USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
Young Thug's 'Punk' debuts at no.1
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Adele's "Easy on Me" skyrockets to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, following its first full week of tracking. A week earlier, it debuted at No. 68 from its first five hours of availability.

The ballad becomes Adele's fifth Hot 100 No. 1 and first since "Hello" ruled for 10 weeks in 2015-16. "Easy on Me" is the 1,131st No. 1 in the Hot 100's 63-year history. It drew 65 million radio airplay audience impressions and 53.9 million U.S. streams and sold 74,000 downloads in the week ending Oct. 21, according to MRC Data. The track debuts atop the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts and at No. 4 on Radio Songs. Released on Columbia Records at 7 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 14, "Easy on Me" entered the Hot 100 dated Oct. 23 at No. 68 thanks to its activity from its premiere through midnight ET Oct. 14, with that chart's tracking week having spanned Oct. 8-14. It debuted with 3.1 million streams, 3.1 million in radio audience and 14,800 sold in its first five hours of availability. The song blasts to No. 1 on the Oct. 30-dated Hot 100, which reflects its first full tracking week, covering Oct. 15-21. As "Easy on Me" launches at No. 4

on Radio Songs, it makes the highest debut since the chart became an all-format ranking in December 1998. In that span, it bests the No. 6 start of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" in February 2011. As noted above, The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber's "Stay" ranks at No. 2 on the Hot 100, holding in place after seven weeks at No. 1, as it rules Radio Songs for a sixth week (90.9 million, up 3%). Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow's "Industry Baby" drops to No. 3 on the Hot 100, a week after it led, as it spends a ninth week atop both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100. Walker Hayes' "Fancy Like" dips to No. 4 from its No. 3 Hot 100 high, as it tops the multi-metric Hot Country Songs chart for a 15th week; Ed Sheeran's "Bad Habits" slips 4-5 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2; Drake's "Way 2 Sexy," featuring Future and Young Thug, drops 5-6, following its No. 1 arrival in September; and Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" descends 6-7, after it debuted at No. 1 in May. Dua Lipa's "Levitating" remains at No. 8 on the Hot 100, after rising to No. 2. It spends a 40th week in the top 10, overtaking Post Malone's "Circles" (2019-20) for the second-longest top 10 run in the chart's archives. The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" leads with 57 top 10 weeks (February 2020-April 2021). Rounding out the Hot 100's top 10, Ed Sheeran's "Shivers" climbs 10-9 for a new high and Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More," featuring SZA, falls 7-10, after reaching No. 3. Young Thug achieves his third No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Oct. 30) as his latest release, Punk, debuts in the top slot. The set earned 90,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 21, according to MRC Data. The 20-track Punk boasts an array of guest stars, including A$AP Rocky, J. Cole, Doja Cat, Drake, Future, Gunna, Juice WRLD, Post Malone, Mac Miller, Nate Ruess and Travis Scott. Of Punk’s 90,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 21, SEA units comprise 77,000 (equaling 102 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs), album sales comprise 12,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. Punk marks Young Thug’s third visit to No. 1. He previously topped the list by way of the Young Thug-led Slime Language 2 album earlier in 2021 and So Much Fun in 2019. Drake’s former No. 1 Certified Lover Boy falls to the No. 2 slot after four nonconsecutive weeks in the lead. It earned 83,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 21 (down 12%). Mac Miller’s Faces mixtape debuts at No. 3 with 67,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 34,000, SEA units comprise 33,000 (equaling 43.03 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Faces was initially released for free in 2014, but was not commercially issued or distributed to streaming services until Oct. 15, 2021. Faces’ album sales was bolstered by its release on vinyl LP, which comprises 32,000 of its sales sum, while the remaining 2,000 were digital album sales. Faces is the seventh top 10 effort on the Billboard 200 for the late artist, who died in 2018. Coldplay’s latest studio album, Music of the Spheres, starts at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, earning 57,000 equivalent album units. Of that sum, album sales comprise 37,000, SEA units comprise 15,000 (equaling 20.55 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 4,000. Music of the Spheres is the eighth top 10 effort for the band, and follows the 2019 album Everyday Life, which debuted and peaked at No. 7. The new album was led by the single “Higher Power,” which marked the group’s 14th top 10 on the Alternative Airplay chart. The album’s second single, “My Universe,” with BTS, debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, marking the second leader for Coldplay. The Beatles’ former No. 1 Billboard 200 album Let It Be surges back onto the chart, re-entering at No. 5 following its deluxe special edition reissue on Oct. 15. The set earned 55,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 21 (up 3,899%). Of that sum, album sales comprise 48,000 (up 11,570%; making it the top-selling album of the week), SEA units comprise 6,000 (up 589%; equaling 8.34 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 1,180%). Let It Be was first released in 1970 as the final studio effort from the band. It spent four weeks atop the chart (June 13-July 4, 1970-dated charts). For its special edition, the album was reintroduced in a variety of expanded formats and editions, including many with previously unreleased tracks. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes. YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s former No. 1 Sincerely, Kentrell falls 3-6 with 44,000 equivalent album units earned (down 15%), Doja Cat’s Planet Her is a non-mover at No. 7 with 42,000 units (down 1%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 8 with just under 42,000 units (down 1%) and Olivia Rodrigo’s former leader Sour falls 5-9 with 40,000 units (down 9%). Lil Nas X’s Montero rounds out the top 10, as it falls 6-10 with 36,000 units (down 16%).

