Friday 22 March 2019

Country Billboard Chart News March 18, 2019


SCOTTY McCREERY CELEBRATES SUCCESS OF NO. 1 SINGLE “THIS IS IT” 
Two Week Chart-Topping Song Is McCreery's Second Consecutive No. 1 Hit From His Seasons Change Album

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On Wednesday night (March 20) Triple Tigers recording artist Scotty McCreery celebrated his chart topping single, “This Is It,” in Nashville with friends, family, colleagues and media in attendance at an industry celebration hosted by ASCAP and BMI. "This Is It" is McCreery's second ever No. 1 and second consecutive No. 1 hit off his Seasons Change album. He was joined by fellow song co-writers (and two of the three album co-producers) Frank Rogers and Aaron Eshuis at the event where the North Carolina native received a plaque to signify the song's two weeks at No. 1 as well as RIAA Gold Certification.
"If you had told me a couple years ago we'd be here, I'd have told you, you were crazy. It has been an incredible feeling and an incredible ride," shared McCreery who went on to thank wife Gabi who served as the inspiration for the hit song.
Back row: Lee Krabel (Senior Creative Director, Smack Songs); Scott Stem (McCreery’s manager, Triple 8 Management); George Couri (McCreery’s manager, Partner, Triple 8 Management; Partner, Triple Tigers Records); Kevin Herring (SVP of Promotion, Triple Tigers Records); Norbert Nix (Partner/GM, Triple Tigers Records);  David Macias (Partner, Triple Tigers Records); and A.J. Burton (VP, Fluid Music Revolution). Front row: Robin Palmer (SVP Creative, Smack Songs); writers Aaron Eshuis, Scotty McCreery, Frank Rogers| Photo Credit: Ed Rode









In Brief: Billboard Country Charts (Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)

Country Album Chart ** No.1 (1 week) ** GIRL Maren Morris
Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (4 weeks) ** “Beautiful Crazy” Luke Combs
Country Airplay ** No.1 (4 weeks) ** “Beautiful Crazy” Luke Combs
Country Digital Songs ** No.1 (1 week) ** “Ridin’ RoadsDustin Lynch

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News (Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)

The Billboard 200 chart measures multi-metric album consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Juice WRLD claimed his first No.1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (BB200), as Death Race for Love debuted atop the tally. The set, which was released on March 8 via Grade A/Interscope Records, earned 165,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 14, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 43,000 were in album sales.
Death Race logs both the biggest week overall, and the largest streaming week, for an R&B/hip-hop album in 2019. Of Death Race’s 165,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening frame, 120,000 were in SEA units, which translates to 176.44 million on-demand audio streams for its songs.

Maren Morris netted her highest-charting album yet on the Billboard 200, as GIRL bowed at No.4 with 46,000 units (with 25,000 of that sum in album sales). It surpassed her previous high, logged when Hero debuted and peaked at No. 5 (June 25, 2016). Further, Morris logged the highest charting country album by a female artist in over five months. Carrie Underwood was the last female act to go higher with a country set, when Cry Pretty debuted at No. 1 on the Sept. 29, 2018-dated list, with 266,000 units..

Billboard Top Country Albums (Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)
Top Country Albums now ranks the most popular country albums of the week, as compiled by Nielsen Music, based on multi-metric consumption (blending traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA)).
10 digital track sales from an album = 1 track equivalent album (TEA) “sale”
1,500 on demand song streams from an album to one streaming equivalent album (SEA) “sale”.
Nielsen Music compiles the sales and streaming data. Billboard continues to publish pure album sales charts (subscription to billboard biz ), exclusively comprising Nielsen’s sales data.

Columbia's Maren Morris debuted at No.1 on the Country albums chart with GIRL (Columbia Nashville/ Sony Music Nashville [SMN]) released March 8. Total activity was more than almost 46,000 units according to Nielsen SoundScan.

With Girl, Morris notched the largest debut week streaming sum for a country album by a female artist: Its songs logged 23.96 million ondemand audio streams in its premiere frame.

