Chart Beat
Ask Billboard: Bruce Springsteen & Elton John Share Another Week of Chart Headlines
Submit questions about Billboard charts, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S. Or, tweet @gthot20. Let’s open the latest mailbag. Hi Gary, Bruce Springsteen debuts at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart this week with Only the Strong Survive, scoring his 22nd top 10 album. He has notched top 10s in each of the last six decades, from the 1970s to the 2020s. How rare is that feat, and are there any other notable chart achievements of his that we can celebrate this week? Thanks, Raditya Gunardisurya Jakarta, Indonesia Hi Raditya, Springsteen is one of only three artists with newly charting top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 in each of the last six ...
Louis Armstrong’s New ‘Cool Yule’ Holiday Album Debuts in the Top 10 Across Billboard Charts
Louis Armstrong’s new seasonal compilation album Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule debuts in in the top 10 across multiple Billboard charts (dated Nov. 26), including Top Holiday Albums. Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule bows at No. 9 on Top Holiday Albums, and launches in the top 10 on Jazz Albums (No. 4), Traditional Jazz Albums (No. 4), Top Album Sales (No. 7), Top Current Album Sales (No. 6) and Vinyl Albums (No. 7). It also starts at No. 122 on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest charting album since Hello Dolly spent six weeks at No. 1 in 1964. The new 11-track set is promoted as Armstrong’s “first-ever Christmas album,” though the late artist (who died in 1971) has previously released a number of holiday compilations alongside other acts that feature most of the album’s tracks (such as Ar...
Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda Debut in Top 10 on Regional Mexican Albums Chart
Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda extend their perfect top 10 streak on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart as De Hoy En Adelante, Que Te Vaya Bien debuts at No. 8 on the Nov. 26-dated list. It’s the 10th consecutive top 10 for the act — the entirety of its chart entries. The 12-track set was released Nov. 11 via Fonovisa/UMLE. After its first tracking week ending Nov. 17, De Hoy En Adelante generated 2,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Most of the album’s opening sum derives from streaming equivalent album units. That equates to 3.04 million on-demand official U.S. streams generated for the songs on the album. On the Regional Mexican Albums chart, each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscri...
Louis Tomlinson’s ‘Faith in the Future’ Debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales
Louis Tomlinson’s second solo album Faith in the Future debuts at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales (dated Nov. 26), scoring the pop star his highest-charting set yet on the list, and best sales week (37,500 sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17, according to Luminate). Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Faith in the Future also bows at No. 2 on Top Current Album Sales, Independent Albums and Vinyl Albums, No. 3 on Tastemaker Albums and No. 5 on the Billboard 200. Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan...
Rauw Alejandro’s ‘Saturno’ Debuts at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums Chart
Rauw Alejandro claims his fourth straight top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart as Saturno debuts at No. 2 on the Nov. 26-dated ranking. Saturno, released Nov. 11 via Sony Music Latin, starts with 19,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17, according to Luminate. Most of the set’s opening sum comprises streaming activity, which equates to 25.63 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs, while 500 units derive from album sales and track-equivalent album units. On the multimetric Top Latin Albums chart, each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The 18-track Saturno is a left turn ...
Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti-Hero’ On Track For Fifth Week Atop U.K. Chart
Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (EMI) looks set to extend its reign in the U.K. for a fifth week. The first track on Swift’s new album Midnights has dominated the Official U.K. Singles Chart since its release, Oct. 21, and is by some distance her longest-ruling No. 1 in that territory (her previous best was a two-week run in 2017 with “Look What You Made Me Do”). Based on midweek sales and streaming data captured by the Official Charts Company, “Anti-Hero” should hold on for another week, making it five in a row. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Just four other releases this year have notched more than a month at No. 1 in the U.K.: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (7 weeks) by the cast of Encanto, “As It Was” (10 weeks) by Harry Styles and “Afraid To Feel...
