CHART STORY: WHAT A WEEKND
At the end of a truly unbelievable week for the world and the biz, there’s still a #1 album on our HITS Top 50 chart—and it’s a biggie. The Weeknd delivers the biggest debut of his career, and of 2020, with After Hours (XO/Republic), moving a whopping 445k units. His monster set has earned well over 200m streams, with sales providing 60% of the total. Pre-release streams and sales from platinum singles “Blinding Lights” and “Heartless” put After Hours at 800k+ in activity to date.
Republic lands the other top debut with Conan Gray’s debut album, Kid Krow, which bows at #5 with 47k. Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at #7 gives the House of Lipman a Top 10 trifecta.
Re-entering at #9 is Kenny Rogers’ Best Of… (Capitol Nashville), the result of fans mourning the country trailblazer’s passing on Friday, 3/20, by diving into The Gambler’s career hits.
Singer/songwriter Kelsea Ballerini enters at #11 with her third studio LP, kelsea (Black River), followed by Wolf+Rothstein/RCA’s Childish Gambino at #14 with 3.15.20., as Donald Glover’s spontaneous, early-Sunday-morning drop hits 25k in its shortened week of activity. UMLE’s J Balvin bows at #15 with Colores.
Notable projects streeting this week include Warner’s buzzing Dua Lipa, Interscope’s Trevor Daniel and 5 Seconds of Summer, OVO Sound/Warner’s PARTYNEXTDOOR, Warner Nashville’s Ingrid Andress and Monkeywrench/Republic’s Pearl Jam. Stay safe, wash your hands and don’t touch me.
