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In March 2020, Elena Rose was a songwriter in her mid-twenties who had helped craft hits for Latin superstars like Becky G and Myke Towers. She was content with her day job, but as lockdown began to take hold, the Venezuelan American had an early-pandemic revelation.
“I really thought that the world was coming to an end,” she says. “When I saw that my voice had not been heard, it made me sad.”
While Rose continued to work behind the scenes — her songwriting credits to-date include Billboard chart entries and collaborations with Selena Gomez, Bad Bunny, Marc Anthony, and the Becky G-Karol G team-up “MAMIII,” which reached No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart — she made her singing debut as an independent artist that May with the Latin urban song “Sandunga.” She paired the release with a colorful music video that showcased her striking presence and alluded to her superstar capabilities.
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Today, the 29-year-old has fully realized her potential, breaking through in recent months on the Billboard charts as a performer with “Orion,” her collaboration with Panamanian star Boza.
Born Andrea Elena Mangiamarchi in Miami to Venezuelan parents, Rose grew up between Puerto Rico and Venezuela before returning to her hometown due to sociopolitical and economic crises in the South American country. No matter her location, she loved to sing anywhere and everywhere: initially, she began as a performer, singing in bars, restaurants and at parties.
She met mentor and producer Patrick Romantik in Miami in her early twenties, who brought Rose to the studio and taught her the ins and outs of the technology, while also letting her observe sessions to learn about the songwriting process. “And my years of silence began,” she reflects. “I remember they told me, ‘OK, you can be here, but we cannot feel you.’ ”
During that time, she watched writers and producers such as Servando Primera, Yasmil Murrufo and Mario Cáceres create hits including Becky G’s “Mayores” featuring Bad Bunny in 2019, which reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100. Along the way, she gained an informal music education as a hitmaker.
“When I worked in bars in Miami, the musicians were Ricky Martin’s percussionist, Alejandro Sanz’s pianist, the bassist who had played with Stevie Wonder,” Rose says. “It was my best school because they were people who had experienced music, understood it and wanted to preserve it.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
She continued to self-release new singles through the next few years, such as “La Ducha” and “Picachu” and made appearances at key industry events such as Billboard Latin Music Week, where she has participated every year since 2021 either as a panelist or a performer. In summer 2022, she signed a record label deal with Warner Music Latina.
“Her lyrics, her voice, her presence and the ability she has to convey emotions is unparalleled,” said the label’s president Alejandro Duque at the time. In September of the following year, she agreed to a management deal with OCESA Seitrack, whose artists include superstars such as Sanz and Alejandro Fernández.
“The day I sat down a year and a half ago to have dinner with her, I was blown away,” says OCESA Seitrack founder/CEO Alex Mizrahi. He adds today that he recognized her as “a diamond in the rough” with the potential of becoming “the next Karol G” in terms of success.
In the year-plus since then, she has released soulful solo songs, including the empowering “Me Lo Merezco” in March. But her collaborations with artists spanning genres on her November EP, En Las Nubes (Con Mis Panas), and elsewhere have taken her to new markets — chiefly with “Orion.” Sophisticated in both its lyrics and production, the song is a captivating fusion of reggaetón, salsa and Afrobeats. It has an irresistibly playful bridge from Boza, and with Rose’s evocative writing, the single shows new layers to both artists.
“I made the song ‘Orion’ at a [writers] camp in Miami a year ago,” remembers Boza. “I heard it with the producer, Daramola, and the songwriters, Essa Gante and Omar, and at that moment we already knew that we needed a female voice. Together with my team, we thought of Elena.”
Adds Rose: “When this song came to me, I remember saying, ‘OK, it has a soul, it has something nice. If you allow me, I want to take it to my world and see how I can give it a little more of myself.’ I remember that was when I gave love to the chorus, changed the lyrics, and wrote my verse. I feel that, for me, the concept of ‘Orion’ became a source of information on emotional intelligence.”
The song was released May 29 on Sony Music Latin (Boza’s record label), with an official music video arriving the following day. Though Rose recorded her part separately, they got together to shoot the video in Panama, which has since tallied more than 105 million views on YouTube. “Orion” steadily began to take hold at radio as well, and by mid-September, it debuted at No. 20 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. Three weeks later, it arrived on the overall Latin Airplay ranking. It has held ever since on both, with “Orion” spending the last six weeks at No. 2 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. It has also reached a No. 15 high on Latin Airplay. “Working with her is like traveling to another planet,” Boza says of Rose.
