USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Certified Lover Boy' spends second week at no.1
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Drake’s Certified Lover Boy spends a second week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, as the set earned 236,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 16

(down 61%), according to MRC Data. The set opened at No. 1 a week ago with the year’s biggest week for an album, 613,000 units. Of Certified Lover Boy’s 236,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 16, SEA units comprise 227,000 units (down 60%, equaling 305.43 million on-demand streams of the album’s 21 tracks), album sales comprise 6,500 (down 86%) and TEA units comprise 2,500 units (down 45%). Of Drake’s 10 No. 1 albums, Certified is his fourth to spend more than a week atop the list. His other multiple-week chart-toppers are Scorpion (No. 1 for five weeks in 2018), More Life (No. 1 for three weeks in 2017) and Views (No. 1 for 13 weeks in 2016). Kanye West’s former No. 1 Donda is a non-mover at No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, with 79,000 equivalent album units earned (down 44%). Kacey Musgraves’ new studio album Star-Crossed debuts at No. 3 with 77,000 equivalent album units earned, scoring the 

singer-songwriter her fourth top five-charting effort. Plus, the album’s 77,000 units marks Musgraves’ largest week, by units earned, since the Billboard 200 began measuring by units in December of 2014. Of Star-Crossed’s 77,000 units, album sales comprise 47,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week), SEA units comprise 30,000 (equaling 38.23 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 units. Star-Crossed’s sales of 47,000 mark Musgraves’ second-largest sales week, trailing only the debut of Pageant Material, which bowed with 55,000 sold (July 11, 2015-dated chart). Star-Crossed also logs the second-largest debut streaming week for a country album by a woman, in terms of on-demand streams (38.23 million). Only Taylor Swift’s re-recorded Fearless (Taylor’s Version) had a larger debut frame, when it launched with 142.98 million clicks on the April 24, 2021-dated chart. Star-Crossed follows Musgraves’ 2018 album Golden Hour, which debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the April 14, 2018 chart. The set would later win two Grammy Awards, for best country album and for album of the year. Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour is stationary at No. 4 with 54,000 equivalent album units earned (down 11%). Baby Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue bows at No. 5 with 53,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 52,000 (equaling 70.13 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 1,000 and TEA units comprise less than 1,000. The set features two collaborations with Baby Keem’s cousin Kendrick Lamar as well as a joint effort with Travis Scott and a track featuring Don Toliver. Doja Cat’s Planet Her falls from No. 5 to No. 6 with 50,000 equivalent album units earned – though it’s up 1% for the week. During the tracking frame, she pulled double-duty on the Sept. 12 MTV Video Music Awards, as the show’s host and a performer. She also took home the award for best collaboration, for the album’s “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA. The Kid LAROI’s F*ck Love rises 8-7 with 39,000 equivalent album units (down less than 1%) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album dips 6-8 with just under 39,000 units (down 3%). Both albums previously hit No. 1. Metallica’s 1991 self-titled No. 1 album (often referred to as The Black Album, due to its stark black cover) surges from No. 158 to No. 9 in the wake of its 30th anniversary reissue on Sept. 10 in a variety of formats. The set earned 37,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Sept. 16 (up 397%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 29,000 (up 1,365%), SEA units comprise nearly 7,000 (up 34%, equaling 9.17 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 101%). All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes. Metallica returns to the top 10, and its highest rank, for the first time in 29 years. It was last in the top 10 on the Aug. 22, 1992, chart (at No. 10) and was last higher on the April 11, 1992, tally (No. 6). The self-titled set became the band’s first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (of six to-date), and it debuted atop the list dated Aug. 31, 1991 and spent four straight and total weeks at No. 1. Metallica remains the top-selling album in the U.S. since MRC Data began electronically tracking music sales in 1991, with 17.3 million copies sold. Rounding out the Billboard 200’s latest top 10 is Billie Eilish’s former No. 1 Happier Than Ever, falling 7-10 with 34,000 equivalent album units (down 14%). The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber's "Stay" rebounds from No. 6 to No. 1 for a fifth week atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The track dipped to No. 2 on the Hot 100 two weeks ago, as BTS' "Butter" returned for a 10th week at the summit, and No. 6 a week ago as Drake blasted in at No.1 with "Way 2 Sexy," featuring Future and Young Thug, as he claimed a record nine songs in the top 10 simultaneously, including the entire top five, a feat previously achieved only by The Beatles for a week in 1964. "Stay," released on Raymond Braun/Columbia Records/Def Jam, drew 79.3 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 5%) and 27.1 million U.S. streams (down 2%) and sold 12,500 downloads (up 3%) in the week ending Sept. 16, according to MRC Data. The track becomes The Kid LAROI's first Radio Songs No. 1, rising from No. 2, and Bieber's fifth leader, following "I Don't Care," with Ed Sheeran (for a week in September 2019); Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito," on which Bieber is featured (five weeks, beginning in July 2017); "Love Yourself" (11 weeks, beginning in February 2016); and "Sorry" (two weeks, February 2016). Dating to his first week atop Radio Songs (Feb. 13, 2016), Bieber boasts the most No. 1s among all acts, one-upping Sheeran in that span. "Stay" rebounds 15-3 on the Streaming Songs chart, where it has spent six weeks at No. 1, and retreats from its No. 3 high to No. 4 on Digital Song Sales. Drake's "Way 2 Sexy" slips to No. 2 on the Hot 100 after launching at No. 1. It adds a second week atop Streaming Songs (39.9 million, down 41%); drops 6-11 on Digital Song Sales (5,900, down 15%); and debuts at No. 43 on Radio Songs (17.5 million, up 131%, good for top Airplay Gainer honors on the Hot 100). Ed Sheeran's "Bad Habits" bounds 13-3 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2, and Drake's "Knife Talk," featuring 21 Savage and Project Pat, lifts 5-4 in its second week on the chart, as well as 5-2 on Streaming Songs, although with a 31% decline to 31.4 million streams. In 2010, Kesha topped the Hot 100 for nine weeks with her debut hit "TiK ToK." Over a decade later, she's furthering the success of a song that went viral on TikTok: Walker Hayes' "Fancy Like," which soars 21-5 for a new peak, after its remix featuring Kesha was released Sept. 10. In the week ending Sept. 16, the song (all versions combined) gained by 20% to 20.5 million streams and 5% to 30,800 sold, as it wins the Hot 100's top Streaming and Sales Gainer awards. "Fancy Like" holds at No. 2 on Digital Song Sales and vaults 26-7 on Streaming Songs. The crossover hit also roars 40-30 on Radio Songs (21.9 million, up 36%), as it rises 17-13 on the Country Airplay chart, 32-23 on Adult Pop Airplay and 31-24 on Pop Airplay. Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow's "Industry Baby" surges 20-6 on the Hot 100, after debuting at its No. 2 high, up 21% to 5,000 sold and 2% to 21.6 million streams after the pair performed it on the VMAs Sept. 12. Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" jumps 15-7 on the Hot 100, after it led in its debut week in May, and likewise benefits from her performance of the song at the VMAs, and Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More," featuring SZA, soars 19-8 after hitting No. 3, with a gain of 14% to 3,700 sold after Doja Cat hosted the VMAs (and performed two other tracks at the festivities). Rounding out the Hot 100's top 10, Dua Lipa's "Levitating" leaps 23-9 after climbing to No. 2, and Drake's "Girls Want Girls," featuring Lil Baby, falls 2-10 in its second week, as it descends 2-5 on Streaming Songs (24.9 million, down 57%).

