SEVENTEEN Becomes Seventh K-Pop Group to Hit No. 1 on Artist 100 Chart
Written by djfrosty on May 9, 2023
SEVENTEEN re-enters the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated May 13) at No. 1 to become the top musical act in the United States for the first time, thanks to the group’s new EP, its 10th mini album, FML.
The set debuts at No. 1 on World Albums and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 135,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. April 28-May 4, according to Luminate. It becomes the 13-member act’s seventh leader on World Albums and third top 10 on the Billboard 200.
SEVENTEEN is the third K-pop act to top the Artist 100 chart this year, after TOMORROW X TOGETHER in February and Jimin in April.
Dating to the Artist 100’s 2014 launch, SEVENTEEN is the seventh K-pop group to rule the ranking. It joins BTS (21 weeks at No. 1), BLACKPINK, Stray Kids (two each), SuperM, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and TWICE (one each).
Meanwhile, Gordon Lightfoot, who died May 1 at age 84, is the top debut on the Artist 100, at No. 14. Four of his classic songs from the 1970s infuse the Digital Song Sales chart’s top 10, led by “If You Could Read My Mind” at No. 1. The song sold 10,000 downloads, up from a nominal sum, in the U.S. in the week ending May 4. Lightfoot ranks atop a Billboard chart for the first time in 48 years, since “Carefree Highway” ruled Adult Contemporary in May 1975. Also new to the Digital Song Sales top 10: “Sundown” (No. 3; 9,000), “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (No. 5; 7,000) and “Highway” (No. 10; 4,000).
Paced by Lightfoot’s retrospective Gord’s Gold (3,000 sold), his U.S. album sales in the tracking week vaulted by 906% to 6,000; his digital song sales soared by 3,637% to 41,000; his radio airplay audience surged by 317% to 3 million; and his official on-demand U.S. streams jumped by 290% to 14 million.
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.