Ellie Goulding has become the latest UK act this year to break into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time after Lights climbed to number six.
Goulding’s elevation into the chart’s top tier follows previous 2012 breakthroughs by fellow Brits Jessie J (Domino), The Wanted (Glad You Came) and One Direction (What Makes You Beautiful).
However, Lights’ Top 10 placing has been a long time coming. The track was first released back in May 2011 in the States and is now in its 27th week on the Hot 100, making it the slowest climb into the Top 10 by a female artist not helped by crossover airplay from country to pop radio in Hot 100 history.
Goulding’s single was downloaded another 149,000 times last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a 23% rise on the previous week. This helped to move it not only 12-6 on the Hot 100 but 9-5 on Billboard’s sales-only Digital Songs chart and it stands as the week’s biggest digital gainer. Meanwhile, her album of the same name climbs 178-150 on the Billboard 20, having previously peaked at 76.
Another female soloist from the UK who could soon be joining Goulding in the Top 10 is Cher Lloyd whose single Want U Back sold another 56,000 downloads in the States last week, 50% higher than the week before. As a result it climbs 75-51 on the Hot 100.
While Goulding and Lloyd hit new US chart highs, Ed Sheeran suffers a dip in his second week on the Billboard 200 chart. Having impressively debuted at five last week with +, the album now slips to number 29, although its first single The A Team is gaining in popularity with its weekly download sales rising 34% to around 15,000 units.
The big chart news overall in the States this week belongs to Justin Bieber whose album Believe achieves the highest first-week sales of the year, selling 374,000 copies to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. It is the Canadian’s fourth album and helps weekly album sales beat the equivalent seven days in 2011 for the first time in 15 weeks – although only just. Some 5.94 million albums were sold last week, 0.3% better than the tally during the same week last year, while sales rose 2.2% on the week. Year-to-date album sales are now up to 144.71 million, 3.0% lower than at this stage a year ago.
Believe leads a top four exclusively made up of new releases with country artist Kenny Chesney starting in second place with Welcome To The Fishbowl after selling 193,000 copies, while Fiona Apple achieves a new chart high as 72,000 sales of The Idler Wheel Is Wiser… instantly takes her to third place. Oceania, Smashing Pumpkins’ first studio album since 2007’s Zeitgeist, enters at four with 54,000 sales.
With the Rock Of Ages movie soundtrack climbing 9-5 as sales rise 34% to 49,000, Adele’s 21 drops out of the top five for only the second time in its 70-week run. It slips 3-7 with sales down 24% to around 47,000, its lowest weekly sale in the US since release.
One Direction’s Up All Night remains in the Top 10 for a 15th straight week as sales rise 5% to 41,000, although its drops 6-8 on the chart, while their single What Makes You Beautiful remains in the Hot 100’s Top 10, dropping 6-9, as One Thing progresses 47-39. Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines is back again in the albums Top 10, moving 13-9 with sales up 4% to 28,000 and Rush’s Clockwork Angels falls 2-10 as sales drop 74% to 27,000.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe continues to lead the Hot 100 and remains the top digital seller for a sixth week after selling another 263,000 downloads. It also tops Billboard’s On-Demand Songs streaming chart for a third successive week and climbs 3-2 on the Radio Songs airplay chart.
Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa’s Payphone moves back up 3-2 on the Hot 100 to swap places with Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye featuring Kimbra, while Katy Perry’s Wide Awake remains fourth and Rihanna’s Where Have You Been moves 8-5, giving its British co-writer Calvin Harris his second top five hit on the survey following his chart-topping We Found Love, also penned for Rihanna. Harris’s two Hot 100 hits in his own right are both up this week with Feel So Close climbing 23-22 and Let’s Go featuring Ne-Yo up 44-35.
Among the Brits, The Wanted’s Glad You Came holds at 13 as Chasing The Sun improves 81-75, while also climbing are Rita Ora with How We Do (Party) up 68-62 and Alex Clare who climbs 67-64 with Too Close.
One-track digital sales dropped 0.8% week-on-week last week to 25.17 million and were 0.5% lower than the same week in 2011, while year-to-date sales are 5.9% higher at 672.73 million.
Music Week
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