USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Midnights' spends fourth week at no.1
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Taylor Swift’s Midnights spends a fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 3) as it holds atop the list with 177,000 equivalent album units earned

in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 24 (down 13%), according to Luminate. Of Midnights’ 177,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 118,000 (down 16%, equaling 155.8 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 57,000 (down 4%) and SEA units comprise 2,000 (down 49%). Four former No. 1’s follow Swift on the new Billboard 200, as Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss is a non-mover at No. 2 (119,000 equivalent album units; down 30%), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is steady at No. 3 (56,000; up less than 1%), Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me is also stationary at No. 4 (48,000; down 9%) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rises 6-5 (42,000; up 2%). Jackson’s former No. 1 Thriller returns to the top 10, jumping from No. 115 to No. 7 after it was reissued in celebration of its 40th anniversary. It earned 37,000 equivalent album units (up 283%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 27,500 (up 820%),

SEA units comprise 9,000 (equaling 13.17 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 500. Thriller spent 37 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1983-84 — the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a singular artist. The only album with more weeks at No. 1 is the soundtrack to the film West Side Story, with 54 weeks in 1962-63. Thriller was last in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 on the June 30, 1984-dated chart, when it ranked at No. 8. During its initial chart run, its last week on the list was April 20, 1985. It didn’t return to the list until Dec. 5, 2009, when the chart began allowing catalog (older) albums to chart again. (From May of 1991 through November 2009, catalog albums were generally not allowed to chart on the Billboard 200.) For its 40th anniversary, Thriller was reissued in a variety of new configurations and formats, some with additional bonus tracks. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined together for tracking and charting purposes. Thriller has seen a few high-profile reissues in the past, including a remastered “special edition” in 2001 with previously unreleased bonus tracks and a 25th anniversary edition in 2008 with an unreleased song and new remix collaborations with Akon, Fergie, Kanye West and will.i.am. Harry Styles’ former leader Harry’s House rises 9-8 on the new Billboard 200 with 33,000 equivalent album units (up 10%). Rod Wave’s new eight-song Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day Theory debuts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 with nearly 31,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise a little more than 30,000 (equaling 43.32 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), while album sales and TEA units comprise the remaining units. It’s the fifth consecutive and total top 10-charting album for the artist, and follows a pair of No. 1s in Beautiful Mind (2022) and SoulFly (2021). Rounding out the new top 10 is Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas, which rises 19-10 with 31,000 equivalent album units (up 51%%). The set was originally released in 2011 and spent five weeks at No. 1 in late 2011 and early 2012. It has returned to the top 10 in every Christmas season since. Taylor Swift‘s “Anti-Hero” adds a fifth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, encompassing its entire run on the survey so far. In the Nov. 18-24 tracking week, “Anti-Hero,” released on Republic Records, tallied 65.1 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 11%), 25.8 million streams (down 5%) and 12,000 sold (down 60%), according to Luminate. The single rises 4-2 for a new best on the Radio Songs chart; holds at No. 2 after two weeks atop Streaming Songs; and falls to No. 2 after two weeks at the Digital Song Sales summit. As “Anti-Hero” tops the Hot 100 for a fifth week, Swift solely scores her second-longest reign, passing the four-week rule of “Shake It Off” in 2014. Among her nine No. 1s, the two songs are bested only by the seven-week dominance of “Blank Space” in 2014-15. Four weeks ago, “Anti-Hero” soared in atop the Hot 100, as Swift made history as the first artist to monopolize the chart’s entire top 10 in a single week, with all tracks all from her new album Midnights. Meanwhile, of the 64 singles that have debuted atop the Hot 100, “Anti-Hero” is just the 12th to have spent at least its first five weeks on the chart at No. 1, and the first since BTS’ “Butter” led in its first seven weeks in June-July 2021 (before pushing its total to 10 nonconsecutive weeks in the top spot). Drake and 21 Savage’s “Rich Flex” logs a third week on the Hot 100 at No. 2, dating to its debut – when Drake placed eight songs in the top 10 (and 21 Savage, seven). The team-up tallies a third week at No. 1 on Streaming Songs (30.9 million streams, down 14%). Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” repeats at No. 3 on the Hot 100, after it topped the Oct. 29-dated chart, as it leads Radio Songs for a second week (71.9 million in audience, up 9%). Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” holds at No. 4 on the Hot 100, following three weeks at No. 1 in October. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” dashes 25-5 on the Hot 100, with 21.5 million streams (up 54%), 20.6 million airplay audience impressions (up 80%), and 3,000 sold (up 57%). It bounds 17-3 on Streaming Songs, 35-14 on Digital Song Sales and re-enters Radio Songs at No. 38. It also crowns the multi-metric Holiday 100 chart for a 52nd week, of the chart’s 57 total weeks since the list launched in 2011; it has topped the ranking for 37 consecutive weeks, dating to the start of the 2015-16 holiday season, and rules as the top title on the Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs chart. The song sports a record-setting history on the Hot 100, following its 1994 release on Carey’s 1994 album Merry Christmas. As streaming grew through the 2010s and holiday music became more prominent in Yuletide playlists on multiple streaming services, the modern carol hit the top 10 (reaching No. 9) for the first time in December 2017 and the top five (No. 3) for the first time in the 2018 holiday season. In December 2019, it ascended to the summit, 25 years after its original release, becoming the second holiday hit ever to reign, after “The Chipmunk Song” by David Seville & the Chipmunks spent four weeks at No. 1 beginning in December 1958. Also returning to the Hot 100’s top 10 are three other holiday staples: Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” originally released in 1958 (41-6); the late Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” from 1957 (50-9); and the late Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” from 1964 (No. 10 re-entry – as it becomes the first holiday song, and ninth song overall, to re-enter the Hot 100 in the top 10). The standards have peaked at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively, in each of the last three holiday seasons. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” holds at its No. 7 high and Harry Styles’ “As It Was” dips 5-8, after 15 weeks at No. 1 beginning in April, the fourth-longest command in the chart’s history.

