Pop

13 Oct 2023

Ed Sheeran Scores Sixth No. 1 on Top Album Sales Chart With ‘Autumn Variations’

Ed Sheeran notches his sixth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Oct. 14), as his latest studio effort, Autumn Variations, debuts atop the list. It sold 46,500 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 5, according to Luminate.

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With the No. 1 bow of Autumn Variations, Sheeran is the only artist to earn at least two new No. 1s on Top Album Sales in 2023. Autumn’s arrival comes just five months after Sheeran last hit No. 1, when his previous studio set, – (Subtract), launched at No. 1 on the May 20-dated tally, spending a week in charge. Only one other act has had two albums at No. 1 in 2023, but they did so with a carryover title that first hit No. 1 in 2022: Taylor Swift. Her Midnights album had 14 weeks at No. 1 nonconsecutively from Nov. 5, 2022, through June 10, 2023, while her Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) debuted at No. 1 on the July 22, 2023, chart, logging two weeks at No. 1.

Autumn Variations was announced on Aug. 24, a little over a month before the album was released on Sept. 29.

Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart: titles from NCT, Joe Hisaishi and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilco, Grateful Dead, Lil Peep all debut in the top 10, while Green Day’s Dookie re-enters the chart in the top 10 after its 30th anniversary reissue, and Jason Isbell’s Southeastern surges back onto the chart following its 10th anniversary reissue.

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.

Of Autumn Variations’ 46,500 first-week sales, physical sales comprise 33,500 (17,500 on CD and 16,000 on vinyl – his largest week ever on vinyl) and digital downloads comprise a little over 13,000. The set also launches at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart, marking his fourth No. 1 on the 12-year-old tally. The album’s debut-week sales were bolstered by its availability across five vinyl variants, a signed CD and a deluxe digital edition of the album with live versions of each of the album’s songs.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts falls 1-2 on Top Album Sales with nearly 16,000 sold (down 31%). NCT’s Golden Age: The 4th Album debuts at No. 3 with 13,000 sold, marking the third top 10-charting effort for the Korean pop ensemble.

Joe Hisaishi and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s A Symphonic Celebration: Music From the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki bows at No. 4, following its vinyl release on Sept. 29. The set was initially released via digital download and CD on June 30. In the week ending Oct. 5, the Celebration album sold 12,500 copies – with 12,000 of that sum on vinyl, marking the single biggest sales week for a classical album on vinyl since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. (Its vinyl sales were enhanced by its availability in five vinyl variants.)

With 12,500 overall copies sold, Celebration logs the second-largest sales week for a classical album released in 2023, following Def Leppard’s Drastic Symphonies (15,000; June 3-dated chart).

Wilco logs its ninth top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales as the band’s new studio set, Cousin, debuts at No. 5 with a little over 12,000 copies sold. Green Day’s Dookie re-enters the chart at No. 6 with 11,000 sold (up 1,744%) following its 30th anniversary deluxe reissue. The album peaked at No. 2 in 1995 and hasn’t been in the top 10 since April of that year. Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood debuts on Top Album Sales at No. 7 following its 50th anniversary reissue. The set, first released in 1973, sold nearly 10,500 copies in the tracking week (up from a negligible sum the previous week). Jason Isbell also celebrates an anniversary, as his Southeastern album re-enters at No. 8 – a new peak and its first week in the top 10 – with 10,000 sold (up 4,723%) after its 10th anniversary reissue. The album originally peaked at No. 23 in June of 2013.

The physical commercial debut of Lil Peep’s 2016 mixtape Hellboy prompts the album’s debut at No. 9 on Top Album Sales with nearly 10,000 sold. It was released via CD, vinyl and cassette on Sept. 29, but was previously available as a digital download (and via streaming services). It’s the fourth top 10-charting set for the late rapper, who died in 2017. All of his charting efforts on Top Album Sales debuted on the list following his passing.

Closing out the top 10 on Top Album Sales is V’s Layover, which falls 3-10 with 9,000 sold (down 22%).

In the week ending Oct. 5, there were 1.695 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 8.8% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.369 million (up 11.1%) and digital albums comprised 327,000 (down 0.1%).

There were 573,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Oct. 5 (up 6.7% week-over-week) and 784,000 vinyl albums sold (up 14.2%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 26.160 million (up 0.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 34.883 million (up 19.4%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 75.521 million (up 6.0% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 61.449 million (up 10.4%) and digital album sales total 14.071 million (down 9.7%).

