LANA DEL REY’S NORMAN FUCKING ROCKWELL! IS THE YEAR’S NO.1 ALBUM!
PLUS: Taylor Swift’s folklore rules in sales, and Harry Styles makes history with Fine Line!
Lana Del Rey’s record-breaking LP Norman Fucking Rockwell! ranks as the top album of 2020!
Norman Fucking Rockwell! actually debuted at No.1 on the weekly Top 50 dated 9th September 2019, and spent a record-breaking fourteen consecutive weeks at No.1. Over the course of 2020, NFR! has returned to the top on three separate occasions, bringing its total weeks at No.1 to a record-padding 17 weeks!
The album last commanded the Top 50 on the chart dated 16th March, but has remained inside the Top 15 every week since. On the latest (and final) edition of the Weekly Top 50, it rises to No.7.
Norman Fucking Rockwell! is perhaps the most distinguished album in L.dK history. It is the bestselling album of all time (3,565,000), the longest-running No.1 album (17 weeks), the longest-charting Top Five album (38 weeks) and the longest-charting Top Ten album (62 weeks).
NFR! was placed at No.3 in 2019, while outselling all other titles that year with sales of 1.886 million units. This year, as it ascends to No.1, it becomes Del Rey’s first album to rule the Year-End Chart (although she has led twice before in sales, with NFR! in 2019, and in 2017 with Lust for Life on sales of 1.866 million).
Following Del Rey’s triumphant NFR!, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia ranks as the most successful album released in 2020. It was unleashed in late March, debuting at No.1 with the year’s biggest sales week at the time (289,000 copies) and would retain control of the Top 50 for eight consecutive weeks.
Future raked in sales of 2,145,000 copies through the chart dated 28th December, making it the second bestselling album of the annum.
At No.3: the biggest album to receive a retrospective release in 2020, Alanis Morissette’s The Collection peaked at No.2 for a then record-breaking nine weeks (the feat has since been equalled by Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection, which comes in at No.9 on the Year End tally). The compilation has sold 1,901,000 copies since its release in April.
2020’s bestselling album comes in at No.4 on the Year End tally. Taylor Swift’s folklore is both the No.1 seller of the annum, and the longest-running No.1 hit of the year with fifteen weeks in charge.
Upon its release in July, folklore opened at No.1 on the weekly tally, and would retain that position for fourteen consecutive weeks. It ties Lana Del Rey’s NFR! for the longest single reign atop the chart.
folklore has sold 2,213,000 copies in 2020, breaking the previous record for the largest sales figure in a single calendar year. Previously, NFR! held the distinction with 1.886 million in 2019.
In-fact: Swift’s folklore, Lipa’s Future & Morissette’s Collection all post higher sales than NFR! did in 2019!
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica finishes the year at No.5. It’s her third consecutive year inside the Top Five, as she ruled both the 2018 & 2019 tallies with her A Star is Born soundtrack!
Chromatica is 2020’s fastest-selling album, as it bowed with a massive 473,000 units – nabbing it the second biggest sales week in history. Only Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life sold more in a single week (it opened with 639,000 copies). The blockbuster remained at No.1 for six weeks.
Harry Styles’ Fine Line & Stevie Nicks’ Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks both originally reached No.1 in December 2019, and became chart mainstays throughout 2020, often returning to the highest tiers of the list. Both albums have sold over a million copies, and rank back to back at No.6 & No.7 on the Year End Chart!
The Weeknd scores the eighth biggest album of 2020 with After Hours. Upon its release in March, it became the fastest-selling album ever by a male artist (249,000 – a boon it still holds).
Finally, Kate Bush makes her first Top Ten showing on the Year End Albums Chart. The Whole Story is at No.10, after ranking inside the Top Twenty for almost the entire year.
Top Ten Albums (Sales)
- folklore – Taylor Swift – 2,213,000
- Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa – 2,145,000
- The Collection – Alanis Morissette – 1,901,000
- Chromatica – Lady Gaga – 1,818,000
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey – 1,679,000
- A Beautiful Collection – Carole King – 1,289,000
- After Hours – The Weeknd – 1,271,000
- Fine Line – Harry Styles – 1,007,000
- Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks – 977,000
- Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams – 895,000
Top Ten Albums (Chart Points)
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey
- Fine Line – Harry Styles
- Timespace: the Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks
- Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa
- The Whole Story – Kate Bush
- The Collection – Alanis Morissette
- Medusa – Annie Lennox
- She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
- Diva – Annie Lennox
- Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos
2020 – Music’s Biggest Year Ever
Throughout 2020, a whopping 40.25 million albums have been sold! It’s easily the biggest year since L.dK Weekly launched in 2017, and marks a second consecutive year of growth. The previous biggest year in music was 2019, which recorded sales of 26.14 million albums.
Music Industry Year by Year
- *2017 – 17.13 million
- **2018 – 10.58 million (-38.2%)
- 2019 – 26.14 million (+146.9%)
- 2020 – 40.25 million (+53.9%)
*2017 consisted of 44 weeks, beginning in the week dated 4th March 2017.
**2018 consisted of 23 weeks, the first four weeks, and then the last 19.
Music’s Biggest Years (adjusted)
- 2020 – 40.25 million
- 2019 – 26.14 million
- *2018 – 21.22 million
- *2017 – 20.63 million
L.dK Music 