USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
Beyoncé soars to number one on both major hitlists
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Beyoncé‘s “Break My Soul” bounds to No. 1, from No. 6, on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The song marks the superstar’s eighth solo leader on the list. The track, which

debuted at No. 15 six weeks earlier, is from her new LP Renaissance, which launches as her seventh No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Released on Parkwood / Columbia Records, it becomes the 1,140th No. 1 in the Hot 100’s 64-year history. “Soul” drew 61.7 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 8%) and 18.9 million streams (up 114%) and sold 13,000 downloads (up 113%) in the July 29-Aug. 4 tracking week, according to Luminate, as the song claims dual top Streaming and Sales Gainer honors on the Hot 100. The track vaults 25-3 on Streaming Songs and holds at its No. 4 high on the Radio Songs chart. “Break” dethrones Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” atop the Hot 100, after the latter, at No. 2, led the last two weeks. Still, “Time” tallies a fifth week at No. 1 on Radio Songs (93.9 million, up 3%). Harry Styles’ former 10-week Hot 100 No. 1 “As It Was” slips 2-3. It adds a 10th week atop the Songs of the Summer chart, as it has led the

seasonal survey, which tracks the biggest hits between Memorial Day and Labor Day, each week this summer. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” backtracks to No. 4 from its No. 3 Hot 100 high. Its revival sparked by its sync in the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the song, originally released in 1985 (when it reached No. 30), tops the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts for a ninth week each. Future’s “Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems, is stationary at No. 5 on the Hot 100, after a week at No. 1 beginning in its debut frame in May, as it rebounds for a second week atop the multi-metric Hot Rap Songs chart, and Jack Harlow’s “First Class” falls 4-6 on the Hot 100, following three weeks at No. 1 starting upon its debut in April. Steve Lacy achieves his first Hot 100 top 10, as “Bad Habit” jumps 11-7, largely fueled by its coronation on Streaming Songs (2-1; 20 million, up 8%). It also drew 10 million in radio airplay audience (up 247%) and sold 800 downloads (up 26%) in the tracking week. Bad Bunny and Chencho Corleone’s “Me Porto Bonito” repeats at No. 8 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 6, and tops the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart for a 12th week. Nicky Youre and dazy’s “Sunroof” rides 12-9 on the Hot 100, marking each act’s first top 10. It lifts 8-6 on Radio Songs (55.7 million, up 18%, as it wins the Hot 100’s top Airplay Gainer nod) and drew 8.6 million streams (up 6%) and sold 3,000 (up 21%) in the tracking week. Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Harry Styles’ “Late Night Talking” dips 7-10, after it hit No. 4 upon its debut in June. Beyoncé’s Renaissance blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Aug. 13) with 2022’s biggest week by a woman – and the second-largest week of the year overall – as the set launches atop the chart with 332,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 4, according to Luminate. Notably, Renaissance – Beyoncé’s seventh solo No. 1 album – is the first album released by a woman in 2022 to top the Billboard 200. The last woman at No. 1 was Adele with 30, which ruled for its first six weeks on the list (charts dated Dec. 4, 2021-Jan. 8, 2022). Notably, both 30 and Renaissance were released via Columbia Records. Unlike Beyoncé’s last two solo albums (Lemonade and her self-titled set in 2013), Renaissance wasn’t a surprise release. The new set was announced in mid-June, preceded by its first single “Break My Soul” on June 20, and was available to purchase on physical formats (both CD and vinyl LP) by street date (July 29). Comparably, her last two solo studio sets before Renaissance were both initially available exclusively only through streamers and digital retailers, and their physical release came later. Of Renaissance’s 332,000 equivalent album units earned, album sales comprise 190,000; SEA units comprise 138,000 (equaling 179.06 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), and TEA units comprise 4,000. Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after seven nonconsecutive weeks atop the list (104,000 equivalent album units earned; up 7%). On the Aug. 20-dated chart, the album will benefit from its wide CD release on Aug. 5. Ateez notch their first top 10 as The World EP.1: Movement arrives at No. 3 with 50,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 47,000; SEA units comprise 3,000 (equaling 4.02 million on-demand official streams of the set’s seven tracks), and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Previously, the South Korean group had gone as high as No. 42 in 2021 with Zero: Fever Part.3. Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album dips 2-4 with 49,000 equivalent album units (up 1%), and Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 3-5 with 46,000 units (down 4%). Enhypen lands its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Manifesto: Day 1 debuts at No. 6 with 39,000 equivalent album units earned, following the set’s physical release on July 29. The six-song effort was released on July 4 via streaming services and digital retailers. Of its 39,000 units earned, album sales comprise 38,000, while SEA units comprise 1,000 (equaling 1.29 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Manifesto is the fourth top 20-charting album for the South Korean group, which previously topped out at No. 11 with Dimension: Dilemma in 2021. $uicideboy$ score their third top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Sing Me a Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation bows at No. 7 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 33,000 (equaling 45.31 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 4,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The rap duo has previously hit the top 10 with Long Term Effects of Suffering (No. 7 in 2021) and I Want to Die in New Orleans (No. 9, 2018). Dance Gavin Dance claims its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as Jackpot Juicer starts at No. 8 with 33,500 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 25,500 (the band’s best sales week ever); SEA units comprise 8,000 (equaling 10.37 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks), and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The album’s first-week sales got a boost from its availability across multiple color vinyl variants, and in total, the vinyl edition of the album sold 14,000 copies (the second-biggest selling vinyl set of the week behind Renaissance). Jackpot Juicer is Dance Gavin Dance’s 11th charting effort on the Billboard 200 and fifth to reach the top 40. Rounding out the new top 10 of the Billboard 200 are a pair of former No. 1s: Future’s I Never Liked You (falling 5-9 with 31,000 equivalent album units, down 7%) and Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind (6-10; 29,000, down 9%).

