Billboard
Ghost grabs the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time, as the Swedish hard rock band’s new studio effort Skeletá debuts atop the tally (dated May 10) with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending May 1, according to Luminate. Of the album’s starting sum, 89% was driven by traditional album sales — buoyed by a big vinyl sales figure.
Skeletá launches with Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales.
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Skeletá marks the ninth charted effort for the group on the Billboard 200. The band first visited the list in 2013 with its second album, Infestissumam, which also marked the act’s first top 40-charting set, reaching No. 28. Skeletá scores Ghost its eighth top 40 set, and fifth to reach the top 10. The band had previously gone as high as No. 2 with its last full-length studio album, 2022’s Impera.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). 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 new May 10, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 6. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Skeletá’s 86,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 77,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 12.45 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across more than 15 vinyl variants, three CD variants and four cassette variants (all containing the same tracklist, but in collectible packaging).
With Skeletá scoring 9,000 in SEA units (12.45 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs), the group logs its biggest streaming week ever for an album. It surpasses the opening-week of Impera (7,000 SEA; 9.11 million streams for its songs).
The new album was led by the radio-promoted single “Satanized,” which became the act’s 10th top 10-charting hit on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in April. It’s one of a trio of hits that the album yielded on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart prior to the album’s release. “Satanized” hit No. 3 (March 22 chart), followed by “Lachryma” (No. 3, April 26) and “Peacefield” (No. 13, May 3). (Skeletá is also the first full-length project from the band since the act garnered its first hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, when its viral hit “Mary on a Cross” reached No. 90 on the tally in 2022.)
With the No. 1 arrival on the Billboard 200, Skeletá lands a number of milestone achievements for Ghost. Here’s a recap:
Skeletá yields Ghost’s best week ever by both equivalent album units and traditional album sales. The act’s previous high in both metrics came in the debut week of Impera (March 26, 2022), which earned 70,000 units (of which nearly 63,000 were album sales). As noted earlier, Skeletá also garners the largest streaming week for a Ghost album.
Ghost lands the biggest week of 2025, by either equivalent album units or traditional album sales, for any rock, hard rock or alternative album.
Of Skeletá’s first-week album sales, vinyl purchases comprised just over 44,000 copies. That’s not just the largest sales week on vinyl for Ghost, but the biggest week for a hard rock album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). It’s also the third-largest sales week on vinyl in the modern era for any rock album, trailing only the opening weeks of blink-182’s One More Time… (49,000; 2023) and boygenius’ The Record (45,000; 2023).
Skeletá is the first hard rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in over four years, and the only rock, hard rock or alternative album to be No. 1 in 2025. The last hard rock album at No. 1 was AC/DC’s Power Up, which premiered at No. 1 on the Nov. 28, 2020, chart and spent one week at No. 1. The last rock, or alternative, album to lead the tally was Coldplay’s Moon Music, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Oct. 19, 2024, chart (spending one week at No. 1).
Rock, alternative and hard rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts, respectively.
Not only is Skeletá the group’s first No. 1, but it’s the first chart-topper for its label Loma Vista Recordings and the first leader for Concord Label Group in nearly a decade — since James Taylor’s Before This World (on Concord Records) debuted at No. 1 on the July 4, 2015-dated chart. Loma Vista had previously gone as high as No. 2 with Ghost’s last full-length studio album, Impera, in 2022.
Skeletá is the lone debut in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart. The titles at Nos. 2-7 are all former No. 1s. SZA’s SOS slips to No. 2 (52,000 equivalent album units earned; down 1%), Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls 2-3 (48,000; down 5%), Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time is down 3-4 (46,000; down 4%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet descends 4-5 (44,000; down 8%), PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U falls 5-6 (43,000; down 6%) and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos is down 6-7 (38,000; down 3%).
Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going gallops 45-8 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (up 110%) after a deluxe reissue on April 25 that added six additional songs, bringing its total song count to 18. The set debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the June 15, 2024-dated list. (He also played the Stagecoach Festival on April 26.)
Playboi Carti’s chart-topping MUSIC (7-9; 34,000 equivalent album units, down 11%) and Morgan Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album (9-10; 33,000, down 3%) round out the Billboard 200’s top 10.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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Fito Páez has spent more than three decades crafting his new album, Novela. He opens up about why it took so long to create, the inspiration behind the album, his plans for an upcoming tour, how politics are impacting concert attendance, his views on narcocorridos and the secret to his longevity and success.
