USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Easy On Me' atop, 'Stay' at the runner-up slot
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Adele’s new album 30 blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, debuting with the largest week of 2021 for any album, while the set is already the biggest-selling album of the

year. It’s the third No. 1 for the superstar, following 25 (10 weeks on top in 2015-16) and 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12). 30 is Adele’s first album in six years, since she released 25 on Nov. 20, 2015. 30 starts with 839,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 25, according to MRC Data. That’s by far the largest week of the year for any album by units earned, surpassing the debut of Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which earned 613,000 units in the week ending Sept. 9. Of 30’s 839,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 25, album sales comprise 692,000, SEA units comprise 141,000 (equaling 185.39 million on-demand streams of the set’s 12 tracks) and TEA units comprise 6,000 units. 30’s 692,000 album sales’ total is easily the largest sales week of the year for any album. It nearly doubles the year’s previous biggest sales week, when Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) sold 369,000 in the week

ending Nov. 18. Further, 30’s sales of 692,000 immediately make the set the biggest-selling album of the entire year, surpassing the total sales of any album over the past 11 months combined. The year’s previous biggest-selling album was Swift’s 2020 release Evermore, which has sold 471,000 in 2021. 30’s first-week sales of 692,000 not only mark the single-largest sales frame of 2021, but the largest sales week for any album since 2017. The last time an album sold more copies in a single week was when Taylor Swift’s Reputation debuted with 1.216 million copies sold in the week ending Nov. 16, 2017 (reflected on the Dec. 2, 2017-dated charts). Back to this week's hitlist: Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) falls from No. 1 to No. 2 in its second week, with 159,000 equivalent album units earned (down 74%). Drake’s former No. 1 Certified Lover Boy climbs 5-3 with 53,000 units (though down 7%), Silk Sonic’s An Evening With Silk Sonic dips 2-4 in its second week with 50,000 (down 52%), Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album rises 6-5 with 48,000 units (up 6%) and Summer Walker’s former leader Still Over It falls 4-6 with just under 48,000 (down 25%). Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ second collaborative album, Raise the Roof, debuts at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. It’s the ninth top 10 for Plant as a solo artist, and the fifth for Krauss (including her work with Union Station). Raise the Roof follows Plant and Krauss’ first teaming, on the 2007 album Raising Sand, which debuted and peaked at No. 2. The set later won the Grammy Award for album of the year. (Legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, with Plant as a member, has banked 13 top 10s on the tally, including seven No. 1s, beginning in 1969.) Raise the Roof starts with a little over 40,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 38,000, SEA units comprise 2,000 (equaling 2.17 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000. Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour climbs 11-8 with 40,000 equivalent album units earned (up 23%). Michael Bublé’s chart-topping Christmas album jingles its way back to the top 10, as the album, first released in 2011, bolts 22-9 with 39,000 equivalent album units earned (up 77%). The set gets a boost courtesy of promotion around a 10th anniversary deluxe reissue that was released on Nov. 19, which includes additional tracks. Christmas spent five weeks at No. 1 in late 2011 and early 2012 and has returned to the top 10 in every Christmas season since. Closing out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is The Weeknd’s hits compilation The Highlights, which re-enters the chart at No. 10 with 37,000 equivalent album units earned (up 724%). The album debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Feb. 20-dated chart. The Highlights was sparked in the latest tracking week by its release on vinyl LP, as 91% of the album’s sales for the week were on vinyl (a little over 5,000 of a nearly 6,000 sold). As Adele‘s new LP 30 blasts in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with the biggest week of 2021, lead single “Easy on Me” rebounds for a fifth week atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The ballad reigns as the most-streamed and top-selling song of the week — and, for the first time, the most-heard hit on the radio. Notably, it’s the first song to lead in all three metrics simultaneously since Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, in 2017. “Easy on Me,” released Oct. 14 on Columbia Records, drew 93.2 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 11%) and 37.5 million U.S. streams (up 55%, as it claims the Hot 100’s top Streaming Gainer award) and sold 27,600 downloads (up 11%) in the Nov. 19-25 tracking week, according to MRC Data. Meanwhile, fellow 30 cut “Oh My God” roars onto the Hot 100 at No. 5, with 24.2 million streams, as it starts at No. 3 on Streaming Songs; 6.8 million in airplay audience; and 3,300 downloads sold, good for a No. 28 entrance on Digital Song Sales. The Kid LAROI and Bieber’s “Stay” rebounds 3-2 on the Hot 100, after seven weeks at No. 1. It concurrently leads Pop Airplay for a 13th week, moving to within one frame of Ace of Base’s record 14-week reign with “The Sign” in 1994. Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” rises 4-3 on the Hot 100, after a week at No. 1, as it logs a 14th week atop both the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which employ the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100. Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” drops to No. 4 on the Hot 100, a week after it soared in at No. 1. After opening atop both Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales, it descends to No. 2 on the former tally (25.8 million, down 53%) and No. 9 on the latter (6,300, down 89%). The track also tops the multi-metric Hot Country Songs chart for a second week. Meanwhile, airplay for the song, which runs 10 minutes and 13 seconds in its longest mix, a record for a Hot 100 No. 1, is up 156% to 731,000 impressions (via all its versions). Although not being promoted as a proper radio single from Swift’s album Red (Taylor’s Version), seven stations that contribute to the Radio Songs chart played it 10 or more times in the tracking week (up from four a week earlier), led by Pop Airplay panelists WPRO Providence, R.I. (52), and WDJQ Canton, Ohio (32), and Adult Pop Airplay reporter WWBX Boston (20). Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” ascends 7-6 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 5, and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” climbs 8-7 for a new best, as it leads the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts for a 10th week each. Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” dips 6-8 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 2. It also hits No. 1 on Adult Contemporary, where it’s his fourth leader; his prior three all logged lengthy reigns: “Thinking Out Loud” (19 weeks at No. 1, beginning in March 2015), “Shape of You” (24 weeks, beginning in May 2017) and “Perfect” (22 weeks, beginning in February 2018). Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Doja Cat’s “Need to Know” holds at No. 9, after hitting No. 8, and Silk Sonic’s “Smokin Out the Window” slides to No. 10 from its No. 5 peak, although it wins top Airplay Gainer honors on the Hot 100 (23.2 million, up 72%) and leads the multi-metric Hot R&B Songs chart for the third week.

