{"id":1755,"date":"2020-03-29T16:50:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T23:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2022-05-12T16:45:35","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T16:45:35","slug":"the-weeknds-after-hours-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-200-chart-with-biggest-week-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=1755","title":{"rendered":"The Weeknd\u2019s \u2018After Hours\u2019 Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart with Biggest Week of 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<script>\r\nif( document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ) ) document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ).insertAdjacentHTML( \"beforebegin\", \"<link rel='stylesheet' href='https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/wp-content\/themes\/themify-music\/themify\/themify-builder\/css\/themify-builder-style.css' type='text\/css' \/>\" );\r\n<\/script>\r\n\t\t\t\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Plus: Conan Gray and Kenny Rogers bow in top 10.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/the-weeknd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Weeknd<\/a>&nbsp;rocks the top of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/billboard-200\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Billboard 200<\/a>&nbsp;albums chart, as he scores his fourth No. 1 album with his latest release,&nbsp;<em>After Hours<\/em>. The set jumps in with the year\u2019s biggest week for any album: 444,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 26, according to Nielsen Music\/MRC Data. The sum also marks The Weeknd\u2019s personal weekly best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After Hours<\/em>&nbsp;was released on March 20 via XO\/Republic Records, and is The Weeknd\u2019s first release since his chart-topping six-song EP&nbsp;<em>My Dear Melancholy<\/em>&nbsp;in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on\u00a0multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new April 4-dated chart (where\u00a0<em>After Hours<\/em>\u00a0enters at No. 1) will be posted in full on\u00a0<em>Billboard<\/em>&#8216;s website on March 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 first week total of 444,000 equivalent album units comprises 275,000 in album sales, 163,000 in SEA units and 6,000 in TEA units. The album\u2019s SEA sum equates to 220.7 million on-demand streams of the set\u2019s tracks in its first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 streaming start was so big, the album would have been No. 1 on the Billboard 200 even if it hadn\u2019t sold a single copy. The No. 2 album on the chart is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/lil-uzi-vert\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lil Uzi Vert<\/a>\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Eternal Atake<\/em>, which falls to No. 2 after two weeks at No. 1, with 115,000 units (down 53%, with 113,000 of that sum in SEA units).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After Hours<\/em>\u00a0includes the hits \u201cHeartless,\u201d \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d and the set\u2019s title track. \u201cHeartless\u201d hit No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 dated Dec. 14, 2019 (his fourth No. 1), while \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d rose to a new peak of No. 2 on the most recently published Hot 100 (dated March 28). \u201cAfter Hours\u201d reached No. 20 on March 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take a closer look at some of the achievements The Weeknd earns with his newest No. 1 album:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Biggest Overall Week of 2020:&nbsp;<\/strong><em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 debut frame of 444,000 units outpaces the year\u2019s previous high-water mark, tallied by the debut of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/bts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BTS<\/a>\u2019&nbsp;<em>Map of the Soul: 7<\/em>. It entered at No. 1 on the March 7-dated list with 422,000 units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Weeknd\u2019s Biggest Week Ever:&nbsp;<\/strong><em>After Hours<\/em>&nbsp;also clocks The Weeknd\u2019s single largest week for an album. It surpasses the 412,000-unit start of&nbsp;<em>Beauty Behind the Madness<\/em>&nbsp;at No. 1 on the Sept. 19, 2015-dated chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Fourth No. 1:\u00a0<\/strong><em>After Hours<\/em>\u00a0is The Weeknd\u2019s fourth No. 1 album, and fourth in a row. It follows\u00a0<em>My Dear Melancholy<\/em>\u00a0(one week at No. 1, 2018),\u00a0<em>Starboy<\/em>\u00a0(five weeks at No. 1, 2016-17) and\u00a0<em>Beauty Behind the Madness<\/em>\u00a0(three weeks at No. 1, 2015).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2020\u2019s Second-Biggest Sales Week<\/strong>: Album sales powered 62% of&nbsp;<em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 first week: 275,000 of 444,000 units. Those sales were driven largely by by a concert ticket\/album sale redemption offer with The Weeknd\u2019s upcoming tour (scheduled to launch in June), as well as more than 80 different merchandise\/album bundles sold through The Weeknd\u2019s official website. The largest sales week of 2020 remains the debut of BTS\u2019&nbsp;<em>Map of the Soul: 7<\/em>, with 347,000 sold in its first week. (<em>Map<\/em>&nbsp;didn\u2019t have a ticket\/album offer, nor any merchandise\/album bundles \u2013 though it was released in four elaborate collectible CD packages.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>After Hours<\/em>&nbsp;also starts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart, The Weeknd\u2019s fourth leader on that tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Biggest Week for an R&amp;B Album in Nearly Four Years:\u00a0<\/strong><em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 big debut of 444,000 units is the largest week posted by an R&amp;B album in nearly four years. The last R&amp;B set to score a bigger week was\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/beyonce\" target=\"_blank\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>Lemonade<\/em>, which blasted in at No. 1 on the May 14, 2016-dated chart with 653,000 units.