What are your thoughts on Fito Páez’s Novela? Let us know in the comments!
Sigal Ratner-Arias:Good morning and welcome! We’re here with the legendary Fito Paez to talk about his new album, Novela, and so many more things. What is your favorite Billboard moment? Past, present or future. This moment. It has to be this moment.
Fito Paez: Obviously it’s this one. Clearly, being here with you. You guys have always treated me well. You guys have always loved me, you’ve listened to me, you’ve given me your attention, so that alone is huge. I really appreciate that. I always feel very grateful when people follow you, they join you, they respect you.
You’re a classic, Fito.
We have a quality bond.
It’s your longest album. Why did it take you so long to finish?
I think there are some works, some pieces that are made over time and that are outside the system of anxiety, outside the system of immediate requirements, outside of the industry and outside of productivity. Because someone can make music, but to start out you need to go back to school first. Here, no. One makes music because you want to express yourself because he needs to share or have that want to get it out from inside, or give it life. Or, to start enjoying the language of music, the language of words. So, behind the scenes of that experience, in my case, my whole life, and that’s how it’s going to be until the day I die.
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Mike Van, who was appointed the first CEO at Billboard earlier this week, has been named to Gold House’s annual list of the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders, it was announced Thursday (May 1).
Van will be celebrated alongside the other honorees on this year’s list, known as The A100 List, during a slate of events taking place in New York on May 9 and May 10. Those include the A100 Celebratory Reception (co-hosted with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and East West Bank); the A100 Honorees Dinner presented by OpenTable, which will host past and present A100 honorees and judges; the Gold Gala, where A100 List honorees known as “A1s” — described as “the most impactful in their respective categories” — will be honored; and the Billboard x Gold House Founders Party, during which DJ Anderson .Paak is set to perform.
In celebration of the A100 and to kick off Asian Pacific Heritage Month, the Nasdaq stock market and Gold House partnered on a half-day Gold Power Summit on Wednesday (April 30) that culminated with Gold House CEO/co-founder Bing Chen and several A100 honorees, including Van, ringing the Nasdaq closing bell, an event broadcast across multiple financial networks. Van also served as a featured speaker on a Gold Power Summit panel on Wednesday.
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Others included on this year’s A100 list include Wicked director Jon M. Chu; Pachinko author Min Jin Lee; comedian and actor Ronny Chieng; K-pop group aespa; Goodwater Capital co-founder/managing partner Eric Kim; and multiple individuals listed under the banner “Los Angeles Wildfire Heroes.”
As part of the celebration of the A100 List and the Asian Pacific community, landmarks across North America will light up in gold lights. Participating cities and landmarks include: Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium), Chicago (Willis Tower), Honolulu (City Hall), Los Angeles (City Hall & Paramount Tower), Las Vegas (LV City Sign), Ontario (Niagara Falls), New York City (Empire State Building, Nasdaq Tower & The Edge), Seattle (Columbia Center Tower), Toronto (CN Tower), and Vancouver (BC Place & Olympic Cauldron).
Wednesday’s Gold Power Summit marked the second annual edition of the event, which first took place last May. Attendees at the inaugural summit included executives from Citibank, Netflix, McKinsey & Company and EMPIRE.
Two decades on from the release of their critically-acclaimed debut album, English indie-rock veterans Bloc Party have announced a reissue of their Silent Alarm LP.
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Set for release on September 26, the group will be reissuing the record as an extensive four LP box set. The first two LPs feature the original record, while the remaining LPs collect a number of B-sides and rarities, alongside their 2004 BBC Radio 1 John Peel session, and seven demo recordings. A two CD reissue and a two LP repress of the record will also be made available.
Silent Alarm was originally released in February 2005 as Bloc Party’s eagerly-anticipated debut release. Following a string of singles and a self-titled EP released across the previous year, the record generated widespread acclaim upon its arrival, and went on to hit No. 3 in the band’s native U.K.
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In the U.S., the record would hit No. 114 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on the Independent Albums chart. It also received a nomination for the 2005 Mercury Prize, and helped to establish the group on the global stage amidst the mid-’00s indie-rock explosion.
