Receive Outstanding Pop Tour of the Year Award at 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit Judge Rules Woman Accused of Shooting at Rihanna & A$AP Rocky's Home Mentally Fit to Stand Trial That changed in 2024, when her single “Nasty” exploded on social media and marked her return to the Hot 100 for the first time in a decade. The following year, her song with dance DJ Disco Lines , “No Broke Boys,” became her first top 40 hit since “2 On,” peaking at No. 36 on the Hot 100. And now, the resurgence is complete: Her new album, Popstar , released through Nice Life Recordings in partnership with Atlantic Records, has been lauded as one of the best albums of the year, and became the highest-charting album of her career, debuting this week at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 with 35,500 equivalent album units, a major success story for an artist who has seen all sides of the music business over the past decade. And that success helps her manager Simonne Solitro earn the title of Billboard ’s Executive of the Week. Here, Solitro speaks about that journey through the industry, the career resurgence that has seen Tinashe reach new heights and why Popstar has been such a successful release for her. “Ultimately, you can release a million variants, but if you don’t give the fans and media something interesting to listen to, watch and discuss, it just won’t sell,” Solitro says. “In this case the art was always more important than the sales. The sales were just a luxury of a project that was absolutely worth listening to over and over and over again.” Related Tinashe’s ‘POPSTAR’: All 16 Tracks Ranked This week, Tinashe landed the highest-charting debut of her career and her first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 with Popstar . What key decision did you make to help make that happen? While there is never a surefire way to know how the public might respond to a project, you can take many things into account before a release to ensure you are building a strong foundation and success model from the jump. The music industry moves fast, and people consume music and media at a rate that is very hard to keep up with. We constantly need to think outside the box and build intriguing, fresh campaigns. Tinashe had a very specific vision and intention behind this project. I really wanted to make sure she and her story were supported