She surpassed the previous such best debut-week total that was set when Underwood’s Cry Pretty generated 14.44 million on-demand audio streams (Sept. 29, 2018). Girl also logged the largest streaming week for a studio country album by a woman and the largest opening streaming week for any such album in 2019.
“I am blown away by the support this last week,” Morris, 28, told Billboard. “My fans were already screaming the lyrics at the show the day after the album came out.”
“Achieving significant streaming success was a key goal, and to attain it in such a dramatic fashion makes it all the more sweet,” says SMN chairman/CEO Randy Goodman, who also praises Morris’ manager, Janet Weir. “[We] embraced this album with the attitude of, ‘Let’s go do this,’ and we did just that.”

CHART HISTORY: Girl is the second full-length from the Arlington, Texas, native to open at the Top Country Albums summit. Morris’ first major-label LP, HERO, began in the penthouse — and at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 — on chart week dated June 25, 2016 (45,000 units; 37,142 copies sold). As of February 20, 2019, it had sold a total of 308,700 copies in America.


Her new set is her third entry on Top Country Albums. Her self-titled EP entered at No. 27 in November 2015 and peaked at No. 22 the following April.
The album’s title-track lead single rockets 27-9 on Hot Country Songs, which blends streaming, airplay and sales data. It’s Morris’ fifth top 10 on the chart. On Country Airplay, “Girl” rose 26-25 (7.7 million in audience, essentially even week over week). The track is the first Hot Country Songs top 10 by a female unaccompanied by another artist since Morris’ “Rich” ranked at its No. 8 high on Dec. 8.
Morris co-wrote all 14 songs on Girl, which was produced by busbee and Greg Kurstin. She is nominated for female vocalist of the year at the 54th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, to will be held April 7 in Las Vegas.

Billboard Top Country Albums (Chart issue week of June 25, 2016)
Singer-songwriter Maren Morris with her debut major-label, full-length album, HERO (Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville), became the first launch album to debut atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart in 2016.
The set started with 37,142 copies sold in its first week (ending June 9), according to Nielsen Music. On the all-genre, multimetric consumption-based Billboard 200, Hero opened at No.5 with 45,000 equivalent album units.

Critical reception for Maren Morris’ GIRL:
Debut #1 UK Country iTunes Album hart (#13 UK iTunes all-genres) | Debut #1 US Country iTunes Album Chart (#1 US iTunes all-genres)

On her happier second album, Morris straddles the pop/country divide much as she did on the first. Why don't we just meet her in the middle?......To cut to the chase, then: “Girl” is every bit as much a country album as her 2016 debut, “Hero.” Which leads to another question: Does that say anything? A taste test of the first release might have had the man on the street not noticing much that was identifiably Nashville about it and, if anything, singling out Rihanna as a major influence, not Reba. But in her accomplished country/pop ambivalence, Morris is not unlike the freshest reigning male country superstar of the day, Thomas Rhett; he just gets judged a lot less for it..... (Rating: 88/100 Variety.com)

The highly anticipated album is a genre-blended work of country, pop, soft rock and R&B. This works in Morris's favour, since her voice naturally fits well with different genres, as demonstrated by her 2018 pop collaboration with Zedd and Grey on "The Middle," as well as a performance alongside country outlaw Chris Stapleton and R&B gospel singer Mavis Staples....What's impressive about Girl though is how strong Morris's vocals have grown, along with the maturity and uniqueness of each song. It's clear that Girl isn't a sophomore slump, but rather an album worth investing in  (Rating: 8/10 Exclaim.ca)
  
But “A Song For Everything” is smile city as Morris flips through a phonebook’s worth of the pop musicians who’ve soundtracked her life. “What’s your time machine?” she asks.....GIRL probably won’t drum up quite the same level of critical spectacle as Golden Hour, but Morris’ endearing and earnest second album is country-pop polished for radio that still feels down-to-earth. (Rating: 7.1/10 Paste Magazine)

