2021 – Mid-Year Charts

Taylor at No.1: evermore ranks as the most popular album of 2020 so far on the Contemporary format, having topped the weekly chart for the first eleven weeks of the year. The record – which has yet to depart the Top Five – has sold 1.87 million copies since the beginning of the year, ranking as the bestselling effort of the annum to date.

evermore sold 226,000 copies to debut at No.1 in December 2020 and has since ruled L.dK Weekly for thirteen weeks.

Swift’s own folklore follows at No.2 among Contemporary Albums, having sold 1.28 million units in the past six months. folklore ranked as the fourth biggest record of 2020 and was the bestselling record of that year with record sales of 2.21 million units.

Further down the Top Ten, Swift sits at No.9 with her latest chart-topping LP – Fearless (Taylor’s Version).

Since January 01 this year, Taylor Swift’s Contemporary Discography – which includes 2020’s folklore & evermore, 2021’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and briefly 2019’s Lover, which has since switched over to Catalogue – has sold a staggering 3.66 million units.

3.6 Million: The mind-boggling haul marks the largest sales for any artist’s catalogue in a single year, making it even more impressive that Swift has achieved this feat in just six months! Some of the largest sales years in history are as follows:

1. Taylor Swift (Contemporary – 2021) – 3.66 million
2. Taylor Swift (2020) – 3.17 million
3. Stevie Nicks (2019) – 3.11 million
4. Stevie Nicks (2017) – 2.85 million
5. Fleetwood Mac (2017) – 2.75 million

Lana Del Rey’s latest offering Chemtrails Over the Country Club is the most successful album of the year to date not from Taylor Swift, ranking at No.3 with sales of 1.06 million copies.

Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa complete the Top Five with their hyper-successful hits Plastic Hearts (No.4) and Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition (No.5).

Hayley Williams appears twice in the year-to-date Top Ten: this year’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos is at No.6 and last year’s Petals for Armor is at No.10.

The Weeknd’s The Highlights makes it onto the list at No.7 – the highest-ranked album from a male solo artist this year. Last year, Harry Styles made history when his album Fine Line finished 2020 as the year’s sixth biggest hit!

Celeste completes the Top Ten with Not Your Muse.

1. evermore – Taylor Swift
2. folklore – Taylor Swift
3. Chemtrails Over the Country Club – Lana Del Rey
4. Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus
5. Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition – Dua Lipa
6. FLOWERS for VASES / descansos – Hayley Williams
7. The Highlights – The Weeknd
8. Not Your Muse – Celeste
9. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift
10. Petals for Armor – Hayley Williams
11. Positions – Ariana Grande
12. Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey
13. Young Heart – Birdy
14. What’s Your Pleasure? – Jessie Ware
15. Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple
16. Piano Sketches – Birdy
17. *Fine Line – Harry Styles
18. Californian Soil – London Grammar
19. SOUR – Olivia Rodrigo
20. Nectar – Joji
21. Album No.8 – Katie Melua
22. After Hours – The Weeknd
23. *Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey
24. Poster Girl – Zara Larsson
25. Chromatica – Lady Gaga

Following in the footsteps of fellow singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey appears three times in the list of the year’s biggest Contemporary Albums to date!

Birdy (No.6) is the year’s most successful British artist to date.

Thanks to an incredible sales year, Taylor Swift ranks as the Top Contemporary Artist of 2021 to date. This could be the first time that Swift outperforms all other artists to rule the year: she previously ranked No.8 in 2017; No.34 in 2018; No.11 in 2019; and No.4 in 2020.

Lana Del Rey (No.2), Hayley Williams (No.3) & Miley Cyrus (No.4) follow in the Top Five, as The Weeknd appears at No.5, vying to become the first male artist to rank inside the Top Five of a Year-End Artists Chart.

Three British stars rank just outside the Top Five: Birdy (No.6), basking in the glow of her new chart-topping album Young Heart; Dua Lipa with the continued success of Future Nostalgia: Moonlight Edition (No.7) and Celeste (No.8) following the release of her debut album, Not Your Muse.

Fiona Apple sits at No.9 thanks to the continued success of 2020’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, as superstar Ariana Grande appears at No.10.

