THE TOP 40 – Q1

LANA DEL REY’S NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL LEADS 2020’S Q1 AS STEVIE NICKS EYES FOURTH YEAR AS TOP ARTIST!

The first three months of 2020 (Jan-March) have seen Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell lead a strong campaign for the title of 2020’s No.1 Album. Through L.dK Weekly we can see that the alternative queen’s 2019 release has sold 632,000 copies since the beginning of the year, ranking it at No.1 in terms of sales.

Rockwell was the top selling album of 2019 (1.88 million units) and was the third most popular set of the year overall – it spent a record-breaking fourteen consecutive weeks at No.1 last year, a record that has since been extended to seventeen weeks with the LP returning to No.1 as recently as the chart dated March 16th.

If Rockwell is able to perform consistently enough throughout the year to maintain its No.1 spot then it will mark the third consecutive year that the Year-End List has been topped by a female album: both 2018 and 2019 saw the top spot taken by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born. This year could also mark the third time that an album of Del Rey’s has been named the top selling album of the year!

At this point, we could see Rockwell become just the second album to be named both No.1 Album of the Year and top the sales raking. In 2017, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours topped the Year-End tally, while Del Rey’s Lust for Life was No.1 for sales (1.86 million); 2018 saw A Star is Born take both titles, selling 1.57 million; while in 2019 A Star is Born was at No.1 for a second year but Rockwell sold more than any other release.

2020’s Top 40 Albums – Q1

1. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell
2. Ariana Grande – K Bye for Now
3. Stevie Nicks – Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks
4. Halsey – Manic
5. Selena Gomez – Rare
6. Taylor Swift – Lover
7. Harry Styles – Fine Line
8. Annie Lennox – Medusa
9. Florence + the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
10. Cyndi Lauper – She’s so Unusual
11. Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes
12. Jessie Ware – Glasshouse
13. BTS – Map of the Soul: 7
14. Ariana Grande – thank u, next
15. HEART – Heart
16. Ariana Grande – Sweetener
17. The Weeknd – After Hours
18. Camila Cabello – Romance
19. Kate Bush – The Whole Story
20. Annie Lennox – Diva
21. Stevie Nicks – Rock a Little
22. Stevie Nicks – Bella Donna
23. Birdy – Birdy
24. Fleetwood Mac – Greatest Hits
25. Cher – Dancing Queen
26. Maren Morris – GIRL
27. AURORA – A Different Kind of Human
28. Lana Del Rey – Lust for Life
29. Stevie Nicks – The Wild Heart
30. Celeste – Compilation 1:1
31. Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated
32. Lana Del Rey – Born to Die: Paradise Edition
33. Cher – Heart of Stone
34. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
35. Jessie Ware – Tough Love
36. Adele – 25
37. Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence
38. Camila Cabello – Camila
39. AURORA – Infections of a Different Kind
40. Stevie Nicks – The Other Side of the Mirror

Lana Del Rey lands a further three albums on Q1’s Top 40, with Lust for Life at No.28, Born to Die: Paradise Edition at No.32 and Ultraviolence at No.37.

Harry Styles’ Fine Line is the best performing album of the year so far by a male artist, sitting at No.7 – it’s No.8 when measured by sales alone, with 326,000 sold. The album – released last December to a No.1 debut – looks as if it could become just the second album from a male solo artist to rank within the Year-End Top Ten after Troye Sivan’s Bloom settled at No.10 in 2018.

In an industry largely dominated by women, just two albums from male solo artists take up space on this list: Fine Line at No.7 and The Weeknd’s new After Hours at No.17 – After Hours also ranks within the Top Ten for sales, selling 249,000 to take the No.10 spot. Sitting at No.13 overall, is Map of the Soul: 7 from K-Pop boy-band BTS.

Aiming to continue her golden streak as the Greatest Artist of All Time, Stevie Nicks finds herself in familiar territory as the No.1 Artist of 2020 Q1. It’s a title she has claimed ever year since the chart’s inception in 2017 through a bevy of hugely successful albums, millions of sales, and multiple records.

This year she sits highest at No.3 with her 1991 compilation album Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks (its at No.4 in sales with 416,000 copies). Four of Nicks’ studio albums earn spots in the Top 40: Rock a Little at No.21, Bella Donna at No.22, The Wild Heart at No.29 and The Other Side of the Mirror at No.40.

2020’s Top 40 Artists – Q1

1. Stevie Nicks
2. Lana Del Rey
3. Ariana Grande
4. Annie Lennox
5. Halsey
6. Taylor Swift
7. Selena Gomez
8. Harry Styles
9. Jessie Ware
10. Florence + the Machine
11. Kate Bush
12. Fleetwood Mac
13. HEART
14. Cyndi Lauper
15. Tori Amos
16. Camila Cabello
17. Cher
18. BTS
19. AURORA
20. Birdy
21. The Weeknd
22. Adele
23. Maren Morris
24. Celeste
25. Amy Winehouse
26. Carly Rae Jepsen
27. Lady Gaga
28. Niall Horan
29. MARINA
30. Madonna
31. Conan Gray
32. Hayley Williams
33. Nicki Minaj
34. Lorde
35. Elle King
36. Broods
37. Billie Eilish
38. Mandy Moore
39. Melanie Martinez
40. Troye Sivan

Industry sales up almost 50% year over year!

In the first three months of 2020 the industry recorded sales of 7,562,000 – up by 47.7% from the same period in 2019 when 5,177,000 albums were sold. Although this marks a drop of 8.1% from 2019’s Q4 (Oct-Dec) when 8,228,000 records were moved, the final week of March was a record-breaking one: 958,000 overall units – up 125.5% versus the same week last year and up 9.9% against the previous biggest week in music which was the chart dated 29th July 2017 (871,000).

2020 has actually seen every single one of its weeks outperforming its equivalent from previous years, with the one exception being the week dated February 24th (490,000 versus 633,000 in 2018). The same can be said for its months with 2.04 million in January and 2.08 million in February, compared to 1.72 million and 1.95 million last year; March’s sales figures more than doubled, with numbers rocketing from 1.44 million to 3.43 million.

Recorded industry figures as a whole now stand at 60.3 million units.