In a sense, Girl is the sequel to "The Middle," not Hero. Largely produced by Greg Kurstin -- the Bird & The Bee veteran who became the producer du jour after his Grammy-winning work for Adele and Beck -- Girl is bright, shiny, and big, an album designed to appeal to any imaginable audience.....By foregrounding her lyrical intent and offering no room for interpretation, Morris winds up with songs that feel less imaginative than their execution, a flaw that is by no means fatal but does mean that Girl plays on a smaller scale than intended. - (Rating: 3.1/2 STARS AllMusic)

For all the biographical sincerity, Morris’s songs about unfettered good times feel unconvincing. Morris has a compellingly hardbitten voice that’s wasted on the boozy camaraderie of All My Favourite People and the blown-out Flavour, not to mention the twee, plinky-plonky A Song for Everything, which strings together nostalgic tropes to push cheap emotional buttons......Also disappointing is Common, featuring Brandi Carlile, a gothic plea for unity that feels feeble next to Morris’s brazen (for a country star) real-life proclamations on gun control. It’s stranger still because the best songs on Girl dwell on friction. “What’s left of my halo’s black / Lucky for me, your kind of heaven’s been to hell and back,” she sings on To Hell & Back, a bittersweet, pragmatic love song that swells between anxiety and mellow reassurance, while The Bones draws out the inherent ruefulness in her voice (Rating: 2 STARS The Guardian)

Luke Combs with THIS ONE’S FOR YOU (River House/ Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville) fell 1-2 (#20-17 Billboard 200) in its 93rd frame.
Florida Georgia Line with CAN’T SAY I AIN’T COUNTRY (Big Machine Label Group) slipped 2-3 (#33-43 Billboard 200) in their fourth frame.

Dan + Shay with their self-titled album (Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville) dropped 3-4 (#45-47 BB200) in their 38th week.
Former No.1 Kacey Musgraves with GOLDEN HOUR (MCA Nashville) slipped 4-5 (#51 non-mover BB200) in her 45th week.

Chris Stapleton with the 202-week TRAVELLER (MERCURY/ UMGN) fell 5-6 (#54-53 BB200) as his set From A Room: Volume 1 (Mercury/Universal Music Group Nashville) held at No.18 (#188-190 BB200; 97 weeks) and From A Room: Volume 2 fell 17-19 (#184-194 BB200) in his 67th week.

Former No.1 Kane Brown with sophomore album, entitled EXPERIMENT fell 7-8 (#76-86 BB200; 8 chart frames) as his self-titled album moved 6-7 (#75-76 BB200; 118 chart weeks).

Former 6-week non-consecutive week No.1 Jason Aldean with REARVIEW TOWN (Macon/Broken Bow Records) fell 8-9 (#91-93 BB200; 48 chart weeks).
Thomas Rhett with LIFE CHANGES (Valory) fell 9-10 (#96-113 BB200) in his 79th frame.

Outside the Top 10
Former No.1 Carrie Underwood with CRY PRETTY pushed 16-11 (#172-129 BB200; 26 chart weeks).
Morgan Wallen with IF I KNOW ME (Big Loud Digital EX) held at No.14 (#164-144 BB200; 41 chart weeks).
Jordan Davis with HOME STATE (MCA Nashville) rose 19-17 (#199-174 BB200) in his 39th chart frame.
Former No1 Cody Johnson with AIN’T NOTHIN’ TO IT (Cojo/Warner Music Nashville) fell 22-23 in his 8th week.
Scotty McCreery with SEASONS CHANGE (Triple Tigers) held at No.25 in his 27th week.

FALLING SHORT of Top 50:
On the Country Album Sales list (pure sales; old methodology)

Townes Van Zandt with the 11-track set SKY BLUE (TVZ Records | Amazon UK - UK iTunes), released March 7,  made a debut at No.7.