1. Taylor Swift
2. Lana Del Rey
3. Hayley Williams
4. Miley Cyrus
5. The Weeknd
6. Birdy
7. Dua Lipa
8. Celeste
9. Fiona Apple
10. Ariana Grande
11. Jessie Ware
12. Harry Styles
13. London Grammar
14. Olivia Rodrigo
15. Joji
16. Katie Melua
17. Zara Larsson
18. Lady Gaga
19. Rina Sawayama
20. Chloe x Halle
21. Kylie Minogue
22. HAIM
23. Stevie Nicks
24. Alanis Morissette
25. Sam Smith

London Grammar are the most successful group of 2021 to date, due to the success of Californian Soil which sits at No.16 on the Mid-Year Contemporary Albums Chart.

Joni Mitchell’s seminal Blue – released in 1971 – is by far the biggest album of the 2021 to date on the Catalogue Format. It has sold over 860,000 copies since its release in March and has stayed at No.1 on Top Catalogue Albums for the past seventeen weeks!

It is currently tied with Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! as the longest-running number-one album in L.dK Weekly history!

NFR! is the only album to rank on both Contemporary (No.23) and Catalogue (No.7)!

Two records from Stevie Nicks – the Greatest Artist of All Time on L.dK Weekly – take a spot in the year-to-date Top Ten!

Compilation set Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks is riding high at No.2, while her 1981 debut Bella Donna ranks at No.9 with sustained success.

Carole King’s A Beautiful Collection (No.3); Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope (No.4); and Kate Bush’s The Whole Story (No.5) complete an all-female Top Five!

Annie Lennox & Alanis Morissette pick the No.6 & No.8 spots with Diva and The Collection; the No.10 spot goes to Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits.

1. Blue – Joni Mitchell
2. Crystal Visions – the Very Best of Stevie Nicks – Stevie Nicks
3. A Beautiful Collection – Carole King
4. High as Hope – Florence + the Machine
5. The Whole Story – Kate Bush
6. Diva – Annie Lennox
7. Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey
8. The Collection – Alanis Morissette
9. Bella Donna – Stevie Nicks
10. Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac
11. Born to Die: the Paradise Edition – Lana Del Rey
12. Honeymoon – Lana Del Rey
13. Sweetener – Ariana Grande
14. Lust for Life – Lana Del Rey
15. She’s so Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
16. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + the Machine
17. Rock a Little – Stevie Nicks
18. Ultraviolence – Lana Del Rey
19. thank u, next – Ariana Grande
20. Glasshouse – Jessie Ware
21. Little Earthquakes – Tori Amos
22. Melodrama – Lorde
23. Dedicated – Carly Rae Jepsen
24. Medusa – Annie Lennox
25. Heart – HEART

Lana Del Rey appears five times – the most of any artist – on the Mid-Year Chart, from Norman Fucking Rockwell! at No.7 to Ultraviolence at No.18!

Stevie Nicks could be headed for a fifth year as the industry’s top artist (among Catalogue Artists).

For the fifth year in a row, Stevie Nicks is eyeing the yearly crown among all artists (all Catalogue artists in this case – although she ranks at No.23 among Top Contemporary Artists thanks to her 2020 Live in Concert disc).

The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll has sold just over 1.11 million albums this year, and shows up three times on the year-to-date Catalogue Albums Chart.

Lana Del Rey ranks at No.2 among Catalogue Artists thanks to her extensive catalogue, taking up five spots on the year-to-date Catalogue Albums Chart.

Joni Mitchell ranks at No.3 thanks to the huge success of Blue.

The female-heavy Top Ten is completed by: Florence + the Machine (No.4); Kate Bush (No.5); Annie Lennox (No.6); Carole King (No.7); Alanis Morissette (No.9) and Ariana Grande (No.10).

Ranking at No.8 – Fleetwood Mac.

1. Stevie Nicks
2. Lana Del Rey
3. Joni Mitchell
4. Florence + the Machine
5. Kate Bush
6. Annie Lennox
7. Carole King
8. Fleetwood Mac
9. Alanis Morissette
10. Ariana Grande
11. Cyndi Lauper
12. Lorde
13. HEART
14. Tori Amos
15. Jessie Ware
16. Lady Gaga
17. Birdy
18. Carly Rae Jepsen
19. AURORA
20. Billie Eilish
21. Kelly Clarkson
22. Adele
23. Cher
24. P!nk
25. Amy Winehouse

Other than Lana Del Rey – who ranks at No.2 among both her Contemporary & Catalogue peers, Ariana Grande is the only artist to place in the Top Ten of both lists!