13 Oct 2023

Britney Spears ‘The Woman In Me’ Memoir Audiobook to Be Narrated By Actress Michelle Williams

Five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams will narrate Britney Spears‘ upcoming tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me. The singer revealed the news to People magazine in a statement on Friday (Oct. 13), noting that she will read the introduction to the audiobook version, but that Williams will read the rest of the book due out on Oct. 24.

“This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” Spears told the magazine in a statement. “Reliving everything has been exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audiobook. I am so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it.”

In revealing her first turn as an audiobook narrator, Williams — who like Spears has been in the public eye as a performer since her early teens — said in a statement, “I stand with Britney.”

The book announced in July — more than a year after Spears was released from a restrictive 13-year conservatorship — promises to reveal “for the first time her incredible journey — and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.”

In a video tease after the announcement, Spears said, “My book is coming out very, very soon. I worked my ass off for this book. I had a lot of therapy to get this book done, so you guys better like it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine too.” The audiobook version of The Woman in Me will be published simultaneously with the other editions of the book.

In addition to the book, Spears will be back on the big screen for a fan event re-release of her 2002 coming-of-age road-trip dramedy Crossroads, which will hit screens across the world on Oct. 23 and 25.

13 Oct 2023

Lauv Gets All Up in His Feelings For Emotional Piano Cover of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Used to Be Young’

If the heartbreak in Miley Cyrus‘ emotional single “Used to Be Young” just wasn’t quite enough for you, then you should definitely check out Lauv‘s even more devastating take on the song about the bad old good days.

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The singer appeared on BBC 1’sRadio Lounge on Thursday (Oct. 12), and as is customary he performed a cover of his choice. That choice was Cyrus’ recent Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit ballad, which Lauv stripped all the way back to just his aching voice and a keyboard.

“Truth is bulletproof there’s no fooling you I don’t dress the same/ Me and who you said I was yesterday have gone our separate ways/ Left my livin’ fast somewhere in the past, ’cause that’ for chasin’ cars,” Lauv sang in a haunting falsetto over spare keys he tickled with nails painted with silver sparkly polish. The brooding version of Cyrus song ended with Lauv’s voice breaking as he whispered, “I know I used to be crazy/ That’s ’cause I used to be young.”

Lauv also performed an acoustic guitar version of his own “Love U Like That” during the session, which he celebrated in an Instagram Story in which he wrote, “Miley Cyrus, you are a queen. I covered ur song.”

Cyrus kicked off a TikTok series of “untold stories” from throughout her career also called “Used to Be Young” in August in which she took on everything from her Hannah Montana years to why she never released a video for “See You Again.”

Watch Lauv’s cover of “Used to Be Young” below.

13 Oct 2023

TOMORROW X TOGETHER Extend ‘Name’ Series With New LP ‘The Name Chapter: FREEFALL’: Stream It Now

TOMORROW X TOGETHER caps a busy stretch with The Name Chapter: FREEFALL, the South Korean five-piece boyband’s fifth album.

The Name Chapter: FREEFALL arrives just two month after the release of Sweet, the lads’ second Japanese-language album, which debuted at No. 3 on the World Albums chart.

This year has also been a sweet one for TXT — comprising Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun and HueningKai. They’re coming off their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (and third top 10 appearance on the chart) with The Name Chapter: Temptation, from January 2023; a U.S. late night TV debut; a headline performance at this year’s Lollapalooza; and the release of their collaborative single with the Jonas Brothers, “Do It Like That.”

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Produced by Ryan Tedder, the prolific creative behind such hits as OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” and Beyoncé’s “Halo,” “Do It Like That” was the first team-up by TXT and the U.S. sibling trio, and it appears on the new album.

The new music drop follows a round of teases in August via social media posts on both the band and BigHit Music’s accounts, initially identifying the album’s title and sharing a mysterious video teaser.

The Name Chapter: FREEFALL is the second instalment in the K-pop group’s “name” series, after The Name Chapter: Temptation, which impacted the Billboard 200 for a total of 19 weeks, including one cycle at the summit.

It’s 10 cuts deep, and includes the previously-released singles “Chasing That Feeling” (including a second, English-language version) and “Back for More.”

Stream The Name Chapter: FREEFALL in full below.

13 Oct 2023

Troye Sivan’s ‘Something To Give Each Other’ Is ‘The Most Proud I’ve Ever Been’: Stream It Now

More than five years have passed since Troye Sivan dropped an album. The drought is broken, the floodgates open with Something To Give Each Other, the Australian pop star’s third studio LP.

