30.03.20 – L.dK Weekly

THE WEEKND EARNS RECORD-BREAKING NO.1 DEBUT WITH AFTER HOURS

Plus: Conan Gray’s Kid Krow follows at No.2 while Tori Amos goes Platinum

The Weeknd scores his first No.1 album on the L.dK Top 40 with his newest record After Hours. It opens with 249,000 units – marking a new high for album sales in 2020, and setting a new bar for male artists!

Of its 249,000 debut sales figure: 39,000 copies came from pre-sales derived from singles, and the other 210,000 units were generated in its first seven days alone! Even had the album not been buoyed by pre-sales it would still have easily nabbed the biggest debut of the year.

Biggest Week of 2020: 249,000 units more than doubles the previous highpoint for 2020, 123,000 sales racked up by BTS’ Map of the Soul : 7 as it premiered at No.1 on March 2nd. As previously mentioned, even without pre-sales, After Hours would have still nabbed the record by a margin of more than 80,000 copies.

Biggest Week Ever for a Male: Prior to the release of After Hours, Sam Smiths’ The Thrill of it All had held the title of fastest-selling record among male artists, with 129,000 sold – it opened at No.1 on the chart dated 11th November 2017. Troye Sivan’s Bloom came close to taking the record with 126,000 sales (10th September 2018), but the Weeknd’s new release almost doubles the figure!

Fifth-Biggest Debut Ever: With sales of 249,000, Hours becomes one of the fastest-selling albums ever released: the fifth, in-fact. The four albums that have outperformed After Hours in their first seven days: Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life (639,000), Lorde’s Melodrama (345,000) and Taylor Swift’s Lover (310,000) and reputation (309,000).

Back to this week’s chart … Conan Gray blows onto L.dK at No.2 with his debut studio album Kid Krow. Of its 67,000 starting figure, 58,000 come from first-week sales and 9,000 stem from pre-sales.

Last week’s No.1 album Maren Morris’ GIRL slides to No.3 selling 49,000 copies, marking a 58 percent drop from last week when it debuted with 114,000 sold.

HEART’s former self-titled No.1 falls 3-4 as it completes its first month in the Top Five (45,000 – up 12 percent) and Lana Del Rey’s record-breaking Norman Fucking Rockwell sinks 4-5 in its 30th straight week in the Top Five (36,000 – up 5 percent).

Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes paces at No.6 after reaching No2. in November 2019. As it sells 31,000 copies this week (up 19 percent) the album brings its total sales figure to 317,000 – Earthquakes is now Amos’ first album to be certified Platinum!

Taylor Swift’s Lover holds at No.7 (27,000 – up 17 percent); Florence + the Machine slide 5-8 with How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (26,000 – down 22 percent); Annie Lennox’ Medusa steps down 8-9 (22,000 – up 4 percent); capping the Top Ten is Selena Gomez’s Rare, unmoved at No.10 with 21,000 sold (up 16 percent).

Onto next week: The Weeknd’s After Hours looks set to lock horns with Dua Lipa’s new Future Nostalgia: the former is newly strengthened by three bonus tracks, while the latter will benefit from a hefty pre-sales figure, similar to that which After Hours boasted this week. Also: Stevie Nicks’ Rock a Little could climb back into the chart’s Top 20 (and even has an outside shot of reaching the Top Ten) after the addition of several unreleased tracks from its recording sessions.

Important Moves in the Top 40!

No.20 – Dua Lipa / The singer’s eponymous debut album returns to L.dK ahead of the release of Future Nostalgia. The album could very well climb higher on next weeks’ ranking – it peaked at No.2 in 2017 and has sold 291,000 copies to date.

No.22 – Birdy / Another self-titled record – Birdy’s debut has now become the singer’s second album to go Gold following 2016’s Beautiful Lies. With weekly sales of 10,000, the album has sold 101,000 since it was released!

The Top 40

1. [NEW] After Hours – The Weeknd
2. [NEW] Kid Krow – Conan Gray
3. [-2] GIRL – Maren Morris
4. [-1] Heart – HEART
5. [-1] Norman Fucking Rockwell – Lana Del Rey
6. [=] Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos
7. [=] Lover – Taylor Swift
8. [-3] How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine
9. [-1] Medusa – Annie Lennox
10. [=] Rare – Selena Gomez
11. [-2] Glasshouse – Jessie Ware
12. [+1] She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
13. [-1] The Whole Story – Kate Bush
14. [+1] Timespace – Stevie Nicks
15. [-3] K bye for Now – Ariana Grande
16. [+2] Map of the Soul : 7 – BTS
17. [-15] Heartbreak Weather – Niall Horan
18. [+3] Diva – Annie Lennox
19. [-2] Fine Line – Harry Styles
20. [re] Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa
21. [+4] Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks
22. [-6] Birdy – Birdy
23. [-4] A Different Kind of Human – AURORA
24. [-2] Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks
25. [-2] Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
26. [re] Heart of Stone – Cher
27. [+4] The Red Shoes – Kate Bush
28. [re] The Sensual World – Kate Bush
29. [+9] Infections of a Different Kind – AURORA
30. [-3] Dedicated – Carly Rae Jepsen
31. [-11] Compilation 1 : 1 – Celeste
32. [re] Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
33. [-5] Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
34. [-8] The Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks
35. [-11] Sweetener – Ariana Grande
36. [-7] Dancing Queen – Cher
37. [-7] Bad Animals – HEART
38. [-5] Queen – Nicki Minaj
39. [-5] Bloom – Troye Sivan
40. [-5] 21 – Adele