USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Butter' sticks at no.1 on Billboard Hot 100
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

BTS' "Butter" glides to a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, two weeks after it launched at the summit, becoming the South Korean superstar group's fourth

leader on the survey. "Butter," released May 21 on BigHit Entertainment / Columbia Records, drew 15.4 million U.S. streams, down 19%, and sold 138,400 downloads, down 1%, in the week ending June 10, according to MRC Data. It also attracted 24.6 million radio airplay audience impressions, up 10%, in the week ending June 13. The track logs a third week atop the Digital Song Sales chart, drops 10-19 on Streaming Songs and rises 32-28 on Radio Songs. "Butter" equals BTS' best Hot 100 command among the act's four No. 1s, as the group's first leader, "Dynamite," spent its first two weeks on the chart at the top spot in September 2020 and returned for a third week in the lead in October. With "Butter," BTS thus rules the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks for the first time. Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" keeps at No. 2 on the Hot 100, three weeks after it debuted at No. 1. It posts a fourth week atop Streaming Songs (42.1 million, down 15%); slips 3-5 on Digital  

Song Sales (11,100, down 5%); and jumps 35-21 on Radio Songs with 27.8 million impressions, up 38%, as it wins the Hot 100's top Airplay Gainer award for a second week. "Butter" and "Good 4 U" mark the first set of songs to rank at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks in 2021. The double-up is the greatest since Roddy Ricch's "The Box" and Future's "Life Is Good," featuring Drake, lined up in the same respective spots for eight straight weeks in January-March 2020. Dua Lipa's "Levitating," featuring DaBaby, holds at No. 3 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2, and Justin Bieber's former one-week No. 1 "Peaches," featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon, rebounds 6-4. The latter returns for a third week atop both Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs, with both multi-metric charts employing the same methodology as the Hot 100. "Leave the Door Open" by Silk Sonic, the duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, descends 4-5 on the Hot 100, after two nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. It adds a ninth week atop Radio Songs (89 million, down 2%). The Weeknd and Ariana Grande's "Save Your Tears" backtracks 5-6 on the Hot 100, after two weeks at No. 1; Doja Cat's "Kiss Me More," featuring SZA, repeats at No. 7, after reaching No. 5; Masked Wolf's "Astronaut in the Ocean" lifts 9-8, after hitting No. 6, as it leads the multi-metric Hot Rap Songs chart for a fourth week; and Olivia Rodrigo's "Deja Vu" drops 8-9 on the Hot 100, after rising No. 3. Rounding out the Hot 100's top 10, Bad Bunny's "Yonaguni" bounds onto the chart at No. 10 with 27.3 million streams and 4,800 sold in its first week, ending June 10, following its June 4 release. The single starts at No. 2 on Streaming Songs and No. 18 on Digital Song Sales. It also drew 3.1 million radio audience impressions in the week ending June 13. Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s collaborative album, The Voice of the Heroes, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, scoring the former his second leader and the latter his first. The album bows with 150,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 10, according to MRC Data, driven nearly entirely by streaming activity of the its songs. The hip-hop set, which was released on June 4, also boasts guest turns from a quartet of acts who have all had their own No. 1 albums: Travis Scott, Meek Mill, Young Thug and Rod Wave. Of Voice’s 150,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending June 10, SEA units comprise 144,000 (equaling 197.71 million on-demand streams of the album’s 18 tracks), album sales comprise slightly more than 4,000 and TEA units comprise a little over 1,000. Lil Durk is the sixth act to get their first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in 2021, following Olivia Rodrigo, Moneybagg Yo, Rod Wave, Morgan Wallen and Playboi Carti. (The lattermost debuted at No. 1 on the Jan. 9-dated chart with his Dec. 25, 2020 release, Whole Lotta Red.) Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour is steady at No. 2 for a second week, earning 143,000 equivalent album units (down 23%). Two more former leaders are next, as Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album rises 4-3 with 50,000 units (down 4%) and J. Cole’s The Off-Season dips 3-4 with 44,000 units (down 25%). South Korean pop quintet Tomorrow x Together notches its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200, as The Chaos Chapter: Freeze debuts at No. 5 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 39,000, SEA units comprise 4,000 (equaling 6.42 million on-demand streams of the album’s eight tracks) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Like most K-pop releases, the CD edition of the album was issued in multiple collectible packages, each with assorted internal paper goods and randomized elements (photocard, postcard). A hefty 96% of the album’s sales came from the CD editions, while the remaining 4% were from the digital album. Tomorrow x Together had previously gone as high as No. 25 with 2020’s Minisode1: Blue Hour (Nov. 21, 2020-dated chart). Moneybagg Yo’s former No. 1 A Gangsta’s Pain falls 5-6 on the new Billboard 200 with 38,000 equivalent album units earned (down 10%) while Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia slips 6-7 with 35,000 units (though up 2%). Taylor Swift’s Evermore falls 1-8 with 31,000 units (down 85%) after its 74-1 jump a week ago. The top 10 is rounded out by two former No. 1s: The Weeknd’s After Hours (holding at No. 9 with 29,000 equivalent album units; down 1%) and Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get (a non-mover at No.10 with 28,000 units; down 2%).

