The first U.S. chart news of 2022 finds that we haven’t actually gone out with the old and in with the new. Adele comes into the year still on top of the Billboard 200 album chart, as she probably will be for at least one more week… and Mariah Carey enters it still commanding the Hot 100, as she probably won’t again till next December.
Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” took the top spot on Billboard’s singles chart for the third straight week and its eighth in the last three years. The chart period covered Dec. 24-30, so it’s safe to say that nearly all of that consumption took place in the first two out of those seven days, although a slight bit of post-Xmas denial may have factored in. Billboard reports that, overall, the song’s streams were down 25% for the week and radio impressions were down 49% as AC stations finally flipped back to business as usual — but even with those predictable declines, no one could best her.
Some new records were set by Carey, per Billboard, including upping the number of weeks she’s spent atop the Hot 100 to 87. The nearest runner-up, Rihanna, has spent a mere 60 weeks at No. 1, followed by the Beatles with 59 weeks on top. (Sometimes it seems like it’s been as long since Rihanna added to her total since it has for the Beatles, but she’s got to put a new record out some year, so why not this one… say finger-crossing fans.)
After being shoved out of the way by some other holiday tracks, Adele’s “Easy on You” reasserted itself in the days after Christmas and moved up from No. 5 to No. 2, strongly suggesting that it will return to No. 1 in next week’s results.
Her “30” album hasn’t had to do any waiting around to dominate and re-dominate, though. Adele’s long-player is enjoying its sixth straight week on top of the Billboard 200. The album was down by 53% for the week, with not many Christmas presents left to buy in the Dec. 24-30 chart period. But its 99,000 album-equivalent units didn’t face any significant competition in the Boxing Day marketplace.
There were two albums appearing in the top 10 that, while having been out for a while, made it into that lofty territory for the first time. In the case of “A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector,” it only took 58 years from the time of its release to claim top 10 status, as the collection moved up a single spot to No. 10 on the strength of 39,000 album-equivalent units.
Disney’s “Encanto” soundtrack had to wait a while, too, but not six decades. In its fifth week out, the album jumped from No. 110 to No. 7, thanks to the animated film’s debut on Disney Plus on Christmas Eve, exactly one month after the movie came out in theaters. With 41,000 units for the week representing a 220% leap, t’s the first soundtrack album to reach the top 10 since “Frozen II” two years ago.
The perennial seasonal albums making one last stand for now in the top 10 were Michael Buble’s “Christmas” at No. 2, Nat King Cole at No. 6, the Vince Guaraldi Trio at No. 8 and Carey’s full album at No. 9.
Non-Christmas albums in the top 10 besides Adele’s and Disney’s included Taylor Swift’s “Red (Taylor’s Version)” at No. 3, Olivia Rodrigo at No. 4 and Morgan Wallen at No. 5. Last week’s top new entry Roddy Ricch, dropped out of the top 10.
Adele had been penciled in to command the album chart for many weeks to come, but now it looks like she might only have one more successive week at the top, as the Weeknd’s new album has just been announced for release this Friday and will impact the charts as a likely No. 1 two weeks from now