Record Of The Month
'Until I Found You' is a fantastic, old-fashioned tune with a lovely voice and an acoustic-guitar, performed by the 19 year-old American newcomer Stephen Sanchez.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Dermot Kennedy lands his second no.1 album
Monday, November 28, 2022
by Alan Jones, London
 
It’s a great week for Dermot Kennedy who simultaneously scores his second No.1 album with Sonder, and his fifth Top 20 single with Kiss Me. Sonder’s first week consumption of 25,748 units (14,661 CDs, 4,479 vinyl albums, 1,498 cassettes, 1,387 digital downloads and 3,723 sales-equivalent streams) is

28.35% above the 20,061 sales that earned him a No.1 debut with Without Fear, a little over three years ago. That was the first proper album for the 30-year-old singer/songwriter, although an eponymous January 2019 set comprising previously released tracks was a single sale away from making the Top 75 the week that Without Fear opened at No.1, and has gone on to sell 93,237 copies to date, whilst Without Fear went platinum last month, and has secured to-date sales of 302,976 copies. With the holiday season beginning to have a major influence on the chart, a new selection of winter and Christmas songs, Silver Bells, debuts at No.4 (9,327 sales) for Andre Rieu & The Johan Strauss Orchestra. 9,251 of those sales are for the CD/DVD edition, with digital downloads of 56, and sales-equivalent streams of just 20. After first grazing the chart in 2000 – reaching No.51 with Celebration! - Rieu didn’t return for another decade, but he has made up for

lost time and Silver Bells is his 26th Top 75, 13th Top 10 and seventh Top 5 album. Dubbed the “world’s first classical superstar” and “the king of the waltz”, the Dutch violinist and bandleader is 73. Queen’s 13th studio album and sixth No.1 when first released in 1989, spawning five Top 30 hits – a rare feat in those days – The Miracle has been re-released with extra material, including previous unreleased tracks, alternate takes, demos and interviews, and is back in the chart for the first time in nearly 33 years, re-entering at No.6 (7,834 sales). Arriving more than five years after their last album, Canadian rock quartet Nickelback’s 10th studio album, Get Rollin’, debuts at No.8 (7,129 sales), becoming their seventh Top 10 and ninth Top 75 entry. Their last album, Feed The Machine, debuted at No.3 on sales of 17,332 copies in 2017. Nickelback's first two albums fell short of the Top 100 here but third album Silver Side Up became their only number one in 2002 - taking 25 weeks to get there - and is their only million seller, with a to-date sale of 1,135,225, driven by the success of breakthrough single How You Remind Me. The rest of the Top 10: Midnights (3-2, 22,011 sales) by Taylor Swift, Only The Strong Survive (2-3, 9,540 sales) by Bruce Springsteen, Her Loss (4-5, 8,641 sales) by Drake & 21 Savage, Diamonds (8-7, 7,159 sales) by Elton John, = (6-9, 6,782 sales) by Ed Sheeran and Harry’s House (7-10, 6,750 sales) by Harry Styles. Overall album sales are down 0.19% week-on-week at 2,111,064, 9.56% below same week 2021 sales of 2,334,124. Physical product accounts for 444,677 sales, 21.06% of the total. Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero is No.1 for the fifth week in a row (47,851 sales, including 1,824 digital downloads), with the record it dethroned, Unholy by Sam Smith & Kim Petras, also standing its ground at No.2 (41,049 sales) for the fifth straight week. However, Unholy is due to fall into ACR next week, so a change is certain. Anti-Hero and Unholy have had a different No.3 behind them every week thus far, with Meghan Trainor’s biggest hit in seven years, Made You Look, being the latest, as it improves 4-3 (36,334 sales). Up for the fourth straight week since it debuted at No.28, Made You Look sold more copies digitally than any other track last week, albeit just 1,969. Despite the popularity of Made You Look, parent album Takin’ It Back has been on a downward trajectory since release, falling 67-142-146-150-196, with consumption to date of 5,912 units. Clavish has never had a Top 10 or even Top 40 hit before and D-Block Europe have had only one, but their collaboration, Rocket Science, storms into the chart this week, as the highest of six new entries to the Top 75 at No.9 (23,113 sales). It is the third hit for Clavish – 23-year-old London rapper Cian Wright – and the 40th for D-Block Europe. The rest of the Top 10: Miss You (3-4, 33,777 sales) by Oliver Tree & Robin Schulz, Messy In Heaven (5-5, 33,039 sales) by Venbee & Goddard, Psycho (7-6, 31,062 sales) by Anne-Marie & Aitch, Rich Flex (6-7, 27,184 sales) by Drake & 21 Savage, Hide & Seek (8-8, 24,312 sales) by Stormzy and Calm Down (10-10, 20,897 sales) by Rema. Overall singles consumption is down 2.47% week-on-week at 24,053,443 units, 2.15% above same week 2021 consumption of 23,546,351 units. Paid-for sales are down 3.64% week-on-week at 281,059 – 21.06% below same week 2021 sales of 356,034.