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Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” (via Island) is just too hot, as it starts its first stint at No. 1 in the U.K.
The U.S. singer and actor’s hit lifts 5-1 in its third week on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, for her first leader.
The best-seller at the midweek point, “Espresso” clocked up a market-leading 8.8 million streams, and completed nail-biting finish to bump Taylor Swift’s former leader “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone by fewer than 500 combined units, the Official Charts Company reports.
“Espresso” is Carpenter’s first top 10 and fourth U.K. top 40 single after “Nonsense” (No. 32 peak), “Skin” (No. 28) and “feather” (No. 19).
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Hozier’s former No. 1 “Too Sweet” (Island) dips 2-3, to complete the podium on the latest chart, published Friday, May 3.
Shaboozey bags his first U.K. 10 single with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (American Dogwood/Empire), the hip-hop-country number which rises 16-6.
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Taylor Swift bags another U.K. top 10 single — her 29th in her career — with “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” the fourth single from The Tortured Poets Department to crack the top 10 in two weeks. “Broken Heart” is new at No. 8, following “Fortnight,” “The Tortured Poets Department” (No. 3 peak) and “Down Bad” (No. 4). “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” is the highest debut on the latest Official U.K. Singles Chart.
The only other debutant in the top 40 is Virginia, U.S. singer and rapper Tommy Richman, with “Million Dollar Baby” (ISO Supremacy/Pulse). The viral cut is new at No. 31, for Richman’s first entry on the Official Singles Chart.
Finally, two classic Amy Winehouse songs return to the top 40, powered by Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic, Back to Black. The late singer’s cover of the Zutons’ “Valerie” (with producer Mark Ronson, via Columbia) returns at No. 38 and “Back to Black” (lsland) reenters at No. 39.
George Strait is a ready for another round.
The country legend used the platform of his concert at Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of NFL franchise Indianapolis Colts, to announce Cowboys And Dreamers (via MCA), his 31st studio album.
According to reps, more than 51,000 filled out the stadium for Strait’s two-hour performance on Saturday, May 4. “We got some new stuff, too, I’m gonna throw in throughout the night, because I broke down and did another record, and I’m gonna play a few of those for you tonight,” he told the audience.
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The new LP is the the followup to 2019’s Honky Tonk Time Machine, which opened at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart. A release date for Cowboys And Dreamers has not been announced.
The 71-year-old Texas native shared several new songs from the forthcoming album, including “Three Drinks Behind,” and was joined by Chris Stapleton on two numbers, “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame” and “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing”.
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The Indianapolis date was one of just 10 shows Strait will perform in 2024, and marked a return to the stage following a string of devastating losses to his industry family including his manager of nearly 50 years, Eugene Ervine “Erv” Woolsey, Ace in the Hole member Gene Elders, and tour manager Tom Foote.
“It’s so good to be back,” he said from the stage, “man, it’s been six months, and that’s too long.”
Paying tribute to his lost friends, Strait remarked, “The last couple of months have been a tough time… music makes it all better. Thank you for coming out – we’ve had a great time tonight,” he said, as he closed out a six-song encore in their honor.
The County Music Hall of Famer and three-times CMA entertainer of the year has had a remarkable career, during which he has notched 44 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-toppers, a record-tying 61 Country Airplay top 10s, and a record 27th No. 1s on Top Country Albums Chart, most recently with Honky Tonk Time Machine.
Strait’s 2024 Concert Calendar:May 4 — Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, INMay 11 –EverBank Stadium, Jacksonville, FLMay 25 — Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IAJune 1 — Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NCJune 8 — MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJJune 15 — Kyle Field, College Station, TXJune 29 — Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, UTJuly. 13 — Ford Field, Detroit, MIJuly 20 — Soldier Field, Chicago, ILDec. 7 — Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV
In today’s episode of “How It Went Down,” Rapsody shares why she decided to name her new song “3 AM,” how she filmed the live performance music video with Erykah Badu and more! RapsodyI’m Rapsody and this is how it went down with my new single “3 AM.” RapsodyGetting to the final lyrical version of […]
After notching its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart last November, Beartooth scores its second on the May 11-dated survey with “I Was Alive.”
