TAYLOR SWIFT’S FOLKLORE RETURNS TO NO.1 ON TOP CONTEMPORARY ALBUMS FOLLOWING ALBUM OF THE YEAR WIN!
As Taylor Swift replaces herself at No.1, and makes history with folklore; Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia re-enters the Top Five, and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica re-enters Top Ten!
Taylor Swift’s 2020 album folklore climbs 2-1 this week following its Album of the Year win at the 63rd Grammy Awards which aired March 14. This earns folklore a sixteenth non-consecutive week atop L.dK Weekly, adding to the fifteen weeks it spent at No.1 on the discontinued Weekly Top 50 in 2020.
Currently, folklore is the second-longest-running number-one album of all time; only Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! ruled for longer (seventeen weeks).
Diamond: Including its latest weekly haul of 73,000 copies (up 15 percent from the previous frame), Swift’s magnum-opus has now shifted a total of 3,024,000 units! It becomes just the third album in history to be certified Diamond (denoting sales of at least 3,000,000 copies).
The list of Diamond-certified albums is as follows:
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! / Lana Del Rey – 3.81 million
- A Star is Born / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – 3.39 million
- folklore / Taylor Swift – 3.02 million.
Notably, Swift’s folklore becomes the fastest album on record to surpass three million in total sales, passing Del Rey’s NFR! which achieved Diamond certified after forty-eight weeks on sale! Gaga & Cooper’s A Star is Born – the first LP to reach the milestone – did so in its sixty-third week on sale.
- 34 weeks – folklore
- 48 weeks – Norman Fucking Rockwell!
- 63 weeks – A Star is Born
To date: Taylor Swift has now spent a record-extending thirty-one weeks at the summit on L.dK Weekly (including nineteen weeks on the Weekly Top 50, and now twelve weeks atop Top Contemporary Albums). The singer’s No.1 hits are as follows:
- (2017) reputation – one week
- (2019) Lover – one week
- (2020-2021) folklore – sixteen weeks
- (2020-2021) evermore – thirteen weeks
As folklore takes back the crown, Swift becomes the first artist to replace themselves at No.1 since Fleetwood Mac did in March 2017 when Rumours (1977) dethroned Tango in the Night (1987).
This week, evermore falls to No.2 after tallying thirteen consecutive weeks in charge. The album sold 63,000 units this week (down 23 percent) and has sold 1.76 million units to date.
Dua Lipa’s Grammy-winning Future Nostalgia soars 7-3 on sales of 42,000 copies (up 44 percent). This year’s Best Pop Vocal Album hits its highest rank since the chart dated 22 June 2020 when it also placed at No.3; it last ranked higher on the chart dated 08 June, when it sat at No.2 following its eight-week command of the Weekly Top 50.
The Weeknd’s No.3 peaking The Highlights lifts 5-4 this week with sales of 37,000 copies (down 8 percent).
Hayley Williams’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos descends 4-5 with 36,000 sold (down 13 percent). The album – which debuted and peaked at No.2 five weeks ago – has now been certified Platinum for selling over 300,000 units.
FLOWERS is Williams’s second release to attain Platinum status, joining last year’s Petals for Armor which has been certified Triple Platinum to date and sold more than one million copies. The No.3 hit Petals drops 9-10 this week selling 14,000 units (down 18 percent).
Beyond the Top Five: Miley Cyrus’s two-week leader Plastic Hearts sinks 5-6 (32,000 – down 22 percent) as it becomes the thirty-fifth album in history to sell more than one million units!
Zara Larsson’s Poster Girl slides 3-7 and goes Silver (60,000) in its second week (27,000 – down 36 percent); Celeste’s Not Your Muse bullets at No.8 after reaching a No.3 highpoint six weeks ago (25,000 – up 8 percent).
Finally, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica surges 20-9 (16,000 – up 166 percent) after its Gaga-Ariana Grande single “Rain on Me” took home the award for Best Pop Duo / Group Performance at this year’s Grammys. Chromatica previously spent six weeks at number-one, and was the fastest-selling album of 2020 (473,000). It has now spent seventeen weeks inside the Top Ten!
Onto Next Week: Lana Del Rey’s newly released Chemtrails Over the Country Club is predicted to debut at No.1, and could sell upwards of 125,000 copies.