Year-To-Date Albums
2,136,000 (Physical sales 1,461,000 (down -27.5%) + Digital sales 675,000 (down -16.0%) which is 24.2% down at the same point in 2018 (2,818,000 sales) 

Year-To-Date Digital Tracks
6,952,000 down 27.2% at the same point in 2018 (9,552,000)

Billboard Hot Country Songs (Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)
On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which blends:
a) All-format airplay, as monitored by BDS
b) Sales, as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and
c) Streaming, (tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) according to BDS it results in:

Luke Combs with “Beautiful Crazy’’ (River House/ Columbia Nashville) led both Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay for a fourth frame. It topped the latter chart with 40.1 million impressions (down 1 percent). It is his unprecedented fifth consecutive career-opening Country Airplay leader.

Hot County Songs
** No.1 (4 weeks) ** “Beautiful Crazy” Luke Combs  
** Airplay Gainer” No.8 “Here Tonight” Brett Young  
** Digital Gainer/ Streaming Gainer ** No.9 “GIRL” Maren Morris  
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.26 “Ridin' Roads” Dustin Lynch  
Debut No.37 “A Song For Everything” Maren Morris
Debut No.46 “All My Favorite People” Maren Morris feat. Brothers Osborne
Debut No.49 “I Hope” Gabby Barrett

Billboard Country Airplay (Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)

Luke Combs with “Beautiful Crazy” topped the chart for a fourth week with a 2% decrease in audience (-0.243 million)

Chase Rice with “Eyes on You” (Dack Janiels/Broken Bow) entered the Country Airplay top 10 (13-9), increasing by 15 percent to 22.1 million audience impressions. “Eyes” marked his third top 10 on the tally and first since 2015’s No.2-peaking “Gonna Wanna Tonight.” Rice first reached the region with “Ready Set Roll,” which hit No. 5 in 2014.

Jake Owen with “Down to the Honkytonk” (Big Loud) hopped 12-10 (21.7 million, up 7 percent) on the chart, his 10th top 10 on the list. Owen last reached that level with his seventh No.1, “I Was Jack (You Were Diane),” which led for a week in August 2018.

Country Airplay
*** No.1 (4 weeks) *** “Beautiful Crazy” Luke Combs 40.569 million audience (-0.243 million) / 8,184 radio plays (-109).
** Most Increased Audience ** No.5 “Here Tonight” Brett Young
** Most Added ** No. 55 Re-Entry “90's Country” Walker Hayes
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.58 “After A Few” Travis Denning  
Debut No.60 “We Got A Problem” Luke Combs

Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart
(Chart issue week of March 23, 2019)

Dustin Lynch with Ridin’ Roads bowed atop Country Digital Song Sales (#8 New Entry Digital Songs) with 16,000 sold in its first week, marking Lynch’s first No.1 (and sixth top 10). On Hot Country Songs, it arrived at No. 26. The 3-track single released March 8 (iTunes) and the other 2 tracks “Red Dirt, Blue Eyes” and “Little Town Livin'” debuted at No.19 & No.22 respectively.
Ridin’ Roads” was seven places behind Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "Shallow" which returned for an eighth week atop Digital Song Sales (34,000, down 39 percent).

Former No1 Luke Combs with Beautiful Crazy” held at No.2 (#16 non mover Digital Songs).
Dan + Shay (Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney) with Speechless” held at No.3 (#32-26 Digital Songs) as hit single “Tequila” fell 5-8 (#42-39 Digital Songs) in its 60th frame.

Last weeks No.1 Thomas Rhett with “Look What God Gave Her” fell 1-4 (#7-27 Digital Songs).
Kelsea Ballerini with “Miss Me More” fell 4-5 (#37-33 Digital Songs) in her 19th week.

Morgan Wallen with “Whiskey Glasses” rose 8-6 (#49-34 Digital Songs) in his 16th week.
Kane Brown with “Good As You” rose 9-7 (#35 Re-Entry Digital Songs) in his 8th frame.
Lee Brice with “Rumor” lifted 10-9 (#43 Re-Entry Digital Songs) in his 13th week.
Jake Owen with “Down To The Honkytonk” fell 7-10 (#46-49 Digital Songs) in his 29th frame.

