New releases from 21 Savage, Kali Uchis and Ariana Grande have flooded the top of the Billboard charts with record-breaking and career-defining entrances.
Leading the Billboard 200 this week is “American Dream,” 21 Savage’s fourth No. 1 album. The set — which earned 21 his biggest streaming week to date as a solo act — debuted atop the chart with 133,000 album-equivalent units, including 169 million on-demand official streams in the United States, per Luminate.
Just days before the 15-song record’s release on Jan. 12, the London-born rapper announced the album with a trailer directed by Donald Glover, his brother Stephen Glover, Jamal Olori and Fam Udeorji, which sees the “Atlanta” star and actor Caleb McLaughlin depicting Savage across two generations.
“American Dream” is 21’s first solo effort since 2018’s “I Am > I Was.” In the time since, he’s released two collaborative albums including 2020’s “Savage Mode II” with producer Metro Boomin and 2022’s “Her Loss” with Drake. The latter recently earned him several nominations for this year’s Grammy Awards, including best rap song for “Rich Flex” and best melodic rap performance for “Spin Bout U.”
21 and “American Dream” also own a fair share of real estate on the Billboard Hot 100, where “Redrum” sits at No. 5, and “Née-nah,” a song 21 shares with Travis Scott and Metro Boomin, is at No. 10.
The No. 2 album in the U.S. this week is Kali Uchis’ second Spanish-language set, “Orquídeas.” Logging a total of 69,000 units earned and just a little over 51 million streams of the record’s 14 songs, “Orquídeas” becomes Uchis’ second and highest top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200, following the mostly-English-language “Red Moon in Venus,” which debuted and peaked at No. 4 in March. The set included guest verses from Peso Pluma, Karol G, Rauw Alejandro and others.
Only four all-Spanish language albums have ever hit the top of the all-genre-inclusive albums chart and three of them belong to Bad Bunny, with Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito” being the fourth. In an interview with Variety, Uchis spoke about Latin women making strides in the music industry saying, “The scope of how the music industry views Latinas is so boxed, and tied into certain stereotypes — I’m speaking in regards to sound — that one of my main priorities has always been to express myself as freely as I can and be as creatively limitless as I can be.”
Meanwhile, more than half of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart is occupied by women, with its leading star being Ariana Grande’s latest, “Yes, And?”
The song is the lead single from Grande’s incoming seventh studio album, “Eternal Sunshine,” slated for March 8. “Yes, And?” — written and produced by Grande with her go-to producers Max Martin and ILYA — drew 27 million streams and 25 million radio airplay audience impressions. Martin now reigns as the producer with the most No. 1 songs in Hot 100 history (24), surpassing English producer George Martin, who had extensive involvement in each of the Beatles’ original albums. Grande also becomes the first artist in history to debut in the Hot 100’s top 10 with the lead single from each of her seven albums.
Aside from Grande’s entrance and 21’s pair of Top 10 hits, the remaining top seven singles on the Hot 100 are repeats from previous weeks: Jack Harlow’s unshakable “Lovin on Me” slips to No. 2 after three weeks atop the Hot 100; Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” is No. 3; Tate McRae’s “Greedy” is at No. 4 and Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves, is at No. 6.
Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” is at No. 7 and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” hits a new peak at No. 8, while SZA’s “Snooze” moves to No. 9.
Back on the Billboard 200, Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is now at No. 3; Drake’s “For All the Dogs” is at No. 4 and Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is at No. 5. Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” is at No. 6 while the remaining Top 10 slots are filled out by Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” (No. 7), SZA’s “SOS” (No. 9) and Swift’s “Lover” (No. 10).