Record Of The Month
A hot Latin / EDM tune from Puerto Rican singer / songwriter Farruko and his biggest
smash so far. 'Pepas' ranks currently at no.7 globally with 189,000 points.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Ed Sheeran replaces himself at number one
Monday, September 20, 2021
by Alan Jones, London
 
With immaculate timing (and as predicted in these pages four weeks ago) a new Ed Sheeran single arrives to neatly fill the void created by his old one entering accelerated decline. We are told Shivers was narrowly edged out as the choice of lead single from his forthcoming Equals album and it proves to be

just as popular as its predecessor, entering at No.1 with 59,181 chart sales (43,736 of these from 5.5m streams. It is the 11th No.1 of Ed Sheeran’s career and only the ninth different song to top the charts so far in 2021. Ed Sheeran adds "replacing himself at No.1 on two different occasions" to his ever-growing list of chart firsts, this after Perfect and River (with Eminem) followed each other in January 2018. This week also marks Ed Sheeran's 53rd career week at the top of the singles chart, a total only exceeded by two acts - they naturally being The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Or to put it another way, Ed Sheeran has been No.1 on just shy of 10% of the 535 singles charts compiled since his June 2011 debut. With its streams halved in value by ACR rules, Bad Habits drops to No.3 (35,628 sales) although it remained by some distance the most-streamed track of the week. Despite a strong physical sale by Shivers, it is the older single which would otherwise

