Adele revisits the top of the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Dec. 4), reigning as the top musical act in the U.S. for a 13th total week, thanks to the explosive debut of her new LP, 30.
The set launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 839,000 equivalent album units, according to MRC Data, earning the largest week of the year, surpassing Drake’s Certified Lover Boy (613,000 in its opening week in September). Of 30‘s starting sum, 692,000 are from album sales, already making it the top-selling album of all of 2021.
All 12 songs from 30 concurrently rank on the latest Billboard Hot 100, with lead single “Easy on Me” returning to No. 1for a fifth week on top and “Oh My God” debuting at No. 5.
With her 13th week at No. 1 (and first since the Nov. 6 chart), Adele ties Ed Sheeran for the eighth-most weeks spent at the Artist 100’s summit since the list began in 2014. Taylor Swift leads all acts with 50 weeks at No. 1, followed by Drake (36), The Weeknd (22), BTS (20), Ariana Grande (15), Justin Bieber and Post Malone (14 each).
Swift dips to No. 2 on the Artist 100, as Red (Taylor’s Version) likewise descends to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and the set’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” places at No. 4 on the Hot 100, after debuting at No. 1 a week ago.
Sheeran holds at No. 3 on the Artist 100, powered by a pair of hits in the Hot 100’s top 10: “Shivers” at No. 6 and “Bad Habits” at No. 8. The Weeknd rises 8-4 as his LP The Highlights re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 10 (37,000 units, up 724%), sparked in the latest tracking week by its release on vinyl, and Doja Cat lifts 6-5, as her single “Need to Know” holds at No. 9 on the Hot 100.
Plus, late rapper Young Dolph re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 36 after he was fatally shot in his hometown of Memphis on Nov. 17. He places four albums on the Billboard 200: Rich Slave at No. 50 (up from No. 126; 16,000 units, up 64%), followed by re-entries for Paper Route iLLUMINATi (No. 130), Dum and Dummer 2, with Key Glock (No. 142), and Bulletproof (No. 179). Young Dolph reached a No. 6 high on the Artist 100 in August 2020.
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
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