As her public profile reached new heights fueled by the song’s success, so did her status within the industry: in September, she earned three Latin Grammy nominations, for song of the year for “Caracas En El 2000” with Danny Ocean and Jerry Di; best pop/rock song for “Blanco y Negro,” a LAGOS song featuring Rose; and best regional song for her hand in Becky G’s “Por El Contrario,” which she co-wrote with Latin hitmakers Edgar Barrera and Keityn. (The year prior, she was the only woman to be nominated when the songwriter of the year category was inaugurated.)
Rose has continued to prioritize her collaborative efforts, releasing both the country-tinged ballad “A Las 12 Te Olvidé” with Ha*Ash and a Latin pop song infused with cumbia and urban rhythms, “Pa’ Qué Volviste?” with Maria Becerra, as non-EP singles in November. And while her success with Boza has made her a recognizable face in Panama — Rose coyly says that a recent flight she was taking was delayed after the co-pilot requested a photo with her — Mizrahi teases that more duets are on the immediate horizon, which aim to bolster her following in other countries.
In the coming months, there are plans for releases with Camilo and Morat (both from Colombia), Sanz (Spain) and Los Ángeles Azules (Mexico). She is also scheduled to perform at both Lollapalooza Argentina and Lollapalooza Chile in March 2025. “The goal is to bring Elena’s music to the world,” Mizrahi says, “to make her a global artist.”
Elena Rose photographed September 26, 2024 at Grove Studios in Miami.
Mary Beth Koeth
A version of this story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.
The legendary Bing Crosby is back in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time in nearly 64 years, as his new holiday compilation Ultimate Christmas climbs 18-9 on the chart dated Dec. 14.
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The entertainer, who died in 1977, was last in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with his classic Merry Christmas album, which ranked at No. 9 on the Dec. 31, 1960-dated chart. It had previously spent a week at No. 1 on Jan. 6, 1958-dated chart.
Merry Christmas became the second holiday album to top the Billboard 200, following its launch as a regularly published weekly chart in March 1956. Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album was the first chart-topping holiday set, as it topped the chart for three weeks in December 1957, moved aside for Crosby for a week and then returned to No. 1 for one more week in January 1958.
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Ultimate Christmas is available as 14-song standard album, an expanded 28-song edition, and a deluxe 58-song version. All versions of the album contain such classic Holiday 100-charting tunes from Crosby as “White Christmas” (featuring The Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra), “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “Mele Kalikimaka” (with The Andrews Sisters) and “Silent Night” (featuring John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr’s Mixed Chorus).
In the tracking week ending Dec. 5, as reflected on the Dec. 14-dated Billboard 200 chart, Ultimate Christmas earned 50,000 equivalent album units in the week ending (up 59%). Of that sum, SEA units comprise 46,000 (up 62%; equaling 61.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks; it jumps 16-6 on Top Streaming Albums).
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 Dec. 14, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Tuesday, Dec. 10. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
On Sunday night (Dec. 8), Taylor Swift played the last of 149 shows on The Eras Tour. As reported earlier Monday, the record-setting trek grossed more than $2 billion and sold over 10 million tickets: $2,077,618,725 and 10,168,008, respectively, to be exact.
The news was first reported by The New York Times.
Without qualification, The Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour of all time, by artists of any genre, and from any era in music history. If compared to data officially reported to Billboard Boxscore, it is the biggest tour ever by an unthinkable distance of more than $900 million, blasting past Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022-ongoing) – the only other tour to gross more than $1 billion – by a margin of almost two-to-one.
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Even before The Eras Tour was announced, Swift was one of the most successful touring acts of her generation. Dating back to her first reported solo headline show at Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading, Pa. (April 6, 2007), she has grossed $3 billion across her career, when adding The Eras Tour’s sum to officially reported data for her prior tours to Billboard Boxscore.
Previously, her biggest tour – according to Billboard Boxscore – came when Swift brought in $345.7 million and sold 2.9 million tickets on 2018’s Reputation Stadium Tour, marking a 38% leap from the earnings on 2015’s The 1989 World Tour. The Eras Tour multiplies her prior best more than six times over.
The Eras Tour kicked off in Glendale, Ariz. on March 17, 2023. If the tour hadn’t already made a seismic impact just via its announcement, the actual performances sent Swift from superstardom to the stratosphere. The friendship bracelets, the surprise songs and all of Swift’s eras took over, sparking major economic booms in every city she visited and hysteria among Swifties around the world.
