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.