ADELE RULES ON
Following a much talked-about Grammy performance, and supported in part by the power Valentine’s Day has over consumers, Adele’s 25 (XL/Columbia) has once again topped the HITS Album Sales Chart, this time with 154k. Over at SPS, the set scored 178k. Simultaneously, her 21 jumped #26-16, with 19 going #46-38. In other words, she’s Adele.
Another force of nature, Mercury Nashville’s Chris Stapleton, made a big move following his Grammy performance and two wins (Best Country Album and Country Solo Performance), as Traveller—also an Album of the Year contender—rocketed #8-2 this week, up around 75% and raked in another 56k.
RBMG/Def Jam’s Justin Bieber, another performer (and winner) on the big show, saw his Purpose leap #9-3, up 84%, with 54k. A consistent monster at SPS, the album earned 76k there.
The highest-charting debut (and the only one in the Top 15) belongs to Farmhouse’s Joey + Rory, whose Hymns landed at #4 with 47k. The respected country twosome were nominated for Best Duo/Group Country Vocal Performance; their well-documented personal struggles have been eliciting a strong response from their fans and community.
Other artists to see Grammy-related momentum include XO/Republic’s The Weeknd (+90%, 32k) and Big Machine’s Taylor Swift (+115%, 31k), along with Republic’s 2016 Grammy Nominees compilation (+88%, 30k). All of the above broke back into the Top 10.
Meanwhile, TDE/Aftermath/Interscope’s Kendrick Lamar—who was nominated for 11 awards and won five—sprinted from #47 to round out the Top 10 with 26k for To Pimp a Butterfly (another Album of the Year contender).
Fueled by glowing responses to their performances, MCA Nashville’s Best New Artist nominee Sam Hunt moved #29-11, while ATO’s Alabama Shakes re-entered the chart at #13 with the Album of the Year-nominated Sound & Color, Republic’s Best New Artist nominee James Bay re-entered at #25 with Chaos and the Calm and Warner Bros.’ Andra Day re-entered at #29 with Cheers to the Fall.
Streeting this week are albums from Frontiers Music’s Rick Springfield, Epic’s Yo Gotti and UMe’s Wolfmother, along with an EP from Roswell/RCA’s Foo Fighters. The following week, expect albums from Redwing’s Bonnie Raitt, indie stars Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Interscope’s The 1975.
In other Grammy news, we recently learned that a compilation of snippets from Ted Cruz’s campaign speeches was apparently up for a Grammy, but no one could decide if it belonged in Gospel or Comedy.