Outside the Top 10
Kacey Musgraves with “Rainbow” held at No.11 in her 5th week.
Maren Morris with GIRL advanced 25-12 in her 8th frame.
Gabby Barrett with “I Hope” pushed 21-15 in her 3rd week.

Country Aircheck MEDIABASE Chart

March 18, 2019

Luke Combs Strikes #1 For Second Week With 'Beautiful Crazy'
Double congrats to Luke Combs, Steve Hodges, Shane Allen and the Columbia promotion team on landing a second week at No.1 with “Beautiful Crazy.” The song is the fifth chart-topper from his debut album THIS ONE’S FOR YOU. Songwriters are Wyatt Durrette, Robert Williford and Combs.

Beautiful Crazy” (River House/Columbia) held at No.1 logging 8,914 radio spins (+43), 57.126 million audience impressions (+1.002) with 28959 Total Points (+121) from 156 tracking stations (156 ADDS) for the tracking week March 10 to March 16, 2019 and published chart dated March 18, 2019.

Jason Aldean Is Most-Added With 'Rearview Town'
Kudos to Lee Adams, Shelley Hargis Gaines and the Broken Bow reps on notching 16 adds for Jason Aldean’s Rearview Town”. The song topped the "Most Added" board this chart week.
Broken Row Records staffers honor Jason Aldean being most-added at Country radio this week. Pictured L-R: BBR Mgr./Secondary Promotion Matthew Holmberg; VP/Promotion Shelley Hargis; and Coord./ Promotion Ashley Wojcinski


Mediabase Adds (Selective)

Artist/Title (Label)        TW       Total Historic Adds
JASON ALDEAN/Rearview Town (Macon Music/Broken Bow)    16         106      
HARDY/Rednecker (Tree Vibez/Big Loud)          13         79        
KACEY MUSGRAVES/Rainbow (MCA)   10         114      
CHRIS JANSON/Good Vibes (Warner Bros./WAR)          9          61        
DIERKS BENTLEY/Living (Capitol)         9          75        
THOMAS RHETT/Look What God Gave Her (Valory)      9          152      
CHRIS YOUNG/Raised On Country (RCA)          8          127      
DAN + SHAY/All To Myself (Warner Bros./WAR) 8          95        
JUSTIN MOORE/The Ones That Didn't Make It.. (Valory)            8          92        
ZAC BROWN BAND/Someone I Used To Know (BMG/Wheelhouse)        7          64        
B. GILBERT & L. ELL/What Happens In A Small Town (Valory)   6          142      
KING CALAWAY/World For Two (Stoney Creek) 6          35        
KIP MOORE/The Bull (MCA)      6          38        
WALKER HAYES/90's Country (Monument/Arista)          6          65        
BROTHERS OSBORNE/I Don't Remember Me (Before..) (EMI Nashville) 5          99        
LAUREN ALAINA/Ladies In The '90s (19/Mercury)           5          101      
MAREN MORRIS/Girl (Columbia)           3          134      
CASSADEE POPE/If My Heart Had A Heart (Awake Music)         2          3         
RUNAWAY JUNE/Buy My Own Drinks (Wheelhouse)      2          136      
SCOTTY MCCREERY/In Between (Triple Tigers)            2          2         
ASHLEY MCBRYDE/Girl Goin' Nowhere (Atlantic/WAR)  1          82        
CARLY PEARCE/Closer To You (Big Machine)   1          139      
HUNTER HAYES/Heartbreak (Atlantic/WMN)      1          1         
JENNIFER NETTLES/I Can Do Hard Things (Big Machine)          1          2         
MAREN MORRIS f/BROS. OSBORNE/All My Favorite... (Columbia)        1          1         
TERRA BELLA/Middle Of Nowhere USA (DAX)  1          1


For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly March 18, 2019, Issue 644  

For the very latest up to the minute Mediabase Chart (Past 7 Days) go here - www.mediabase.com


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.