THE WEEKND SCORES SECOND NO.1 ALBUM!
Dawn FM arrives at the top spot after a hotly contested battle with Adele’s 30!
The Weeknd debuts at No.1 on the L.dK Weekly Top Fifty with Dawn FM – his first studio album since 2020’s mega-hit After Hours. The album opens with first-week sales of 130,000 units, earning it the 35th biggest debut in history, and the biggest of the year to date. However, it marks a significant decline from After, which launched with 249,000 combined units in 2020.
Despite this sales drop, the No.1 debut means that The Weeknd is the first male artist to claim multiple chart-topping albums on L.dK Weekly. The only other male soloists to reach the summit are Harry Styles (Fine Line), Sam Smith (The Thrill of it All) and Troye Sivan (Bloom); Sivan also hit No.2 in 2020 with In a Dream.
With sales of 130,000 units, Dawn is already certified Gold for selling upwards of 100,000 copies; it is the R&B star’s third release to achieve this, following After Hours (4 x Platinum) and The Highlights (2 x Platinum).
In conjunction with the release, After Hours returns to the ranking at No.22 with sales of 10,000 copies – it is the first appearance by the LP since early 2021, and it nabs a 62nd week on the list. The Highlights also sneaks back onto the chart at No.49 with 5,000 sold.
Adele cedes control of the Top Fifty after seven consecutive weeks at the helm, as 30 descends to No.2 in its eighth charting week. It celebrates a gain in sales however, as it moved 128,000 copies this week, an increase of 8.4% from the previous week. The increase in sales comes after “Oh My God” recieved the single-treatment late in the week.
To date, 30 has sold 1.68 million copies, making it the 23rd bestselling album of all time, passing Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club (on 1.67 million).
Arlo Parks‘s Collapsed in Sunbeams returns to its peak position on L.dK Weekly as it surges 9-3 with sales of 36,000 units (up eighty percent). The album has now been certified Gold, having sold 125,000 to date.
Norah Jones‘s Come Away With Me descends 2-4 in its second week, collecting 35,000 units (down sixty-three percent). Like Collapsed, the soft-pop achieves a Gold plaque this week, having sold 129,000 in two weeks.
Taylor Swift places three records in the Top Ten this week: thirteen-week-leader evermore leads the pack as it slips 4-5 on sales of 30,000 copies (down twelve percent). Former chart-topper Red (Taylor’s Version) drops 6-8 with 20,000 sold (down twenty-nine percent) as folklore – which previously spent seventeen weeks at No.1 – ascends 11-10 with 17,000 units (even with last week).
Lana Del Rey‘s Blue Banisters slides 3-6 after spending its first eleven weeks inside the Top Five; it sold 27,000 units this week (down twenty-five percent).
Since its release, Blue Banisters has sold 1.01 million copies, making it Del Rey’s fifth album to sell over one million units! Only one artist can boast more – Stevie Nicks (six).
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! – 4.77 million
- Lust for Life – 2.83 million
- Chemtrails Over the Country Club – 1.67 million
- Born to Die: the Paradise Edition – 1.24 million
- Blue Banisters – 1.01 million
NFR! retreats 8-9 this week (19,000 units – down ten percent) as it logs a 116th week in the Top Ten.
Rounding out the Top Ten: Joni Mitchell falls 5-7 with Blue (24,000 sold – down twenty percent).
Onto Next Week: Adele’s 30 is currently tracking to sell over 100,000 units for a ninth straight week, which would certainly earn the album an eighth stay at the top spot. The incumbent number-one – The Weeknd’s Dawn FM – could register second-week sales of roughly 75,000 units.
L.dK Weekly Top Fifty
Notable Moves Inside the L.dK Weekly Top Fifty
No.11 – Plastic Hearts / Miley Cyrus’s rock-oriented seventh studio album was one of the biggest hits of the past year, and has been a chart mainstay since its No.1 debut in December 2020. This week – as it sinks to No.11 in its 59th charting frame – it becomes just the 19th album in history to be certified 6 x Platinum for exceeding sales of 1.8 million units.
No.13 – LOVE + FEAR / MARINA’s biggest hit revists the list at No.13, selling 13,000 units following the deluxe re-release of her followup set Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land – that album returns further down the list at No.33 with 7,000 sold.
No.15 – Clouds / As a consolation prize for departing the Top Ten after spending its first two weeks in the region, Joni Mitchell’s No.3-peaking Clouds goes Silver for selling over 60,000 copies. It is Mitchell’s second set to earn the distinction; her 1971 record Blue has been certified Platinum five times over.
L.dK Weekly Top Artists
Industry Sales
Industry sales for the week stand at 885,000 units, improving by 15.8% from the previous week’s figure of 764,000 units. Compared to the same week last year (when 762,000 albums were sold), consumption is up by 16.1%!
Note
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
L.dK Music 