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Kelly Clarkson earns her fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated July 8) as her latest studio effort, Chemistry, debuts atop the list. The set sold 43,000 copes in the U.S. in the week ending June 29, according to Luminate. Clarkson previously led the tally with Piece by Piece (2015), All I Ever Wanted (2009) and Thankful (2003). All told, Chemistry is her 10th top 10-charting title on Top Album Sales.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Young Thug nabs his sixth top 10 set as Business Is Business bows at No. 6.
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. The new July 8, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 5, one day later than usual, owed to the Independence Day holiday in the U.S. on July 4. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Chemistry’s 43,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise 25,500 (18,000 on CD and 7,500 on vinyl) and digital album sales comprise 17,500. The set also enters at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart (her first leader there), and with 7,500 sold, Chemistry lands Clarkson her best week ever on vinyl.
Chemistry’s sales were bolstered by its availability across multiple vinyl variants, including exclusive color editions for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Clarkson’s webstore, Spotify, Target, Urban Outfitters and Walmart. (Target’s edition also had an alternative cover.) Clarkson’s CD sales were enhanced by multiple editions, including a signed version sold through her webstore, an Amazon-exclusive that contained a poster and a Target-exclusive variant with an alternative cover.
ATEEZ’s The World EP.2: Outlaw falls to No. 2 in its second week, with 32,000 sold (down 68%) after debuting atop the list a week ago. Stray Kids’ former No. 1 5-STAR is a non-mover at No. 3 with 19,000 (down 28%) and ENHYPEN’s Dark Blood is also stationary at No. 4 with 11,000 (down 10%). Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Midnights is steady at No. 5 with nearly 11,000 sold (down 4%).
Young Thug’s Business Is Business is the second and final debut in the top 10, as it starts at No. 6 with 8,500 sold, with 97% of that figure from digital album sales. A small number of sales were generated by a CD edition of the album that was released late in the tracking week to a limited number of independent record stores. Business is the sixth top 10-charting set for the rapper.
Swift has two more albums in the top 10, as her former No. 1s Folklore (10-7 with 8,000; up 4%) and Lover (16-8 with 7,000; up 16%) both climb. Two more chart-topping sets round out the top 10, as SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML is a non-mover at No. 9 (nearly 7,000; down 19%) and TWICE’s Ready to Be rises 13-10 (6,000; down 9%).
In the week ending June 29, there were 1.708 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 13.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.363 million (down 17%) and digital albums comprised 346,000 (up 3.1%).
There were 620,000 CD albums sold in the week ending June 29 (down 14.4% week-over-week) and 735,000 vinyl albums sold (down 19.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 17.537 million (up 3.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 23.606 million (up 21.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 50.641 million (up 7.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 41.407 million (up 13.3%) and digital album sales total 9.234 million (down 11.2%).
It had been more than two years since we’d heard new music from Olivia Rodrigo, but that all changed first thing Friday when she released “Vampire,” the lead single from her Sept. 8-scheduled sophomore album GUTS. In a tight, under-four-minute package, the melodramatic new song transitions from a “Drivers License”-style piano ballad to a My […]
Ariana Grande, Drake, Halsey, Harry Styles, Diplo, Kendall Jenner and many more celebs are joining BLACKPINK’s Blink fandom.
Toni Collette is a certified Swiftie. After seeing Taylor Swift perform at her second Eras Tour show in Cincinnati, the 50-year-old Golden Globe winner took to Instagram Sunday (July 2) to sing the musician’s praises. “Thank you @taylorswift for the MOST INCREDIBLE night last night‼️🙏🏻” the actress began her post. “Your talent is immeasurable and your generosity […]
Don’t let the focus on motherhood and her business empires fool you — Rihanna definitely has not forgotten that she’s one of the biggest music artists of all time, and neither should fans. The Grammy winner took to Instagram recently to share a graphic of her latest record-breaking achievement that Spotify later confirmed: On July […]
Rosie O’Donnell shared an update on her longtime friend Madonna after the Queen of Pop was hospitalized due to a bacterial infection. The comedian took to Instagram on Sunday (July 2) to share a throwback photo of the duo starring in the 1992 sports comedy film, A League of Their Own. “remember when? #league #mo,” O’Donnell captioned […]
Hugh Grant is officially hooked on that pink venom. After seeing BLACKPINK perform, the 62-year-old Golden Globe winner took to Twitter to announce his new place among the BLINKs’ ranks. “Very grateful to three eleven year olds for taking me to see @BLACKPINK yesterday,” the film star tweeted Monday (July 3). “Am rabid Blink now. […]
Time is ticking down before Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) finally arrives this Friday (July 7), and Taylor Swift is here to remind you to pre-save the record.