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The song follows the group’s one-week rule with “Might Love Myself.”
The two No. 1s mark new heights for the band from Columbus, Ohio, on Mainstream Rock Airplay, which the act first hit with the No. 33-peaking “Beaten In Lips” in 2015. It logged two initial top 10s with “Hated” (No. 6, April 2017) and “Disease” (No. 9, December 2018). Beartooth boasts 12 total career entries on the chart, all on Red Bull Records.
Concurrently, “I Was Alive” ranks at No. 15, after reaching No. 13, on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, up 5% to a new weekly-best 2.6 million audience impressions April 26-May 2, according to Luminate. The track is Beartooth’s second-highest-ranking hit on the list, after “Might Love Myself” rose to No. 11 in November.
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On the most recent multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated May 4, reflecting data April 19-25), “I Was Alive” placed at No. 19, after reaching No. 10 in April. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 306,000 official U.S. streams in that span.
“I Was Alive” is the second single, after “Might Love Myself,” from The Surface, Beartooth’s fifth studio LP. It debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in October 2023 and has earned 91,000 equivalent album units since its release.
All Billboard charts dated May 11 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, May 7.
Taylor Swift notches a second successive chart double in Australia with The Tortured Poets Department and its lead single “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone.
Swift’s record-breaking 11th studio album retains top spot on the ARIA Chart, published Friday, May, 3, ahead of SZA’s SOS, which is boosted by the U.S. R&B star’s Australian arena tour which wrapped earlier in the week.
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Tortured Poets smashed a spread of chart marks in his first week, when it opened at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart for TayTay’s lucky 13th leader. With that feat, Swift has the most No. 1 albums for a solo female artist in ARIA chart history, moving ahead of Madonna to claim outright third place. At the same time, she became the first artist to hold the entire top 10 on the singles chart, led by “Fortnight,” which continues its reign.
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Meanwhile, Pet Shop Boys return to the upper echelon of the Australian albums chart with Nonetheless, the British electro-pop duo’s 15h LP. It’s new at No. 3. The group’s best performing collection here was Very, ARIA reports, which peaked at No. 2 in 1993, while their last effort, 2020’s Hotspot, hit No. 8.
Close behind is 5 Seconds of Summer’s Luke Hemmings with Boy, his sophomore album. It’s new at No. 4. Hemmings’ first LP, 2021’s When Facing The Things We Turn Away From, reached the summit for one week.
Icelandic jazz musician Laufey enjoys a magical ride with Bewitched, which flies to No. 6 following the release of an expanded edition. Bewitched had previously peaked at No. 46 in 2023.
Also new to the national albums tally is the Dreggs’ Caught In A Reverie (at No. 29) and Justice with Hyperdrama (at No. 52).
While Swift holds the fort on ARIA Singles Chart with “Fortnight,” Sabrina Carpenter has a hot hit on her hands with “Espresso,” up 17-2. That’s easily her career best result in Australia, flying higher than “Feather” which reached No. 22 last year. “Espresso” led the midweek chart in the U.K., where it’s predicted to become her first No. 1.
Finally, American singer and producer Shaboozey completes Australia’s podium with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The country track, which interpolates J-Kwon’s “Tipsy,” bolts 34-3 on the ARIA Chart.
Sia breaks a seven-year drought with Reasonable Woman, her collaborative-jammed tenth studio album.
Arriving at the stroke of midnight, Reasonable Woman (via Atlantic Records) houses 15 works including previously released cuts “Fame Won’t Love You” (featuring Paris Hilton), “Dance Alone” (with Kylie Minogue) and “Incredible” (featuring Labrinth), which, combined, have amassed over 200 million streams globally so far, according to Warner Music.
