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[WEEKLY SALES] Ladies Continue to Lead Charts with Lorde’s ‘Melodrama’
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James Donio, President of the Music Business Association (Music Biz), commented on this week’s sales numbers issued by Nielsen (published in Billboard) and BuzzAngle Music (published in HITS Daily Double):
“Ladies continue to lead the charts this week as Lorde’s sophomore release, Melodrama, earned more than 109,000 units awarding the singer/songwriter her first #1 album. Following recent top-charting releases from Halsey and Katy Perry, Lorde completes the consecutive #1 “triple axel” for successful female forces in the industry — something that has not been done on the Billboard charts since December 2012 when Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and Rihanna held simultaneous #1 albums. Other notable debuts include 2 Chainz’s Pretty Girls Like Trap Music in at #2 with more than 94,000 units and Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound at #4 with more than 53,000. Next week’s charts seem to be led by the race to #1 between DJ Khaled and Imagine Dragons, but we’ll be keeping a close look at the sales impact of last night’s BET Awards, where Kendrick Lamar took home ‘Best Male Hip-Hop Artist’ led by efforts for DAMN. — an album which has continued to chart very high since its release.”