Record Of The Month

United Kingdom
Music Week (excerpt)
Alternative rock act Wolf Alice lands first no.1
Monday, June 14, 2021
by Alan Jones, London

Twice before they have been midweek leaders only to be denied the chart crown at the death, so the sight of Wolf Alice not only leading the chart race but doing so with what would turn out to be an insurmountable lead is a very welcome one. The third album of haunting beauty from the British group, Blue Weekend lands them

their first No.1 record with a huge sale of 36,182, driven mostly by a large physical sale of 29,587, in the biggest opening week for a British group so far this year. Wolf Alice are bucking the trend and growing bigger with each release: Visions Of A Life opened with 19,333 sales in 2017, their debut Love Is Cool posting 13,891 first time out in 2015. Against this whirlwind even Olivia Rodrigo could not compete but she still more than holds her own, Sour dipping to No.2 but posting another strong sale of 25,846 - 23,370 of these coming via streams as its tracks continue to be consumed in large quantities. That leaves third place to James as the veteran Manchester band return with their third studio album in three years. All The Colours Of You is their 18th chart album, the tenth to reach the Top 10 and their seventh to make the Top 3. It's No.3 placing is thanks to 13,112 sales. It's predecessor Living In Extraordinary Times sold 12,268 copies to debut at No.6 back

in 2018. This all means that the Top 3 albums each top five figures and post sales in excess of 10,000 for what is now the fourth week in a row. Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia is in there, just as it always is, this week’s No.4 with 5,548 sales. Next in the queue is The Voice Of The Heroes, a well-received collaborative album from Lil Baby & Lil Durk, which almost needless to say has been streamed rather than purchased but still accumulates enough sales (5,518 to be exact) to chart at No.5. That means it becomes Lil Baby's second Top 10 record, arriving 15 months after his solo work My Turn charted at No.6. Lil Durk has, however, never been this high, having landed three Top 40 albums in the last two years, most recently with The Voice, which reached No.26 back in January. Two cuts from the album make the singles chart, the title track at No.62 (7,704 sales) and Hats Off a place behind (7,514 sales). It has been a long wait for a new Crowded House album, their last studio offering Intriguer released way back in 2010. The legendary New Zealand group are a true family affair once more with Neil Finn's sons Liam and Elroy both now considered full time members and with producer Mitchell Froom back on board for the first time since 1991's Woodface there is a genuine aura of renewal about the project. Dreamers Are Waiting is the group's seventh studio album and takes them into the Top 10 for the first time since 2007, charting at No.6 with 5,385 sales. He played on 10 chart albums as a member of ZZ Top but the only solo work from Billy F Gibbons to chart until today was 2015's Perfectamundo, which had a brief shot of bourbon at No.62 in November that year. A better fate turns out to be in store for his third album Hardware which rockets to No.18 (3,080 sales). After weeks edging towards the 2 million mark albums sales dip 6.2% to 1,875,653. All market sectors are down this week, physical sales dropping the most in a 10.7% fall to 340,894. Olivia Rodrigo ups the ante once more with three simultaneous Top 5 hits, making her the first female artist to do so. Good 4 U remains ahead of the rest of the singles market by a country mile and is No.1 for a third week. Its sales are down to "only" 95,867 but still more than double its nearest rival. Streams contribute all but 2,302 to that total, a further 11.2m plays mean Good 4 U is now the first single to be streamed more than 11 million times for three consecutive weeks. Rodrigo is now the first solo female to spent 12 weeks atop the charts in a single calendar year since Connie Francis reached the same total in 1958. Deja Vu remains her second-biggest hit of the moment, rebounding to No.4 (35,390 sales). Her third is a returning Traitor, which plays the chart hokey-cokey with Drivers License and after a week’s absence re-enters at the expense of the latter, hitting a new peak of No.5 (28,157 sales). Her former No.1 single is a mere 1,422 sales behind and notionally the seventh biggest hit of the week only for the 3-track rule to bar it from the printed chart. In a Rodrigo-free world, The Weeknd has the biggest hit as Save Your Tears accelerates to a new peak of No.2 (41,095 sales), reaching the Top 3 after an epic chart climb of 22 weeks. Consumption remains split fairly equally between the original and duet versions of the track, the Ariana Grande-featured remix accounting for 55% of its streams. The Top 5 is rounded off by Doja Cat and SZA's Kiss Me More, static at No.3 with 39,372 sales. He's technically already had a chart-topping single this year having featured on the all-star remix of Body. Now Brighton rapper ArrDee this week has a Top 10 entry with his first credited chart hit as Oliver Twist slams in as the highest new entry at No.7 (24,786 sales). The singles market is down 4.45% to 23,431,997. Paid-for sales dip 0.6% to 369,954 for a second consecutive week of decline.