have remained at No.1 for a 12th straight week. Predictably there is a small rearrangement of Drake's permitted trio of hits. Girls Want Girls (still No.2 with 38,268 sales) and Fair Trade (down to No.6 with 29,212 sales) retain their chart status, but arriving at the expense of last week's No.5 hit Champagne Poetry (now starred-out) is the track that shot Drake back to the Hot 100 in America. Way 2 Sexy (featuring Young Thug and Future) materialises at No.11 (25,691 sales), the track interpolating Right Said Fred's apparently seminal I'm Too Sexy - following in the footsteps of Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do which was itself a transatlantic chart-topper in 2017. After missing out last week, Elton John and Dua Lipa's Cold Heart rockets (man) into the Top 10 at No.4 (32,134 sales). It is Dua's 12th Top 10 hit and Elton's 32nd, his first as the lead artist on a single since Electricity charged to No.4 in June 2005. The second highest-new entry hands British rapper Central Cee, the biggest of the nine singles he has charted in 2021 alone as Obsessed With You arrives at No.5 with 31,474 sales, beating the No.9 peak scaled by Commitment Issues in the spring. The track samples Pinkpantheress' Just For Me, itself a Top 30 hit just three weeks ago. Meanwhile Heat Waves by Glass Animals continues to receive streaming shine and advances still further to a new peak of No.8 (27,350 sales). Singles sales are off by 1.56% to 22,236,769 with paid-for sales holding steady, down just 0.8% to 390,671. The last time the Manic Street Preachers were No.1 it was September 1998, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours beating Step One by Steps to the summit by the small matter of 95,000 copies. Almost 23 years to the week since that chart battle, the Welsh icons finally top the charts for the second time and by an extraordinary coincidence they beat the same act once again. This time around though the competition was far tougher and indeed a mere 330 chart sales separated the two acts by the final midweek update on Thursday. Their 14th studio album, The Ultra Vivid Lament did eventually come good and sits proudly at the top of the charts, notching up 27,345 chart sales of which 24,881 were physical. After six further Top 3 albums (including two No.2 records with their last two releases), the Manic Street Preachers are finally back at the top of the charts once more. Commiserations then to Steps, who nonetheless fought strongly and eventually finished just over 2,000 copies behind on 25,285 sales. Originally envisaged as the deluxe version of its predecessor which coincidentally also peaked at No.2 when released last December, What The Future Holds - Pt2 has been issued in its own right as their seventh studio album. Steps were looking for their fourth career No.1 but also oddly enough only their second with a full studio album, their second album Steptacular from 1999 the only non-hits release in their catalogue to make it to the top of the charts. Just below the clash of the ’90s icons at the top, Drake's Certified Lover Boy album sheds 61.7% of its first week sales but still clings on at No.3, posting 17,469 sales this time around. Their first studio album in over nine years, The Stranglers' 18th record is a poignant one, their first without retired drummer Jet Black and which also features the final musical contributions of keyboardist Dave Greenfield who passed away from Covid-19 last year. But they too enjoy a return to chart form, Dark Matters reaching No.4 (11,494 sales) as their first Top 10 album since a 1990 Greatest Hits collection peaked at the same position. It is their first studio album to scale these heights since 1983's Feline - also a No.4 record. Back after three years away are the suddenly topically named The Vaccines, their fifth studio album Back In Love City maintains their 100% strike rate of Top 10 records and enters at No.5 with 11,346 sales. Making its first chart appearance since 2014, Metallica's self-titled 1991 album benefits from a deluxe 30th anniversary reissue (complete with an album of quite extraordinary cover versions) and duly enjoys its highest chart placing since its second week on release, re-entering at No.8 with 7,452 sales. Meanwhile, Kacey Musgraves' fourth album becomes her second British Top 10 record in a row. Following the success of 2018's Golden Hour which peaked at No.6 she returns with Star-Crossed whose 7,001 sales are enough to make it No.10 this week. One of the more critically well-received releases of the week, Saint Etienne's 10th studio album has now become one of their biggest for some considerable time. Bob, Pete and Sarah moved 4,859 copies of I've Been Trying To Tell You and the result is a new entry at No.14, their highest-charting album since their brace of Top 10 records with So Tough and Tiger Bay back in their 1990s heyday. This is no market fluke either, its predecessor Home Counties sold just 3,215 copies when it debuted at No.31 back in 2017. Albums sales nudge upwards by 0.55% to 1,797,721. Physical sales however surge 14.96% and hit a seven-week high of 356,893 and a 19.85% market share.