Record Of The Month
Nigeria is gradually becoming a hot spot in our new multicolored music world. Already last year a song from there, 'Jerusalema' by Master KG feat. Nomcebo Zikode, was a big international success and now 'Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)' by Nigerian singer, songwriter and producer Chukwuka Ekweani, better known as CKay, is on the way to the top... this week at no.3 with 300.000 points.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Adele is clear winner, Ed Sheeran at no.2
Monday, November 29, 2021
by Alan Jones, London
 
Adele recorded the highest weekly sale not just of the 2010s but of all-time, when her third album, 25, sold a staggering 800,307 copies on its first week on release in 2015. Exactly six years on, follow-up, 30, sets the pace for the 2020s, opening its account with an introductory tally of 261,856 sales,

the best of the 100 weeks that have elapsed in the decade to date, surpassing the 203,909 set by ABBA’s Voyage a mere fortnight ago. All four of Adele’s albums to date have debuted at No.1, and have gone on to enjoy lengthy chart careers and multi-platinum sales. All are in the Top 40 this week to welcome 30. First album 19, from 2008, rallies 39-31 (3,714 sales) on its 190th Top 75 appearance. Second album 21, from 2011, climbs 23-18 (5,463 sales) on its 223rd chart week. And third album 25’s 144th appearance on the chart see it fall 13-15 (7,699 sales). 21 remains the 21st century’s biggest seller (5,318,918 sales), while 25 ranks fourth (3,747,797 sales) and 19 is 30th (2,518,168 sales). With 19 spending one week at No.1, 21 spending 23 weeks at No.1 and 25 spending 13 weeks at No.1, 30’s coronation brings Adele her 38th week in pole position – well short of The Beatles’ record of 176 weeks at No.1, but the second most of any artist in the 21st