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Something To Give Each Other arrived at the stroke of midnight, its 10 tracks a celebration of “sex, dance, sweat, community, queerness, love and friendship,” and passage through a challenging time.

It’s the followup to Sivan’s sophomore album from 2018, Bloom, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, one of his four top 10 appearances on the chart.

The new LP includes the single “Rush” which has amassed over 215 million combined global streams and debuted on 12 Billboard charts, including a No. 77 bow on the Hot 100; and follow-up single “Got Me Started,” which has raked in over 30 million combined streams, according to EMI.

Written and recorded in London, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Sweden, Sivan worked closely on Something with a collection of collaborators, including Oscar Görres (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Sam Smith), Ian Kirkpatrick (Dua Lipa, Britney Spears), AG Cook (Charli XCX, Beyoncé), Styalz Fuego (Khalid, Imagine Dragons) and Leland (Selena Gomez), and creative director Gordon von Steiner.

To celebrate the fresh release, Sivan shares the official music video for album track “One Of Your Girls,” which features actor and musician Ross Lynch. The clip, which can be seen below, was created by the team behind the videos for “Rush” and “Got Me Started” — director von Steiner, cinematographer Stuart Winecoff (JAY Z, FKA twigs, Miu Miu) and choreographer Sergio Reis (BTS’ “Black Swan”).

The 28-year-old is firmly established in the fields of pop, fashion, film and LGBTQI+ culture, and has been a fixture on U.S. TV over this past week, with spots on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and more. He’s the cover star for the September 2023 issue of Rolling Stone AU/NZ.

The five-year gap between albums, “it wasn’t intentional,” he told Fallon. “It was just like, I started working on it then COVID (happened), then I was filming a TV show, doing whatever. It just took a long time. I’m genuinely, like, this is the most proud I’ve ever been of anything.”

Stream Something To Give Each Other below.

12 Oct 2023

Taylor Swift Is Back in Kansas City to Watch Travis Kelce’s Chiefs vs. Broncos Game

Taylor Swift is back in Kansas City.

One day after her Eras Tour film had its star-studded premiere in Los Angeles, the superstar was spotted heading to Travis Kelce‘s suite on Thursday night (Oct. 12), rocking a Kansas City Chiefs windbreaker and a black miniskirt with black heeled boots. In a TikTok posted by the NFL’s official account, Swift is escorted to the suite for the Thursday Night Football game between the Chiefs and Broncos, while waving to cheering fans.

This is the third Chiefs game Swift has attended over the past month, with the first being on Sept. 24, when the Chiefs faced off against the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium. The pair left the stadium together, as seen in a clip that sports reporter Jarrett Payton shared on X. Kelce and Swift were then spotted riding off together in his convertible, according to photos acquired by TMZ.

The second game was on Oct. 1 in New Jersey, when the Chiefs played the New York Jets. She arrived with a group of famous friends, including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Kelce’s ongoing courtship of Swift began back in July, when he tried (and failed) to hand her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it during her Eras Tour stop in Kansas City — at his Arrowhead Stadium home field.

See her arrive at the stadium below.

@nfl welcome back ? #taylorswift #kansascitychiefs #nfl ♬ original sound – NFL

12 Oct 2023

Here’s What Rich Paul Had to Say to Travis Kelce About Rumored Taylor Swift Relationship

Rich Paul knows a thing or two about dating a musical superstar, but isn’t worried that Travis Kelce will find his way amid his ongoing rumored romance with Taylor Swift.

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Paul, who has been dating Adele since 2021, said on Fox Sports‘ First Things First talk show, that he believes the Kansas City Chiefs tight end already “knows what to do” — they are from the same hometown, after all. “Here’s the thing, Travis Kelce is from Cleveland,” he said. “I don’t have to give him any advice. We’re born with this, so he knows what to do.”

However, he did note that Kelce “can read” his memoir Lucky Me if he needs any further advice. “Travis,” he said, “read Lucky Me!”

Earlier this week, Paul sat down with Gayle King on CBS Mornings, he opened up ever so slightly about his relationship with the “Easy on Me” singer. “She’s been great, I think she would agree that we’ve definitely helped each other,” the father of three said. “I’m in a good space, we’re in a good space. Happy. She’s superb… She’s been great for me. We’ve been great for each other.” Again stressing that his personal life is “not for the media,” when King asked if she should refer to the Grammy-winning singer as “Mrs. Paul” the next time she sees her, Mr. Paul said, “you can say whatever you want.”

