It’s still “Encanto‘s” world and everyone else is just living in it. But even with that soundtrack and its song “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” continuing their chokehold on the music charts, there was some fresh blood among debuting albums and singles this week, with Yo Gotti, Mitski and the teaming of Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby getting off to strong starts.
Disney’s “Encanto” soundtrack is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the fourth straight week and fifth week overall. And it’s not looking to go away any time soon. This week’s total of 110,000 album-equivalent units represented just a 2% decline from the previous week. According to Billboard, “Encanto” is one of just six soundtracks to have clocked at least five weeks at No. 1 in the last three decades.
On the Billboard Hot 100, there are five songs from “Encanto” in the top 40 — the highest-ranking of which is, of course, “We Don’t Talk about Bruno,” now No. 1 for the third week. (The other four are “Surface Pressure,” “The Family Madrigal,” “What Else Can I Do?” and the Oscar-nominated “Dos Oruguitas.”) Streams for “Bruno” for the week were 35.6 million, down a modest 5%; radio impressions were 5.5 million, up a sharp 53%, as more top 40 programmers take a chance on the outlier tune.
The top debuting album on the new chart is Yo Gotti’s “CM10: Free Game,” in at No. 3 with 46,000 album-equivalent units (and the rapper’s highest chart position to date, after previously peaking at No. 4). Billboard points out that the album was available in 11-song, 22-song and even 25-song editions, the sheer quantity of which was one reason Yo Gotti was able to run up 43 million on-demand song streams for the week.
Mitski achieved a bigger personal milestone this week, entering the album chart at No. 5 after previously only having gotten as high as No. 52… and only having spent a single week in the Billboard 200 before. All of which is a way of saying that her popularity has picked up quite a lot since she released “Be the Cowboy” to very modest initial returns in 2018. Her new release, “Laurel Hell,” debuted with 36,000 album-equivalent units. That tally includes an impressive 24,000 copies in pure album sales; Billboard reports that 17,000 of those were in the vinyl format. It’s a young year, but that’s the best single-week total on vinyl for any album so far in 2022. But she’s not just a turntable phenomenon — “Laurel Hell” also collected 15.63 million on-demand streams.
Returning albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 include Gunna at No. 3, followed by Morgan Wallen’s more-than-year-old smash at No. 4, the Weeknd’s recent “Dawn FM” at No. 6 and his hits set “The Highlights” at No. 8, Drake at No. 7, Adele at No. 9 and Doja Cat in the tenth spot.
On the Hot 100, Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby’s “Do We Have a Problem?” has a very unproblematic entry at No. 2, with the collab’s 24.4 million streams leading the way.
The rest of the top 10 consists of holdovers: Adele’s “Easy on Me” slipping to No. 3 (though it’s still No. 1 on Billboard’s radio songs chart), followed by Glass Animals, the Kid Laroi featuring Justin Bieber, Kodak Black, Gayle, Ed Sheeran, Bieber again (here with “Ghost” finally cracking the top 10, at No. 9) and the “Encanto” song “Surface Pressure” by Jessica Darrow.
“Encanto” racks up new stats every week. Billboard notes that the double-reign of the album and its lead single represents the first time a soundtrack and a song from that album have reigned over their respective charts for a shared three weeks in 26 years. The last time a soundtrack album and song enjoyed that particular level of multi-week domination, it was in 1995, when “Dangerous Minds” and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” both ruled the roost for three straight sessions.