Dermot Kennedy Set Second U.K. No. 1 With ‘Sonder’
Dermot Kennedy opens-up a sizeable lead in the U.K. chart race with Sonder (via Island), his second album. The Irishman’s LP leads the midweek survey, with an advantage of 12,000 chart sales over Taylor Swift’s Midnights (EMI), the next closest title. Sonder is the followup to Without Fear, which, in 2019, saw Kennedy became the first Irish act in over years to bow at No. 1 in the U.K. with his debut. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Meanwhile, Queen is all set to make a miracle return to the chart. The legendary rock band returns to the Official Chart Update at No. 3 with The Miracle (Island), following an eight-disc reissue, including six unreleased tracks, four with the late Freddie Mercury on lead vocals. The Miracle led the weekly chart fol...
Louis Tomlinson Finds ‘Faith’ at U.K. Chart Summit
Louis Tomlinson beats the Boss to score his first solo U.K. No. 1 album with Faith In The Future (via BMG). As a member of One Direction, Tomlinson triumphed over the national albums survey on four occasions, while his debut solo set, 2020’s Walls, peaked at No. 4. Perhaps just as sweet is the manner in which Tomlinson claimed the crown. The pop singer’s sophomore set outpaces Bruce Springsteen’s Only The Strong Survive (Columbia), a collection of soul covers, which debuts at No. 2 on the Official Chart. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news And he did so with one arm, following an injury sustained in a fall after performing at New York’s Irving Plaza. “Broken arm but number one in the U.K. Can’t quite believe it,” he wrote on his socials. Springstee...
Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want’ Beats the Christmas Rush on U.K. Chart
The Queen of Christmas is making her presence felt earlier than usual in the U.K. Mariah Carey’s holiday classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (via Columbia) makes its annual merry-go-round into the U.K. top 40, leaping 56-36 on the latest chart, published Nov. 18. According to the Official Charts Company, that’s the earliest top-flight appearance for the song since its original release back in 1994. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “All I Want For Christmas Is You” reenters the top 40 in the 46th week of 2022, the charts compiler explains, having previously made its mark in the the 47th week in the years 2021, 2020 and 2017. Carey and her evergreen hit have been in the news of late, first with the U.S. pop superstar dropping her “it’s time”...
Taylor Swift Extends Chart Reign In Australia
Taylor Swift retains the chart double in Australia with Midnights and “Anti-Hero,” as Louis Tomlinson beats Bruce Springsteen to the runner-up spot on the national albums chart. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Tomlinson can claim bragging rights in his duel with the Boss, as the former One Direction star debuts at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart with Faith In The Future. The British pop singer’s second album manages to outrun Bruce Springsteen’s latest effort Only The Strong Survive, which opens at No. 3 on the ARIA Chart. Faith In The Future bags a solo career best for Tomlinson, bettering the No. 6 peak for 2020’s Walls. Springsteen, however, has racked up five No. 1 ARIA Albums over the course of his decades-long, 21-album career. Making a noteworth...
Drake Ties Jay-Z for No. 1s on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as Her Loss Debuts
Her Loss, his win. As has become the norm, a new Drake album’s yields a monster week on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop charts, extending multiple records already safely in the superstar’s possession and pushing him dangerously closer toward a few that still elude him. Her Loss, a collaborative album with 21 Savage, was released on Nov. 4 via OVO Sound/Republic. The set debuts at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart with 404,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Luminate. With the entry, 21 Savage obtains his third (and third consecutive) No. 1 on the list, after I Am > I Was led the list for two weeks in 2019 and Savage Mode II, with Metro Boomin, posted one week on top the following year. Drake maintains his ...
Trending Up: ‘Wakanda Forever’ Soundtrack Soars, Patty Loveless Lands a CMAs Comeback
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: The much-anticipated release of blockbuster sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever leads to huge streaming gains for much of its soundtrack, while Aerosmith experiences a bizarrely 2022 revival for one of their signature hits and Patty Loveless enjoys a more old-fashioned sort of comeback. ‘Black Panther’ Box Office Mojo Is Translating Into Streaming Wins Last weekend, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever blasted into movie theaters with a box office haul of $1...