12 Oct 2023

Britney Spears Cuddles With J Balvin in Maluma’s New Instagram Post

Britney Spears spent a night out with two Latin superstars this week, and the trio seemed to have a ton of fun posing for Instagram photos.

Maluma took to the social media platform on Thursday (Oct. 12) to share a picture alongside the “Piece of Me” singer and J Balvin, in which Spears and the Colombian superstar are seen in a sweet embrace while Maluma stares dead-eyed into the camera. “Who else is like me in love?” he joked in the caption.

While there are currently no plans for a collaboration between the trio, the comments were flooded with requests for Spears to foray into the Latin music world.

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In the meantime, Spears is gearing up to release her highly anticipated memoir The Woman in Me on Oct. 24. The debut memoir is a “brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope,” according to a press release from publisher Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

The book — and Maluma’s Instagram post — comes amid a new chapter in Spears’ life, ollowing her split from husband Sam Asghari after one year of marriage and six years together. Asghari filed for divorce in August citing “irreconcilable differences.”

The Woman in Me will be available as a hardcover, e-book and audio book. You can pre-order the memoir at various retailers including Amazon (also available on Kindle), Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and Bookshop.

See Maluma’s post below.

12 Oct 2023

Jack Antonoff Says He & Taylor Swift Have ‘Grown Together’: ‘She Put an Amazing Amount of Belief in Me’

Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift have been longtime friends and musical collaborators, and the Grammy-winning producer opened up about his journey with the superstar in a new interview with Today‘s Willie Geist.

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“I could quantify our relationship in very reductive ways about the things we agree on, the sounds we like. But the truth is, we’ve just grown together. She put an amazing amount of belief in me. And it’s powerful,” he shared.

The Bleachers frontman also recalled the now-viral moment where the dynamic duo wrote the bridge for Swift’s “Getaway Car” on video, showing how effortless the two work together. “That video is popular for the perfect reason, which is that is the only time in my life, the million hours I spent in studios, that a camera was ever on…when magic actually happened.”

Most recently, Antonoff joined Swift onstage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in May to perform the Reputation fan-favorite during her Eras Tour.

Antonoff also shared his thoughts on working with Swift to Billboard recently. “When I work with Taylor, there’s still just this person who has these life experiences and this remarkable gift of writing about them,” he explains.

“When we made ‘Anti-Hero,’ I just thought, ‘Wow, that’s so honest and funny, and also so sweet and so sad,’ ” Antonoff added, noting that Swift’s longest-leading Hot 100 chart-topper wouldn’t have worked if they had been preoccupied by radio appeal. “It has this weird beat going through a tremolo — no part of me was like, ‘F–king A, that’s the song to take over the world!’ ”

12 Oct 2023

Check Out Some Rare Photo Outtakes From Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She’s So Unusual’ Ahead of Its 40th Anniversary

This Saturday (Oct. 14) marks 40 years since one of the greatest debut albums of all time introduced the world to the, well, unusual talents of a Brooklyn singer-songwriter. With the Oct. 14, 1983 release of She’s So Unusual, Cyndi Lauper announced she had arrived — and pop music would never quite be the same.

Over nine tracks that encompass exuberant pop, delirious new wave, off-kilter torch songs and empowerment anthems, Lauper invited listeners to flaunt conventions, follow their own arrows and let their freak flags fly. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” – one of six singles from the album – quickly became an era-defining anthem, hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and giving us a gleefully unhinged music video that helped define early MTV (and recently joined the billion views club on YouTube). Soon after, the timeless pop ballad “Time After Time” became her first Hot 100 topper, giving Reagan Era prom-goers a slow dance staple. Before the blockbuster LP’s run was done, it became the first album from a female artist to produce four top 5 Hot 100 singles.

On the Van Gogh-painted heels of the album’s success, Lauper won the best new artist Grammy at the 1985 Grammy Awards, where the cover art – which is in the top 10 of Billboard’s list of the 100 Best Album Covers of All Time – nabbed Janet Perr the Grammy for best recording package.

Shot by rock photography GOAT Annie Leibovitz in front of a shuttered Coney Island wax museum, the cover art features a shoeless Lauper clad in explosively colorful clothing that she thrifted from Screaming Mimi’s, an NYC vintage shop she worked at before catapulting herself into the pop stratosphere.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of an indelible album, Billboard is sharing three rare outtakes from the She’s So Unusual cover shoot, all photographed by Leibovitz on Coney Island during the summer of 1983. For Record Store Day acolytes, a blue vinyl version of the album will hit shelves soon.

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Annie Leibovitz c/o Sony Music Archives