By August 9, 2023, Swift had released her re-recording of Speak Now (July 7), announced the re-recording for 1989 and wrapped the tour’s first U.S. leg. Quickly after, she played her first shows ever in Mexico with four nights at the capital’s Estadio GNP Seguros (then known as Foro Sol), followed by nine shows in South America.
In February 2024, Swift took her talents to Asia and Australia, but not before she won her record-setting fourth Grammy for album of the year for Midnights and announced her next new studio album during an acceptance speech. That one – The Tortured Poets Department, released April 19 – arrived while on break from tour, and once again, set a new career-peak with a debut week of 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S., according to Luminate, and the entire top 14 on the Hot 100. On the current, Dec. 14-dated edition of the Billboard 200, the set returns for a 16th week at No. 1 on the back of a physical release of the album’s deluxe Anthology version, sold exclusively at Target.
In May, Swift took on Europe, with 48 shows across the continent. While Tortured Poets spent most of the summer atop the Billboard 200, The Eras Tour continued its blistering pace, including eight nights at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Finally, Swift returned to North America for three shows each in Miami, New Orleans, and Indianapolis, plus six in Toronto and one last weekend in Vancouver.
ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” leads the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts for a seventh week each. The song debuted as the stars’ second leader on each survey.
Plus, four holiday songs light up the Global 200’s top 10 and three decorate the Global Excl. U.S. top 10.
The Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
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Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
“APT.” rules the Global 200 with 149.9 million streams (down 7%) and 18,000 sold (down 13%) worldwide Nov. 29-Dec. 5. The hit now boasts seven of the top eight global streaming weeks among songs released in 2024:
224.5 million, “APT.,” ROSÉ & Bruno Mars, Nov. 2
207.5 million, “APT.,” Nov. 9
176.8 million, “Fortnight,” Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone, May 4
162.2 million, “APT.,” Nov. 16
160.6 million, “APT.,” Dec. 7
149.9 million, “APT.,” Dec. 14
146.4 million, “APT.,” Nov. 23
132.7 million, “APT.,” Nov. 30
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” surges 9-2 on the Global 200, with 92.7 million streams (up 48%) and 7,000 sold (up 77%) worldwide. The modern Yuletide standard, originally released in 1994, has spent a record 18 weeks at No. 1 dating to the chart’s start (five each over the 2023 and 2022 holidays and four in both the 2021 and 2020 holiday seasons).
Plus, three other classic carols return to the Global 200’s top 10: Wham’s “Last Christmas” (11-4), Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (21-6) and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (25-8). The songs have hit respective Nos. 2, 2 and 4 highs. They drew 84.3 million streams (up 75%), 63.6 million streams (up 60%) and 56.7 million streams (up 61%) worldwide, respectively, in the tracking week.
Lady Gaga and Mars’ “Die With a Smile” slips 2-3 on the Global 200, following eight weeks at No. 1, the most for any song this year, beginning in September. It drew 115.2 million streams (essentially even week-over-week) worldwide in the latest tracking frame and has tallied over 100 million streams globally in each of the last 14 weeks, the longest such streak since the chart began.
Elsewhere in the Global 200’s top five, Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther,” with SZA, slips to No. 5 a week after it debuted at No. 4.
“APT.” concurrently tops Global Excl. U.S. with 132.6 million streams (down 6%) and 12,000 sold (down 7%) outside the U.S. Nov. 29-Dec. 5.
“Die With a Smile” holds at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. following eight weeks at No. 1 starting in September; Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” lifts 5-3, having spent a record-tying 13 weeks at No. 1; Wham’s “Last Christmas” leaps 14-4, after reaching No. 2 (54.1 million streams, up 88%); and Stromae and Pomme’s “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” jumps to No. 5 a week after it entered the chart at No. 8.
Plus, Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” dances merrily back to the Global Excl. U.S. top 10 (34-10), with 32.4 million streams (up 70%) outside the U.S. in the tracking week.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Dec. 14, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Dec. 10. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
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.
Billboard is counting down the Top Artists of 2024, as based on weekly chart activity, as we build toward the Billboard Music Awards on Thursday (Dec. 12) and the reveal of nearly 500 year-end charts on Friday (Dec. 13). Starting Monday (Dec. 9), we’re unveiling the No. 10 and No. 9 acts on the year-end […]
Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” dashes through all competition on the Billboard Hot 100 once again, surging nine spots to No. 1 for a 15th total week atop the chart.