In a Monday (July 3) exclusive video for Spotify, the 33-year-old pop star looked like she’d come straight out of 2010, wearing a whimsical green sundress and a long necklace, her hair in a fishtail side braid. “Hey! It’s Taylor Swift,” she said, seated in front of a purple backdrop and flickering purple candles.
“The next chapter begins on July 7, when Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) comes out,” she continued, smiling at the camera. “You can pre-save it now on Spotify.”
The video can be found on Swift’s “Upcoming releases” page on the music streaming app, which links fans to a timer counting down to release day, the record’s full tracklist and physical copies of the record available for purchase on the “Anti-Hero” singer’s website. Previously, Swift filmed a video for the Spotify page giving fans a peek at one of the magical purple vinyl discs and its accompanying poster.
Featuring re-recorded versions of all 14 of Speak Now‘s original tracks and six previously unreleased songs “From the Vault,” the fast-approaching project will mark the third of six planned “Taylor’s Version” albums. In 2021, Swift dropped both Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), leaving her 2006 self-titled debut, 2014’s 1989 and 2017’s Reputation as the only albums left in the re-recording process.
Last week, Swifties got a taste of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) when “Back to December (Taylor’s Version)” was featured in a new The Summer I Turned Pretty season two trailer, which also included the Grammy winner’s Folklore fan-favorite “August.” The new season arrives on Prime Video exactly one week after Swift’s album, following a first season that included several other Swift tracks (“False God,” “Cruel Summer,” “This Love,” “The Way I Loved You” and more).
In June, Swift laid down some rules ahead of the album’s release at an Eras Tour show in Minneapolis. Just before performing “Dear John,” a scathing Speak Now ballad widely believed to be about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer, the Grammy winner asked fans not to spread hate online on her behalf.
“I’m 33 years old,” she told the crowd. “I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19. I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”
Watch Swift’s new message to fans on Spotify below:
As Olivia Rodrigo officially kicks off the campaign for Guts, her second studio album, Billboard looks back on 21 of the most anticipated sophomore pop albums of the 21st century.
A Kentucky man’s proposal to his girlfriend during one of Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour shows in Cincinnati over the weekend has blown up. It might have something to do with Tyler Browne’s perfect timing in popping the question to his girlfriend and avowed Swiftie, Ana Stone.
According to WKRC, Browne scored a pair of floor tickets for the Friday night show with a secret plan in place to pop the question during “Love Story.” In fact, he said he spent a month-and-a-half memorizing the words to the fan-favorite Fearless hit so he could hit just the right note when getting down on his knee during the section where Swift sings, “He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, ‘Marry Me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone.’”
“I texted on my phone in my notes, ‘Hey, would you guys please help me? I’m going to propose to my girlfriend during ‘Love Story,’ and everyone around me, the band rallied, and we got the thing done,” Browne told WKRC about his plan to enlist some adjacent Swifties into his surprise Swift-posal.
Browne said he was keeping an eye on the set list the whole night, counting down on his phone until the big moment finally came nine songs into the show. “I’m like, ‘Please don’t mess this up,’” he said of his nervousness. Luckily, things went off without a hitch, with those around the couple getting a sneaky thumbs up behind his back when the moment was at hand.
“He wouldn’t look at me until that part of the song, and I was wondering why he would not make eye contact with me or look at me,” Stone said. “Everybody screaming around us when everyone turned to face us. I will never forget that because it was so precious.”
“She said yes, thank gosh. It was the best day ever,” Browne told the station. “It was the best day ever,” Stone seconded. The station reported that the original video has more than 400,000 likes to date and has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
It wasn’t the only unexpected moment during that night’s show, which also included an unplanned bit where Swift was forced to sprint to a main stage secret door after a trap door on the thrust stage failed to open.
Check out a fan video of the proposal below.