Taylor Swift returns to No.1 with Midnights!
Plus: New certifications for Adele and Lana Del Rey; Swift’s folklore re-enters Top Ten!
Taylor Swift’s Midnights springs 2-1 to spend a tenth non-consecutive week at the summit of the Weekly Top 50, selling 68,000 copies (up 26 percent). The album debuted at No.1 on the chart dated 31st October, selling 277,000 units to become the fastest-selling album of 2022, and stayed at the top of the charts for its first nine weeks.
Midnights is the ninth album to spend nine weeks at number-one, and Swift’s third after folklore (seventeen weeks), and evermore (fifteen weeks). This marks a record among all artists, although Lana Del Rey came close, with Norman Fucking Rockwell! (twenty-five weeks), and Lust for Life (eleven weeks) making the cut, while Chemtrails Over the Country Club (nine weeks) just falling short.
Midnights unseats Swift’s own evermore which falls to No.2, although sports a 15 percent sales increase, selling 67,000 copies. The album has now sold 4.54 million copies, becoming the third LP in history to be certified at least 15 x Platinum!
folklore meanwhile vaults 18-8 to re-enter the Top Ten for the first time since September 2022, selling 19,000 copies (up 72 percent).
Joni Mitchell’s eleven-week-leader Court and Spark bullets at No.3 with 46,000 sold (up 8 percent). It is now the songwriter’s second album to sell over 2 million copies, and just the 25th ever. Mitchell’s Hejira meanwhile retreats 8-9 after peaking at No.6, moviong 18,000 copies (down 18 percent).
Adele’s seventeen-week-ruler 30 remains at No.4 on sales of 38,000 units (down 2 percent) as it becomes the fourth album in history to be certified Platinum at least fourteen times over.
Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! marks its first Top Ten appearance since October 2022 as it surges 11-7 (21,000 units – up 23 percent). NFR! makes history this week as it becomes the first release ever to be certified 19 x Platinum, denoting sales exceeding 5.7 million units. The legendary disc is expected to surpass sales of 6 million copies within six months.
First Aid Kit’s Palomino repeats at No.5 after climbing to No.2, moving 25,000 copies (down 4 percent).
Outside the Top Five: The Kooks’s No.3-peaking The Best of … So Far steps up 7-6 (23,000 units – on par with last week), and Mariah Carey’s No.6-peaking Greatest Hits dips 9-10 (16,000 units – down 15 percent).
Onto Next Week: Taylor Swift’s Midnights is currently headed for an eleventh week atop the L.dK Weekly Top 50, with estimated sales of over 60,000 copies.
L.dK Weekly Top 50
Notable Moves in the Weekly Top 50
No.12 – Come Away With Me / Norah Jones’s debut album peaked at No.2 in January 2021, and this week sails past a million combined sales. It is the 61st album to sell a million.
No.17 – Tracy Chapman / This singer-songwriter’s eponymous debut was one of the biggest hits of 2022, selling more than a million copies. It has now clocked up a full year inside the Top 50 – 52 weeks!
No.18 – Bad Girls / Donna Summer’s 1979 classic enters with first-week sales of 10,000 copies.
No.20 – Emails I Can’t Send / Sabrina Carpenter’s 2021 album makes its first appearance, selling 10,000 copies.
No.38 – Bloom / Troye Sivan’s sophomore album has cemented itself as a chart mainstay since its release in 2018, even finishing among the top 40 biggest hits of 2022. It has now become the first album ever by a male artist to chart for 100 weeks, and the 26th overall.
No.49 – Love Sux / Avril Lavigne’s seventh studio album celebrates its first showing after initally being released in 2022. It sold 5,000 in its first week. Her 2004 sophomore set Under My Skin notches a No.50 placement this week, also with 5,000 sold.
L.dK Weekly Top Artists
Note
Certifications: Silver (60,000); Gold (100,000); Platinum (300,000); Multi-Platinum (600,000 etc.); Diamond (3,000,000).
L.dK Music 