The carol reigns in a record-extending sixth holiday season. It was originally released on Carey’s album Merry Christmas in November 1994 and, as streaming has grown and holiday music has become more prominent on streaming services’ playlists, it hit the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time in December 2017, and the top five for the first time in the 2018 holiday season. It led at last, prior to this week, over the holidays in 2019 (for three weeks), 2020 (two), 2021 (three), 2022 (four) and 2023 (two).
“When I wrote [it], I had absolutely no idea the impact the song would eventually have worldwide,” Carey marveled in 2021. “I’m so full of gratitude that so many people enjoy it with me every year.”
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” became Carey’s 19th Hot 100 No. 1, the most among soloists and one away from The Beatles’ overall record 20. It also made Carey the first artist to have ranked at No. 1 on the chart in four distinct decades (1990s, 2000s, ‘10s and ‘20s).
Holiday cheer infuses half the Hot 100’s top 10, including the entire top three. Below Carey, Brenda Lee bounds 15-2 with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 last holiday season, reaching the summit at last 65 years after its release. Plus, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” leaps 18-3, as the 1984 single hits a new Hot 100 high.
Two other classics return to the Hot 100’s top 10: Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (19-5) and Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (33-10).
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Dec. 14, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow (Dec. 10). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
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.
‘Christmas’ Streams, Airplay & Sales
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 16th nonconsecutive week, as the set vaults 8-1 on the chart dated Dec. 14, following the first physical release of the album’s deluxe Anthology edition, exclusively at Target in the U.S. The set earned 405,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 5 — up 839% — according to Luminate, largely driven by physical album sales. It’s the biggest week for any album since Poets’ second week, when it tallied 439,000 units.
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TTPD was initially released on April 19 as a standard 16-song digital download album, as well as an in array of 17-song physical configurations. Two hours after the album dropped, Swift issued an expanded 31-song edition of the album, dubbed The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which added 15 additional songs. However, the Anthology edition was only available as a digital download and streaming set until Nov. 29, when its CD and vinyl editions became available for purchase exclusively through Target. The Target CD and vinyl additionally boasted four bonus acoustic tracks (which were previously released in other alternative versions of the album).
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The announcement of Poets’ return to No. 1 comes on the same day (Dec. 8) that Swift closes her globe-trotting, stadium-filling The Eras Tour in Vancouver, after 149 dates. The retrospective trek launched in March 2023 and visited 21 countries across five continents.
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Juice WRLD’s The Party Never Ends debuts at No. 4, securing the late rapper his sixth top five-charting set. Plus, the top 10 is getting festive, as the region welcomes its first holiday titles this season: Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas jingles 12-7 and Bing Crosby’s new compilation Ultimate Christmas dashes 18-9. With the latter, Crosby claims his first top 10 album in nearly 64 years.
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 Dec. 14, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Dec. 10). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 405,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 5, traditional album sales comprise 368,000 (up 4,377%; it surges 17-1 on Top Album Sales for a ninth nonconsecutive week on top), SEA units comprise 37,000 (up 6%; equaling 48.19 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it holds at No. 9 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (down 21%).
Of TTPD’s 368,000 album sales for the week, vinyl sales comprise 191,000 (up 3,284%) and CD sales comprise 177,000 (up 7,738%), largely driven by sales from the exclusive editions sold at Target. (Digital download and cassette sales comprise a negligible sum for the week.)
Poets spent its first 12 weeks on the Billboard 200 at No. 1 (charts dated May 4-July 20), fell to No. 4 for two weeks, returned to No. 1 for three more weeks (Aug. 10-Aug. 24 charts) and then departed the top slot until the latest chart.
With a 16th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, The Tortured Poets Department now solely has the third-most weeks at No. 1 among albums by women (since the list began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956). It steps past Carole King’s Tapestry, which registered 15 weeks at No. 1 in 1971. Only Adele’s 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12) and the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (20 weeks in 1992-93) have more weeks at No. 1 among women.
The last album to spend at least 16 weeks at No. 1 was Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which logged 19 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between March 2023 and this March. The last album by a woman to spend at least 16 weeks at No. 1 was Adele’s 21, which earned 24 nonconsecutive weeks on top in 2011-12.