\u00a0<em>After Hours<\/em>\u00a0also lands the biggest week for an R&amp;B album by a male artist since the chart began ranking album by equivalent album units in December 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Biggest Streaming Week Ever for an R&amp;B Album:&nbsp;<\/strong>With 220.7 million on-demand streams registered for&nbsp;<em>After Hours<\/em>\u2019 songs in its first week, the album logs the largest streaming week ever for an R&amp;B effort. It beats The Weeknd\u2019s own&nbsp;<em>Starboy<\/em>, which launched with 175.2 million clicks (Dec. 17, 2016-dated chart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back on the new Billboard 200, as noted above, Lil Uzi Vert\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Eternal Atake<\/em>&nbsp;falls to No. 2 after two weeks at No. 1. The set earned 115,000 equivalent album units (down 53%).&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/lil-baby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lil Baby<\/a>\u2019s former No. 1&nbsp;<em>My Turn<\/em>&nbsp;drops one spot to No. 3 with 60,000 equivalent album units (down 22%), while&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/bad-bunny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bad Bunny<\/a>\u2019s&nbsp;<em>YHLQMDLG<\/em>&nbsp;dips from No. 3 to No. 4 with 51,000 units (down 26%).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/conan-gray\" target=\"_blank\">Conan Gray<\/a>\u2019s debut full-length album,\u00a0<em>Kid Krow<\/em>, flies in at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart with 49,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, 37,000 were in album sales (assisted by a concert\/ticket album sale redemption offer with his tour late last year, and merchandise\/album bundles). The 21-year-old singer-songwriter signed to Republic Records in 2018 after finding YouTube success with his original music and personal vlogs. After signing with Republic, he hit the Billboard 200 chart with his debut EP,\u00a0<em>Sunset Season<\/em>, which debuted and peaked at No. 118 on the Dec. 1, 2018-dated tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/roddy-ricch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roddy Ricch<\/a>\u2019s former No. 1&nbsp;<em>Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial<\/em>&nbsp;is steady at No. 6 on the new Billboard 200 (43,000 equivalent album units; down 13%),&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/post-malone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Post Malone<\/a>\u2019s chart-topping&nbsp;<em>Hollywood\u2019s Bleeding<\/em>&nbsp;rises 8-7 (38,000 units; down 8%) and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/jhene-aiko\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jhen\u00e9 Aiko<\/a>\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Chilombo<\/em>&nbsp;descends 5-8 (37,000 units; down 34%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The late&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/kenny-rogers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kenny Rogers<\/a>&nbsp;logs his highest-charting album since 1983, as&nbsp;<em>The Best of Kenny Rogers: Through the Years<\/em>&nbsp;debuts at No. 9 (32,000 equivalent album units earned, with 10,000 of that sum in album sales).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 20-track greatest hits collection was released in 2018 via Capitol Records Nashville, and contains such top 10 Hot 100 hits as \u201cThe Gambler,\u201d \u201cLucille\u201d and the No. 1 \u201cLady.\u201d It does not, however, include one of his most popular hits, the No. 1 smash \u201cIslands in the Stream,\u201d with\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/dolly-parton\" target=\"_blank\">Dolly Parton<\/a>. The single was released on RCA Records in 1983 and spent two weeks at No. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rogers, who&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/articles\/news\/obituary\/8458524\/kenny-rogers-dead-81\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">died<\/a>&nbsp;on March 20 at age 81, was last in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 with 1983\u2019s RCA release&nbsp;<em>Eyes That See in the Dark<\/em>, which peaked at No. 6. The album\u2019s lead single was \u201cIslands in the Stream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, Rogers has now tallied five top 10 efforts on the all-genre Billboard 200:&nbsp;<em>The Best of Kenny Rogers: Through the Years<\/em>&nbsp;(No. 9),&nbsp;<em>Eyes That See in the Dark<\/em>&nbsp;(No. 6),&nbsp;<em>Share Your Love<\/em>&nbsp;(No. 6, 1981),&nbsp;<em>Kenny Rogers\u2019 Greatest Hits<\/em>&nbsp;(No. 1 for two weeks, 1980) and&nbsp;<em>Kenny<\/em>&nbsp;(No. 5, 1980).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rounding out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is the soundtrack to\u00a0<em>Frozen II<\/em>. The former No. 1 holds steady at No. 10 with 31,000 equivalent album units earned (down 1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: billboard.com<\/p>\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1755\" data-postid=\"1755\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1755 themify_builder themify_builder_front\">\r\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<!-- \/themify_builder_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plus: Conan Gray and Kenny Rogers bow in top 10. The Weeknd&nbsp;rocks the top of the&nbsp;Billboard 200&nbsp;albums chart, as he scores his fourth No. 1 album with his latest release,&nbsp;After Hours. The set jumps in with the year\u2019s biggest week for any album: 444,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-now","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","no-post-comment","no-post-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2878,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/2878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}