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)
LF System hold on at number one
Monday, August 8, 2022
by Alan Jones, London
 
The longest-running No.1 by an act from my former home city of Edinburgh since The Bay City Rollers spent six weeks at the top of the chart with Bye Bye Baby in 1975, Afraid To Feel secures its fifth straight week at the apex for LF System, albeit with its own lowest sale for seven weeks, and the lowest for a

No.1 for 22 weeks. Its consumption down 5.45% week-on-week to 46,265 units, Afraid To Feel could fall into ACR after next week but did very well to deny Beyoncé the opportunity of her second chart ‘double’. Her first came in 2003, when her first solo album, Dangerously In Love and single Crazy In Love (feat. Jay-Z) were No.1 simultaneously, hanging on three weeks before Daniel Bedingfield toppled the latter. She came close to her second this week, with Renaissance debuting atop the album chart while its first single, Break My Soul, ends two weeks of decline by surging 6-2 – a new peak - with consumption up 42.30% week-on-week at 42,927 units. It thus becomes Beyoncé’s highest-charting single since Lady Gaga collaboration Telephone reached No.1 in 2009, and her highest as a primary artist since 2008 No.1 If I Were A Boy. Renaissance also yields the week’s two highest debuting singles in the form of Cuff It (No.14, 20,011 sales) and Alien Superstar

(No.16, 18,467 sales), raising Beyonce’s career tally of Top 75 singles to 76, and her Top 40 tally to 54 (both include 15 hits with Destiny’s Child). When Beyonce’s last album, Lemonade, was released, 11 of its tracks simultaneously invaded the Top 75 singles chart. With the primary artist rule, that is a feat denied to Renaissance. However, on the Top 200 Tracks chart – whose parameters mirror those in existence when Lemonade was released – 12 tracks from Renaissance are in the Top 75 this week. The only new arrival in the Top 10 this week is I Ain’t Worried, OneRepublic’s contribution to the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack. Climbing 12-10 (21,918 sales), it is their sixth Top 10 hit, and first for exactly eight years. The rest of the Top 10: As It Was (3-3, 37,336 sales) by Harry Styles, Doja (2-4, 34,463 sales) by Central Cee, Green Green Grass (4-5, 34,315 sales) by George Ezra, Last Last (5-6, 31,833 sales) by Burna Boy, Crazy What Love Will Do (7-7, 27,865 sales) by David Guetta, Becky Hill & Ella Henderson, About Damn Time (8-8, 23,151 sales) by Lizzo and Running Up That Hill (9-9, 22,123 sales) by Kate Bush. All suffer reduced sales, with Styles and Lizzo set to fall into ACR next week. Singles consumption is down 1.02% week-on-week at 23,393,810 units, 7.53% above same week 2021 consumption of 21,755,570 units. Paid-for sales are down 1.67% week-on-week at 325,042 – 14.71% below same week 2021 sales of 381,116. Beyoncé’s first new studio album in more than six years, Renaissance makes its anticipated debut atop the chart, with first week consumption of 31,064 units – more than the rest of the top five combined – made up of 5,122 CDs, 2,772 vinyl albums, 3,356 digital downloads and 19,814 sales-equivalent streams. Bringing to an end a run of 10 consecutive weeks when the chart was ruled by British males, Renaissance is the 40-year-old American’s seventh solo studio album, and the follow-up to 2016’s Lemonade, which stormed to the summit on sales of 73,392 copies on debut - quite an achievement since it dropped without notice on the second day of the trading week (Saturday), without physical formats, without a prior charting single and in the immediate wake of Prince’s death, which saw him posthumously occupy the No.2, No.3 and No.4 slots behind her. Renaissance, on the other hand, was announced in June, has been represented on the singles chart by Break My Soul for the last seven weeks, and has been released on vinyl and CD – with no fewer than 32 variations of the box set version of the latter attracting sales, according to OCC data – so the fact its introductory frame is 57.67% below that of Lemonade is a little disappointing. Harry’s House is No.2 for Harry Styles for the second week in a row and fifth time in all (10,131 sales), while Ed Sheeran’s = (Equals) is No.3 for the sixth week in a row and 12th time in all (7,301 sales). With its 40-week tally climbing to 732,425, = moves to the top of the 2020s rankings for the first time, toppling Adele’s 30, which dips 50-67 this week, with 1,633 sales, raising its 38-week tally to 731,414. Sheeran remains behind Adele in career album sales – but it’s close there too, with Adele on 12,509,203 and Sheeran on 12,328,300. The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (5-4, 4,895 sales) by The Weeknd, Sour (6-5, 4,422 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, Greatest Hits (8-7, 4,177 sales) by Queen, Gold Rush Kid (7-8, 3,997 sales) by George Ezra, Gold: Greatest Hits (10-9, 3,983 sales) by ABBA and Curtain Call: The Hits (12-10, 3,8409 sales) by Eminem. That’s a 75-week high for The Weeknd, a 14-week high for Olivia Rodrigo and a 50-week high for Queen. Overall album sales are up 0.28% week-on-week at 1,959,211, 11.46% above same week 2021 sales of 1,757,795. Physical product accounts for 295,565 sales, 15.09% of the total.