With Poets — Swift’s longest-leading album on the Billboard 200 — she adds her 85th career week at No. 1 on the chart, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 No. 1 albums. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
Kendrick Lamar’s GNX falls 1-2 on the Billboard 200 in its second week with 165,000 equivalent album units earned (down 48%). The Wicked film soundtrack dips 2-3 in its second frame, with 108,000 units earned (down 22%).
The late Juice WRLD collects his sixth top five (and top 10) charting effort — the entirety of his charting releases — as The Party Never Ends debuts at No. 4. The set bows with 86,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 84,000 (equaling 123.43 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks; it debuts at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 2,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
The new album was preceded by the Billboard Hot 100 chart hit “AGATS2 (Insecure)” (with Nicki Minaj), which reached No. 68 on the Nov. 30-dated chart. On the Hot Rap Songs chart, it debuted and peaked at No. 11.
The Party Never Ends is the third posthumously released charting effort for Juice WRLD, who died on Dec. 8, 2019. Since his passing, he’s notched Billboard 200 entries with Legends Never Die (two weeks at No. 1 in 2020), Fighting Demons (No. 2 in 2021) and now The Party Never Ends.
Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topping Short n’ Sweet falls 3-5 on the Billboard 200 with 68,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%), while Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft slips 5-6 with 59,000 units (though up 18%).
Bublé’s chart-topping Christmas returns to the Billboard 200’s top 10, jumping 12-7 with 56,000 equivalent album units earned (up 53%). The set, first released in 2011, spent five weeks at No. 1 in December 2011 and early January 2012 and has returned to the top 10 in every following holiday season. In the latest tracking week, of its 56,000 units, SEA units comprise 48,000 (up 59%; equaling 63.79 million on-demand official streams of its songs; it climbs 13-5 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 8,000 (up 23%; it falls 27-30 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess rises 10-8 on the Billboard 200 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned (up 23%).
The legendary Crosby is back in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 for the first time in nearly 64 years, as his new holiday compilation Ultimate Christmas climbs 18-9. The set earned 50,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Dec. 5 (up 59%). Of that sum, SEA units comprise 46,000 (up 62%; equaling 61.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks; it jumps 16-6 on Top Streaming Albums).
Crosby, who died in 1977, was last in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with his classic Merry Christmas album, which ranked at No. 9 on the Dec. 31, 1960-dated chart. It had previously spent a week at No. 1 on Jan. 6, 1958-dated chart.
Merry Christmas became the second holiday album to top the Billboard 200, following its launch as a regularly published weekly chart in March 1956. Elvis Presley’s Elvis Christmas Album was the first chart-topping holiday set, as it topped the chart for three weeks in December 1957, moved aside for Crosby for a week and then returned to No. 1 for one more week in January 1958.
Ultimate Christmas is available as 14-song standard album, an expanded 28-song edition, and a deluxe 58-song version. All versions of the album contain such classic Holiday 100-charting tunes from Crosby as “White Christmas” (featuring The Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra), “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “Mele Kalikimaka” (with The Andrews Sisters) and “Silent Night” (featuring John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra and Max Terr’s Mixed Chorus).
Rounding out the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 is Tyler, The Creator’s chart-topping CHROMAKOPIA, falling 4-10 with 49,000 equivalent album units earned (down 19%).
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.
The Philly Specials’ charity album A Philly Special Christmas Party makes a festive debut across Billboard’s charts, opening at No. 1 on Independent Albums; in the top 10 on Top Album Sales (No. 2), Top Holiday Albums (No. 2), Vinyl Albums (No. 2); and at No. 16 on the all-genre Billboard 200 (all charts dated Dec. 7).
It’s the third and final release in the charity series, presented by The Philly Specials (former Philadelphia Eagles football player Jason Kelce and his teammates Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata).
Party arrives with the biggest sales week for any holiday album in four years, and the largest sales week for a holiday album on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991). A Philly Special Christmas Party sold 32,000 copies in its first week (ending Nov. 28), with 22,000 of that sum on vinyl. The album was commercially released on CD, vinyl and digital download on Nov. 22.
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The last holiday set with a bigger sales week overall was when Carrie Underwood’s My Gift sold 33,000 nearly three months into its release, on the Dec. 19, 2020-dated charts. Previously, the biggest sales week in the modern era for a holiday set on vinyl was when Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack pushed through 20,000 copies in late 2022 (Dec. 31, 2022 chart date).
The new Party album boasts collaborations with the likes of Boyz II Men, Stevie Nicks, Mt. Joy and Jason’s brother (and Kansas City Chiefs tight end) Travis Kelce and includes covers of tunes like “Maybe This Christmas,” “Last Christmas” and “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
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.
