Tag Archives: Billboard

David Bowie’s just-released album Blackstar will debut at #1 on Billboard’s album chart next week. It will be his first topper on that chart. Billboard reports: The set, which was released through ISO/Columbia Records on Jan. 8 (Bowie’s 69th birthday), could sell perhaps 130,000 albums in the week ending Jan. 14, according to industry forecasters, and debut at No. 1 …

Via Billboard: The Queen of Pop is now unequaled chart royalty. Madonna makes momentous Billboard chart history, as she now has the most No. 1s ever, 45, by an act on a singular Billboard chart. She earns her 45th No. 1 on Dance Club Songs, where “Ghosttown” lifts 3-1. With the coronation, Madonna passes another icon, George Strait, who’s logged …

Gay favorite Martha Wash first topped Billboard’s dance chart way back in 1978 as Sylvester’s backing vocalist and since then she’s landed a dozen dance chart #1 singles as one-half of the Weather Girls, as a solo artist, and as the uncredited vocalist for Black Box and C+C Music Factory. This week she returns to the pinnacle position in a …

Cheek To Cheek debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart today, breaking Tony Bennett’s own record as the oldest artist (88!) to reach that chart’s summit. The standards album, released Sept. 23 on Interscope/Columbia Records, sold 131,000 copies in the week ending Sept. 28, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also hits No. 1 on both the Jazz Albums …

Via Billboard Magazine: After more than 30 years on the charts, comedian-singer “Weird Al” Yankovic earns his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as “Mandatory Fun” debuts atop the list. The album is the first comedy set to top the chart since 1963, and logs the largest sales week for a comedy album since 1994. “Mandatory Fun” was …

Billboard Magazine has compiled its year-end charts and named the Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis single Thrift Shop as the most popular song of 2013. This is somewhat of a surprise as the #2 single for the year, Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, had twelve weeks at #1 vs the six weeks at #1 for Thrift Shop. Lorde’s smash single Royals, which …

Last week it was announced that Samsung had purchased one million digital copies of Jay-Z’s coming album, which will be given away free when they launch a new cell phone app. Jay-Z then tweeted his millions of followers with a demand that the RIAA grant him a platinum album even though technically no one has bought it. Yesterday the RIAA …

Billboard Magazine has published a Buzzfeed-y list of 25 great gay moments in pop music. On the list: the coming out of Frank Ocean and Ricky Martin, Adam Lambert’s first #1 album by an out artist, Jay-Z’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, and Lady Gaga’s campaign for LGBT rights. Sylvester suitably makes the list pretty much just for having been Sylvester. …

From Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace website: Featuring adrenalin-fueled remixes from Grammy Award-winning producer Ralphi Rosario, premiere Dutch DJ/producer R3hab, sweltering progressive house collective Papercha$er, Brazilian electro house/dubstep duo Dirty Loud, Spain’s Ivan Gomez & Nacho Chapado, Brazilian electro house/dubstep duo Dirty Loud, versatile alt-rock meets dance artist/producer and remixer Rich Morel, electro nu-rave legend Tommie Sunshine, Boston-based wunderkind Emjae, and …

Last week Billboard Magazine altered the methodology of tabulating its pop charts, making a radical change not seen since they began including digital downloads as a ranking criteria. YouTube streaming data is now factored into the Hot 100 (and other genre charts), enhancing a mix of data that includes digital download track sales (and physical singles sales), as tracked by …

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, the hip-hop duo who rocketed to national prominence via Same Love, their message of gay acceptance, today topped Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart with their follow-up single, Thrift Shop.  The track is also #1 on the magazine’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart.  If, somehow, you have not yet heard the impossibly catchy Thrift Shop, here it is.

Billboard reports that Britain’s last national music retailer has declared bankruptcy. Ailing music and entertainment retailer HMV is to suspend the trading of its shares and enter administration, the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bank protection, the company has confirmed. The troubled music company is the U.K.’s last major high street music retailer and has over 230 brick and mortar …

The rest of the Top 100 songs of 2012 is here.

As Billboard approaches the cutoff date for its year-end charts, today they published the above recap of how many weeks each of this year’s most popular singles have held the top spot. There have been relatively few #1 singles in 2012 due to four hits holding the pinnacle for nearly eight months in total. Maroon 5’s One More Night is …

This is their third dance chart #1, following Filthy/Gorgeous (2005) and Fire With Fire (2010).

Newly out R&B star Frank Ocean debuted at the pinnacle of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart this week. (I’m fairly sure this is the first time that an already out artist has achieved this.) In fact, Billboard’s chart-watch column notes that Ocean’s first week sales are more than three times what had been forecast before he came out. Ocean also debuted …

Billboard Magazine is forecasting that the latest album from newly out R&B artist Frank Ocean may debut as high as #2 on this week’s top albums chart. It may launch at No. 2 with a robust 100,000 to 120,000 copies — nearly all from Apple’s iTunes Store. “Channel Orange” — released by Def Jam and distributed by Universal Music Group …

Billboard Magazine: “We reflect on 21 musical moments that were pivotal in advancing the understanding and acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” Adam Lambert, Ricky Martin, Glee, and more.