century, trailing only Ed Sheeran, with 42 weeks. Sheeran’s latest album =, itself No.1 three weeks ago, is 30’s nearest challenger this week rising 3-2, although its total of 32,789 sales mean that 30 outsold it by a margin of almost eight to one. 30 also sold more copies than the rest of the Top 20 combined. Fourteen years after their first collaboration, Raising Sand, peaked at No.2 behind Scouting For Girls’ eponymous debut, former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bluegrass legend Alison Krauss debut at No.5 (21,120 sales) with a second selection of covers, Raise The Roof. Raising Sand has sold 744,081 copies. London hip-hop collective D-Block Europe secure their fifth Top 10 album with Home Alone 2 (No.6, 15,478 sales) in the same week that one of its tracks, Overseas, finally secures them their first Top 10 single. There are also Top 10 debuts for: Flying Dream 1 (No.7, 13,589 sales), the eighth Top 10 album for Elbow; and The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021) (No.9, 10,710 sales), a compilation with four new tracks that provides the seventh Top 10 album for James Blunt. The rest of the Top 10: Voyage (2-3, 29,963 sales) by ABBA, Red (Taylor’s Version) (1-8, 11,754 sales) by Taylor Swift and Between Us (4-10, 9,497 sales) by Little Mix. Overall album sales are up 9.09% week-on-week at 2,334,124, their highest level of the year and 17.01% above same week 2020 sales of 1,994,727. Physical product accounted for 766,703 sales, 32.85% of the total. Every one of the acts who have debuted at No.1 in the last six weeks has had at least three prior chart-toppers – a sequence unmatched in chart history. The acts in question - Coldplay, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, ABBA, Taylor Swift and Adele – had eight, seven, four, nine, seven and three prior No.1s respectively. Their popularity means that the average sale for a No.1 so far in the 2020s is 32,086, up from just 25,527 six weeks ago. Let’s not get carried away, however…the first 100 weeks of the 2000s yielded a No.1 average of 101,368, and the first 100 weeks of the 2010s a No.1 average of 93,993. As her fourth album, 30, makes a forceful debut atop the album chart, Adele remains at No.1 on the singles chart for the sixth straight week with Easy On Me. Benefitting enormously from streaming of the album, Easy On Me’s consumption increases 49.96% to 100,627 units, as it is joined in the Top 4 by two further cuts from the album: Oh My God (No.2, 53,429 sales) and I Drink Wine (No.4, 49,520 sales). Although falling short of taking the top three positions simultaneously – something only Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran have ever done – Adele sets a new benchmark for a female soloist, eclipsing Olivia Rodrigo’s feat of placing three songs in the Top 5 just 24 weeks ago. Ed Sheeran’s monopoly of the chart, that saw him take nine of the Top 10 slots for two weeks in a row in 2017, caused a change in OCC regulations, setting the maximum number of tracks a primary artist could have in the chart at one time to three. Were that rule not in existence, Adele would have seven of this week’s Top 10, those that are ‘starred-out’ being My Little Love (43,956 sales), Can I Get It (41,785 sales), Strangers By Nature (38,189 sales) and Cry Your Heart Out (36,075 sales). Two of the three remaining positions in that Top 10 would be filled, ironically, by Ed Sheeran, who also has three singles in the Top 10 again this week, namely Shivers (2-3, 50,831 sales), Bad Habits (4-5, 42,221 sales) and Overpass Graffiti (6-10, 29,296 sales). Overall consumption of Adele tracks increases by 679,350 this week to 24,452,849 – about a third of Sheeran’s total. Super Furry Animals had 21 Top 75 hits between 1996 and 2007 without ever reaching the Top 10, a record that stood until October last year, when London hip-hop collective D-Block Europe scored their 22nd hit without troubling the top tier. Super Furry Animals return to the top of that list this week as two tracks from D-Block Europe’s new album Home Alone 2 enter the chart. They are Funny Bunny Nails (No.35, 10,998 sales) and, more pertinently, Overseas (feat. Central Cee), which opens at No.8 (31,900 sales), thus providing their first Top 10 hit (Central Cee’s third), eclipsing the peak of their previous highest charting hit, UFO (feat. Aitch), which reached No.11 in October last year. D-Block Europe now have 31 hits to their credit, the last of their current three being No Competition, which debuted and peaked at No.18 three weeks ago and now rebounds 39-22 (15,491 sales). The rest of the Top 10: All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) (3-6, 36,828 sales) by Taylor Swift, Flowers (Say My Name) (5-7, 32,188 sales) by ArrDee and Seventeen Going Under (9-9, 31,002 sales) by Sam Fender. Singles sales are down 1.80% week-on-week at 23,546,351, 12.25% above same week 2020 sales of 20,977,182. Paid-for sales are down 2.08% week-on-week at 356,034 – 22.01% above/below same week 2020 sales of 465,487.