As for the rest of the top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart, the Wicked film soundtrack debuts at No. 1 (85,000), Kendrick Lamar’s GNX debuts at No. 3 (32,000), ATEEZ’s Golden Hour: Part.2 falls 1-4 in its second week (24,000; down 87%), Marilyn Manson’s One Assassination Under God: Chapter 1 debuts at No. 5 (20,000), Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene re-enters the chart at No. 6 (18,000; up 14,517% after it was issued on vinyl and CD for the first time), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 7 (16,000; up 9%), ENHYPEN’s chart-topping Romance: Untold falls 4-8 (15,000; down 70%), Ice Cube’s Man Down debuts at No. 9 (nearly 15,000) and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess rises 11-10 (13,000; up 16%).
Breaking Benjamin reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for an eighth time, ascending to the top of the Dec. 14-dated ranking with “Awaken.”
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It’s the Ben Burnley-fronted band’s first ruler since 2020, when “Far Away,” featuring Scooter Ward, led for three weeks.
The band first led Mainstream Rock Airplay in 2007 with “Breath,” for seven weeks.
Concurrently, “Awaken” bullets at its No. 4 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 4 million audience impressions, up 4%, in the week ending Dec. 5, according to Luminate. That’s the band’s best rank on the tally since “I Will Not Bow,” which led for four weeks in 2009.
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In addition to its mainstream rock radio success, “Awaken” is bubbling under Alternative Airplay. Breaking Benjamin is seeking its first appearance on the chart since 2015, when it notched two entries, “Failure” and “Angels Fall.”
On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated Dec. 7, reflecting the Nov. 22-28 tracking period), “Awaken” ranked at No. 5, after hitting No. 2 in early November; in addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 1.2 million official U.S. streams in that span.
“Awaken” is the lead single from Breaking Benjamin’s seventh studio album, whose title and release date have not yet been announced. Its predecessor, Ember, debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart in April 2018, while compilation Aurora led in February 2020.
All Billboard charts dated Dec. 14 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” shoots to No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts (dated Dec. 14).
The song crowns its second and third radio rankings, after it led Alternative Airplay for a week in September.
The folk-inflected hit, on It’s OK To Feel/RCA Records, becomes the first initial entry on each ranking to top the tallies for an English soloist.
In the quarter-century-plus that Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay and Alternative Airplay have coexisted, “Stargazing” is the 17th song overall to lead each list. (See list, below.)
Smith and co-writers Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink penned most of “Stargazing,” in Malibu, Calif., in about 15 minutes, followed by an exclusive premiere at a time optimal for the song’s title.
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“I get back to West Hollywood at 2 or 3 in the morning, and I play the day-of demo,” Smith recalled to Billboard earlier this year. “I remember my manager waking up on the sofa like, ‘What is this?’ Everyone in the house is running and jumping around. For my team — my harshest critics, after my mum — to give me that genuine reaction, I knew I was on to something.”
Songs to Hit No. 1 on Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay & Alternative Airplay Charts:
Title, Artist, Year(s), Song Reached No. 1
“Stargazing,” Myles Smith, 2024
“Too Sweet,” Hozier, 2024
“Enemy,” Imagine Dragons X JID, 2022
“High Hopes,” Panic! at the Disco, 2018
“Thunder,” Imagine Dragons, 2017
“Feel It Still,” Portugal. The Man, 2017
“Stressed Out,” Twenty One Pilots, 2015-16
“Royals,” Lorde, 2013
“We Are Young,” fun. feat. Janelle Monáe, 2012
“Somebody That I Used To Know,” Gotye feat. Kimbra 2012
“Use Somebody,” Kings of Leon, 2009
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Green Day, 2004
“The Reason,” Hoobastank, 2004
“Every Morning,” Sugar Ray, 1999
“Slide,” Goo Goo Dolls, 1998-99
“Iris,” Goo Goo Dolls, 1998
“Tubthumping,” Chumbawamba, 1997
Among the 17 songs above, Smith is the eighth artist to send a first entry on each chart to No. 1, joining fellow soloists JID, Lorde, Monáe, Gotye and Kimbra, as well as groups fun. and Chumbawamba. The latter band is the only English act other than Smith to score such a triple with a breakthrough hit.
All charts dated Dec. 14 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Dec. 10.