Notable Moves on Top Contemporary!
No.11 – Fine Line / Harry Styles’s sophomore album rises 13-11 after its single “Watermelon Sugar” took home the prize for Best Pop Solo Performance. The album moved 13,000 units this week (up 62 percent). Previously, Fine spent a single week at the top spot in December 2019.
No.12 – Fetch the Bolt Cutters / After winning Best Alternative Music Album, Fiona Apple’s masterpiece Fetch the Bolt Cutters surges by 62 percent to 13,000 sold. The album peaked at No.4 in April last year.
No.14 – After Hours / The Weeknd’s former chart-topping set – controversially shut out of this year’s Grammy Awards – celebrates a whole year on L.dK Weekly, dating to its No.1 debut on the chart dated 30 March 2020. In its milestone fifty-second charting week, After swings 19-14 on sales of 9,000 units (up 28 percent). To date, it is the thirty-third album to spend a whole year on L.dK Weekly.
Top Contemporary Albums
Certifications: Silver (60,000) Gold (100,000) Platinum (300,000) Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.) Diamond (3,000,000).
JONI MITCHELL SPENDS THIRD WEEK IN CHARGE OF TOP CATALOGUE ALBUMS!
Mitchell continues to rule; Lana Del Rey prepares for her new album; Stevie Nicks & Ariana Grande records return to Top Ten!
1971’s seminal record Blue strings a third week in control on Top Catalogue Albums. Mitchell’s signature set moved 48,000 copies this week (down 25 percent). The album has sold 187,000 to date, and currently ranks as the second biggest-selling album of 2021 to date on Top Catalogue Albums.
Rising back to No.2 is Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! selling 23,000 copies (up 4 percent) after a seventeen-week reign across 2019 and 2020.
The bestselling album of all time is one of five Del Rey records on Top Catalogue Albums this week… 2014’s Ultraviolence returns at No.13 with 7,000 copies; 2012’s Born to Die: Paradise Edition re-enters at No.15 – 7,000 sold; 2015’s Honeymoon is up 18-17 – 6,000 sold; 2017’s Lust for Life springs 24-20 – 6,000 sold.
Del Rey’s whole catalogue is expected to make significant gains on next week’s chart!
Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection descends 2-3 after six weeks in pole position earlier this year – it moves 19,000 units this week (down 21 percent).
Stevie Nicks’s first appearance in the Top Ten this week is with Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks which repeats at No.4 once again, shifting 16,000 copies (down 16 percent). Her second is at No.9, with her solo debut album Bella Donna (up from No.12) moving 8,000 copies (even with last week). Crystal spent a total of five weeks at No.1 on L.dK Weekly, while Bella topped out at No.3.
Capping the Top Five: Kate Bush’s No.3-peaking The Whole Story keeps at No.5 (14,000 – down 7 percent).
Florence + the Machine’s former chart-topping High as Hope ticks 7-6 (13,000 – up 18 percent); Alanis Morissette’s The Collection slips 6-7 (12,000 – even with last week) after peaking at No.2 for nine weeks.
Steady at No.8 this week (10,000 – down 10 percent), Annie Lennox’s one-week chart-topper Diva becomes just the sixth album in history to be certified 7 x Platinum (denoting sales of 2,100,000 units). Diva is Lennox’s first album to reach this milestone, as her 1995 followup Medusa has been certified 6 x Platinum with 1.81 million sold to date.
Ariana Grande rounds out the Top Ten as three-week leader Sweetener surges 14-10 (8,000 sold – up 14 percent).
Onto Next Week: Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! could both sell between 30,000 and 40,000 copies in the upcoming tracking period. Either album could take the crown, which would earn Mitchell a fourth week at No.1, or would nab Del Rey’s NFR! a record-extending eighteenth week out front. The rest of Del Rey’s catalogue is set to surge and could re-enter the Top Ten in some cases.
Top Catalogue Albums
Industry Sales
Contemporary Albums generated sales of 477,000 units this week (down 4.1%) while Catalogue Albums recorded sales of 324,000 units (down 14.1%). Contemporary accounted for 59.6% of all consumption this week; versus 40.4% for Catalogue.
Total industry sales are down by 8.4% to 801,000 sold. Compared to the same week last year (when 673,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 19%!
L.dK Music 