The Weeknd — no e, old people– can feel his face, and his sales power! Canadian R&B star Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, who goes by the moniker The Weeknd– scored a huge number 1 debut for his follow up album to the mega hit Beauty Behind the Madness.
The new album, “Starboy,” sold 366,000 copies including about 140,000 streams. For a year with few hits, The Weeknd turned out to be a juggernaut. His 227,000 physical CDs and paid digital downloads were quite an accomplishment. Where other contemporary acts like Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys have found the charts to be problematic this fall, The Weeknd gave the one thing that was needed– a hit single. The title track from the album is a massive hit.
Also, his haircut helped.
In keeping with the new paradigm, last week’s number 1– Metallica’s “Hardwired…to Self Destruct”– fell 76% to number 5.
Good news: Lady Gaga’s Renaissance continues. Her “Joanne” album was up 34% over last week. That album will be a Grammy contender in 2018 because it missed the September 30th cut off by three weeks.
Tuesday brings Grammy nominations. In a perfect world, both David Bowie and Paul Simon would be Album of the Year noms along with Beyonce, Drake, and Adele. But that’s in a world where quality is recognized. Bowie may wind up in rock. and Simon in Traditional American. There’s a big push for Justin Bieber’s album of bird calls, called Porpoise–er, Purpose–to get a nomination.