Highlights include previously unreleased tunes “Immortal Queen” (with Chaka Khan) and “Champion” (with Tierra Whack, Kaliii, and Jimmy Jolliff).
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Reasonable Woman was forged with a who’s who of producers, co-writers and engineers, including Jesse Shatkin, Greg Kurstin, benny blanco, Jim-E Stack, Rosalía, bülow, Mark “Spike” Stent and others.
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It’s Sia’s first pop LP proper since This Is Acting, which was mostly comprised of songs she wrote for other artists that were not released on their albums and featured the singles “Alive,” “Cheap Thrills,” “The Greatest” and “Unstoppable.” This Is Acting hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the ARIA Chart in 2016.
The following year, the South Australia-raised singer and songwriter jingled into the holiday period with Everyday Is Christmas, her first with WMG’s Atlantic and first Christmas-themed album, followed by 2021’s companion soundtrack to the feature film Music, for which Sia made her directorial debut.
It’s already been a winning week for Sia Furler; on Wednesday night, May 1 in Sydney, the Aussie superstar singer and songwriter won an APRA Music Award for most performed Australian work overseas, with “Unstoppable”.
Across her career, the “Chandelier” singer has amassed more than 50 billion audio streams, and landed 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including a No. 1 with 2016’s “Cheap Thrills,” which led the tally for four weeks. Six of her LPs have impacted the Billboard 200, including a No. 1 for 2014’s 1000 Forms Of Fear, and six of her songs have joined Spotify’s Billions Club. She’s such a star, the city of Adelaide is home to Sia Furler Lane, unveiled in 2021.
Stream Reasonable Woman below.
Imagine Dragons have released a remix of their new single “Eyes Closed” featuring an unexpected guest: Colombian reggaetón star J Balvin, rapping in Spanish and delivering some of his best lyrics in recent memory. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The pairing brings additional edge, bass and an […]
Australia’s music community has reached a “crisis” point, as myriad factors contribute to the closure of grassroots venues and popular festivals, and a generation of homegrown artists are essentially overlooked and locked out of the sales charts.
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Artist managers are proposing a solution.
Announced Friday (May 3), the Association of Artist Managers (AAM) unveils “Michael’s Rule,” a policy that would ensure at least one local artist would be among the support acts on every international tour of these parts.
The campaign bears the name of Michael McMartin, the late, great artist manager who guided the career of Hoodoo Gurus for more than 40 years, and is broken down into three main tenets: every international artist must include an Australian artist among their opening acts; the Australian artist must appear on the same stage at the international artist using reasonable sound and lighting; and the Australian artist must be announced at the same time as the tour so that they benefit from all the marketing and promotion.
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The Rule came from a discussion amongst senior members of the artist management fraternity in the lead-in to the 2024 AAM Awards in Sydney, and is born out of the frustration at the limited options for the discoverability of artists in Australia.
These challenges have been recognized by governments across Australia in recent years, notes Maggie Collins, executive director of the AAM, the trade body that represents more than 300 artist managers.
“Promoters received significant public funding during the pandemic and they understandably continue to receive public support for some of their major events,” she explains in a statement. “We think it is only reasonable that, in return, they should ‘do their bit’ to help give Australian artists a leg up by the simple means of including at least one local act on every international tour.”
Collins used the platform of the 2024 AAM Awards to present “Michael’s Rule.”
“If there’s one overarching issue that managers have been flagging time and time again, it is this: we need more Australians loving more Australian music. We have a major discoverability problem and if we don’t solve this issue, which is both economical and cultural,” she explained to a full house at Sydney’s Crowbar.
Had “Michael’s Rule” existed for major international tours, such as Taylor Swift’s seven-date The Eras Tour, which visited Sydney and Melbourne in 2023, “how many more fans could we have introduced to a local artist and started creating our own megastar of the future.”
The support act rule had once been a widely accepted industry code after lobbying by artist managers in the early 2000s. With the launch of “Michael’s Rule,” a voluntary code, senior artist managers call for its reintroduction “at this time of crisis for Australian music,” reads a statement from AAM.