Record Of The Month
Nigeria is gradually becoming a hot spot in our new multicolored music world. Already last year a song from there, 'Jerusalema' by Master KG feat. Nomcebo Zikode, was a big international success and now 'Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)' by Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer Chukwuka Ekweani, better known as CKay, is on the way to the top... this week at no.3 with 295.000 points.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Coldplay landing their ninth no.1 album
Monday, October 25, 2021
by Alan Jones, London
 
That Adele’s first new material in six years is an immediate and huge-selling No.1 will come as a surprise to practically no-one. However, it is the way the British superstar blasts her way past the rest of the market which rightly grabs all the headlines. Her 3rd No.1 single, Easy On Me debuts at the top with a colossal

chart sale of 217,317. It is the first single to notch up 200,000 sales in a single week since Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran debuted with 226,808 sales in January 2017. Adele doesn’t so much break the all-time streaming record, as obliterate it. Her single was played almost exactly 24 million times during the course of the last seven days, these contributing a record 193,779 sales to her total. She notably becomes only the second artist (after Ariana Grande) to hold the record twice, having originally set a high water mark in 2015 when Hello became the first single to reach what was, at the time, the unthinkable level of 7.32 million streams. The herald of her upcoming fourth album 30, Easy On Me is for the moment the only new Adele track available, but it has prompted something of a first: a wholesale surge of interest in her back catalogue of the kind that is normally reserved for the recently departed. It means chart returns for When We Were Young, originally a

No.9 hit in 2016 but now back at No.25 (12,890 sales), and 2011 global smash Someone Like You which accelerates to No.34 (11,736 sales). As catalogue tracks, both are restricted to permanent ACR status, without which they would be contending for Top 10 positions. Eight further Adele tracks are starred-out from positions elsewhere in the Top 75, almost as if an entirely new audience is discovering her work. Commiserations to the other big hits of the moment, reduced to runner-up status – at least for the moment. Last week’s Top 3 singles all move a rung down in tandem. Cold Heart by Elton John and Dua Lipa actually increases sales to 66,017 but is down to No.2, and similarly Shivers by Ed Sheeran rises to 63,649 sales but languishes at No.3. Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah) by Ckay is No.4 with 36,289 sales. Adele was, however, not the only British act to enjoy amazing sales for her new material this week. Coldplay’s new Music Of The Spheres album makes a splash of its own with the group commanding enough streaming attention to land a string of hits of their own. Current single My Universe (with BTS) is propelled back into the Top 10 after a fortnight away, returning at No.5 as its sales climb back to 32,173. The album’s most popular new cut is the Selena Gomez featuring Let Somebody Go, which arrives at No.24 (13,429 sales), just ahead of the album’s lead single Higher Power which re-enters at No.26 (12,870 sales) having originally peaked at No.12 back in May. It is quite a week for power ballads. The singles market eases up 0.39% to 22,889,483 to reach its highest level for 12 weeks. Paid sales, however, dip to 363,582, a drop of almost 6% which takes them to their second-lowest level since downloads were introduced to chart compilation tallies in 2005. Superlative numbers are the order of the day for the week’s biggest album, as well as its top single. Coldplay’s ninth studio album, the space-themed Music Of The Spheres, follows its eight predecessors to the top of the charts and does so in a quite spectacular style. With a total chart sale of 101,045 it becomes the first album since Ed Sheeran’s No.6 Collaborations Project over two years ago to reach the six-figure mark. It is also Coldplay’s biggest opening sales week since A Head Full Of Dreams debuted with just short of 236,000 in December 2015, easily eclipsing the 80,974 with which their last album Everyday Life opened its account two years ago. Music Of The Spheres also moved a quite extraordinary 86,430 physical copies last week, the biggest physical sale reported by an album since Take That sold 99,034 copies of Odyssey in November 2018. Coming in a distant, but still quite creditable second is the deluxe reissue of The Beatles’ final album Let It Be, completing the set of Giles Martin’s lovingly curated 50th anniversary editions of their final studio works. Originally No.1 for three weeks when first released in May 1970 this is effectively the highest chart placing for the album since. Even its CD debut in 1987 only saw it return to No.50. The songs did however reach the Top 10 in 2003 when Let It Be... Naked, which removed Phil Spector's controversial orchestrated overdubs, made No.7. Let It Be posts 17,123 sales but alas is destined not to follow the similarly remastered Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road back to the top and charts instead at No.2. Adele’s new single was streamed in record-breaking numbers this week, but so too was much of her back catalogue. The result is a continuation of the startling chart surges begun last week by her three previous albums. 25 climbs to No.3 with 10,853 sales – an extraordinary number for a six-year-old album that has not been re-issued or formally re-promoted. This is its first Top 3 appearance since June 2016. Close behind is 21, rising to No.6 (7,625 sales) and a Top 10 album for the first time since August 2012. Meanwhile her debut 19 rockets back to No.15 (4,010 sales) for its own highest chart placing in over five years. All three albums had their paid sales but make no mistake, these surges are driven by DSP consumption. All told, Adele tracks were played 55.2m times over the last seven days, meaning that one in every 50 songs streamed this week was one performed by the British singer. There were other new releases too of course. Daniel O’Donnell has his 47th chart album and his 19th to reach the Top 10 as anniversary release 60 slides in at No.4 with 8,332 sales. Just below is BRITs Rising Star nominee Joy Crookes, who lands at No.5 (7,926 sales) with her debut album Skin. Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes make the Top 10 for the third time in a row as the punk revivalists fourth album Sticky arrives at No.8 with 6,450 sales. Unlucky not to make the Top 10 are The Charlatans, whose first hits collection in 15 years, A Head Full Of Ideass, is instead new at No.11 with 5,233 sales. Albums sales rise 5.21% this week to 1,870,714, their highest level for over five months. Physical sales rocket a massive 32.43% to 408,604 with a 21.84% market share, the highest level for both since Christmas 2020.