In 2018, Bloc Party announced a series of international tour dates performing the record in full for the first time, with the band set to reprise this undertaking this year. Launching in Mexico in May, the group will visit California for the Just Like Heaven festival on May 10, before returning to the U.S. later in the month for a series of shows to perform the album in full alongside a selection of other hits.
“It’s nice to be able to go back and listen to those records, and to remember where I was when I wrote them, the conversations that I was having and the people that were in my life,” frontman Kele Okereke told Billboard in January. “That’s the stuff that comes back to me when I go back to these songs and I don’t really do that so often.
“I had to do it for Silent Alarm as I had to relearn the songs. I’ve always been obsessed with looking forward, but I am recognizing that we’ve done something quite good and it’s nice to bask in that sometimes.”
Bloc Party’s biggest U.S. success came about in 2007 with second album A Weekend in the City, which hit No. 12 on the Billboard 200. Their most recent record, Alpha Games, was released in April 2022, while Okereke’s latest solo album, The Singing Winds Pt. 3, arrived in January.
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WWE’s WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas showcased the best wrestlers and musicians. From meet-and-greets with fans to Travis Scott’s appearance, fan opinions on John Cena and Cody Rhodes, and catching up with Bianca Belair before SmackDown, keep watching to catch everything you missed during the big weekend!
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Fan 1:It’s my first mania. I had to, I saved so much, went through so much, just to get here. And you know, the payoff is good.
Carl Lamarre:They were just like, “Yo, if we see New Day, we might have to jump.”
The New Day:For what? Who gonna jump us? Who gonna jump us? They can barely get off the couch how are they going to jump at anybody? Who said that?
Fan 2:Travis Scott is a b—h.
Fan 3:These fans. I mean, they’re the best in the world. I mean, they’re so passionate about everything that happens around WWE.
Excision, or Marilyn Manson because it’s angry and sexy.
Carl Lamarre: I love that. We spent the week in Las Vegas for all of the WWE activities before and after the main event. What’s going on y’all? I am deputy director of R&B/hip-hop, Carl Lamarre, and we are here live at WrestleMania in Las Vegas at WWE World. Billboard kicked off WrestleMania week on Thursday at WWE World. Think of it like Comic Con for wrestling fans. Wrestlers were signing top cards and belts. You could walk down the ramp to your favorite superstar’s entrance. Some pros were even giving wrestling demos in the ring. You could also catch a live podcast recording and thank John Cena for his 25 years in wrestling. Fanatics hosted a Make-a-Wish event with superstar wrestlers Tiffany Stratton and Braun Strowman in attendance.
Tiffany Stratton:I love the kids. That’s, like, my favorite part of being a superstar is getting to meet them and, like, do stuff like this, where they get to do their own entrances.
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Beyoncé kicked off her Cowboy Carter Tour in L.A. at SoFi Stadium on Monday night, and we’re taking you inside the highlights of the night. From Rumi making her debut onstage to Beyoncé performing her classic hit “Crazy In Love,” keep watching for more! Were you at the opening night of the Cowboy Carter Tour? […]
Paris Hilton graced Stagecoach 2025, and the pop queen shared how she prepped for her huge set, the details of her remix album, ‘Infinite Icon,’ and more!
Are you excited for Paris Hilton’s remix album? Let us know in the comments!
Tetris Kelly: We’re out here sliving with one of our favorite pop queens, Paris Hilton. How are you?
Paris Hilton: I am amazing right now. That was so much fun.
I mean, we gotta talk about how much fun it is. But let me tell you, you had one of the hottest sets at Stagecoach because Lance Bass from *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, Shaboozey, me, we were all outside. We couldn’t even get in Paris.
I heard there was 1000s of people trying to get in.
We were desperately trying to see your set, and you killed it. Brought Lizzo out. How was that?
I love her so much. She is so kind, lovely, talented, beautiful, amazing. Her new single is so sick. And it was just so much fun, feeling the energy and how excited everyone was. And I’m just so proud.
And I mean, you’ve been killing your festival season in general. You also popped up and surprised everybody at Coachella. So how do you prepare to, like, come to these festivals and put on a show like that?
I’ve actually been preparing this set for the past three months. So I’ve been researching, finding the best remixes of every song, remixing my songs, everything. So I want it to be very special and unique. And the outfit like this is from THEBLONDS, like it was a whole thing. And then my dancers, I’m just so grateful to my whole team for helping me put on an iconic show.
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