If promoters are not willing to agree, the trade body insists it make formal representations for federal government to step in and make it a condition of issuing visas that international artists touring Australia must comply.Labels body ARIA welcomes “Michael’s Rule.” “Doing whatever we can to get our local artists in front of new audiences is the most important issue facing our local industry,” says ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd in a separate media release, “and as such the Michael’s Rule is a fantastic initiative, which we are confident can be implemented in a way that doesn’t impact the viability of international touring.”ARIA’s latest year-end charts spelled out the problem. Just four Australian albums cracked the top 100 last year, led by INXS hits collection The Very Best (at No. 58), and only three Australian-made singles impacted the top 100, none of which were released in 2023. The best-placed Australian track was The Kid Laroi’s 2021 collaboration with Justin Bieber, “Stay.”Other initiatives, including “looking to broaden venues like sports stadiums to multi-use facilities in NSW is a really important step to increase the availability of entertainment for everyone outside of sport,” adds Herd, “and continue to increase opportunities to see local artists alongside global icons.”The unveiling of the industry code closely follows the announcement that Brisbane’s The Zoo, one of the country’s longest-operating grassroots music venues, would close its doors due to crushing financial pressures, and a string of music festivals, including Splendour in the Grass, would skip this year – or close for good.
BOYNEXTDOOR scores its second top 10, and highest-charting album yet, on Billboard’s Top Album Sales ranking as How? enters at No. 7 on the May 4-dated chart. The set launches with 11,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending April 25, according to Luminate – the act’s best sales week ever. The South Korean pop ensemble previously visited the top 10 with the No. 10-peaking Why in 2023.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart: Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department makes a smashing debut at No. 1, Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter bows at No. 2 and Anne Wilson’s Rebel starts at No. 10.
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, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
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Of the 11,000 copies sold of How?, physical sales comprise essentially all of that sum – and all from the CD configuration. The album’s sales were supported by its availability across 17 different collectible CD packages, including exclusive variants for Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart. All editions contained branded paper merchandise, including some randomized items.
At No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department swoops in with a whopping 1.914 million copies sold in its first week. It’s Swift’s 14th No. 1. That volume marks Swift’s best sales week ever, and the third-largest sales week for any album since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991. The set’s sales were bolstered by its availability across 19 different collectible physical editions (nine CDs, six vinyl LPs and four cassettes, some of which were exclusive to Target and Swift’s webstore) and two digital download albums. Some of the physical iterations of the album contained branded merchandise.
Swift has half of the top 10 on new Top Album Sales chart, as Poets is joined by her former No. 1s Lover (rising 8-3 with 14,000; up 79%), 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (10-4 with 13,000; up 100%), Midnights (11-5 with 12,000; up 130%) and Folklore (13-9 with 10,000; up 112%).
Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter debuts at No. 2 with 52,000 copies (with 24,000 on vinyl), marking the 18th top 10-charting effort for the band. Dark Matter’s first-week sales got a boost from its availability across 12 different color vinyl variants.
Beyoncé’s former No. 1 Cowboy Carter falls 1-6 in its fourth week on the list, selling a little over 11,000 copies (down 59%). Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon rises 35-8 with nearly 11,000 sold (up 329%), largely thanks to sales generated by the April 19 release of a collector’s edition of the album on 180-gram crystal clear double vinyl.
Anne Wilson’s new Rebel rounds out the top 10 of Top Album Sales, as the set starts at No. 10 with 10,000 copies sold. It’s the second top 10-charting effort, and best sales week, for the artist. The album’s sales were supported by its availability across four vinyl variants and five CD variants (three of which were signed by the artist).
It’s Thursday, May 2nd, and Nicki Minaj brings out Cyndi Lauper & Kai Cenat at her concert, Selena Gomez turns off her Instagram comments and Britney Spears settles divorce. We sat down with Billboard cover star T-Pain and went down memory lane to find out the stories behind some of his biggest hits including: “Buy […]