Sabrina Carpenter went to No. 1 last week, but Post Malone’s song “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, has reclaimed its throne for a sixth week atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. Over on the Billboard 200 albums chart, while no other artist has still seriously challenged Taylor Swift’s supremacy, five other female artists have joined her within the Top 10.
TOP SONGS:
We seem to be settling into a summer groove on the Billboard 100, with the same four artists rotating through the top five spots from week to week.
Post Malone's "I Had Some Help," featuring Morgan Wallen, had only a momentary falloff from its No. 1 perch. After briefly ceding to Sabrina Carpenter's "Please Please Please" with a week in the No. 2 spot, "I Had Some Help" is back on top, making it the longest-running No. 1 of 2024 so far.
Behind it: Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” at No. 2, Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" at No. 3 and Sabrina Carpenter occupying both the No. 4 and No. 5 positions with her double-shot duo of "Espresso" and the aforementioned "Please Please Please," which fell rather precipitously from first to fifth place in its second week.
TOP ALBUMS:
File under "not really news": Taylor Swift's album The Tortured Poets Department continues its reign at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a 10th consecutive week. (Boring, I know, sorry.)
File under "this is, indeed, actually kinda news": For the first time this decade, as Billboard notes, female artists comprise the majority among the Billboard 200’s Top 10 spots. Just behind Swift is breathy singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams' The Secret of Us, making its debut at No. 2. (Did you know that she is the daughter of film director and TV showrunner J. J. Abrams? I did not!)
The rest of that female-fueled lineup: Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft is down to No. 4 this week; quirky new pop royal Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess continues its steady climb, jumping up two spaces, to No. 6. (Roan’s song “Good Luck, Babe!”, which does not even appear on the album, is also making its way up the Billboard 100, landing this week at No. 11.) Also part of this superwomen crew: Ariana Grande's Eternal Sunshine has sprung back up to No. 8 from last week's position at No. 23 (due to a new, signed edition for sale), while Charli XCX holds her No. 9 position with her album Brat.
Meanwhile: Morgan Wallen and his album One Thing at a Time, which has now stayed on the albums chart for 69 weeks, inches back up one place to No. 3, while his Dangerous: The Double Album has climbed back from No. 10 to No. 7. Rounding out the Top 10 (excluding one entry that I’ll note in slightly greater depth below): Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.
WORTH NOTING:
The other album in the Billboard 200's Top 5 this week is 25-year-old Mexican singer Peso Pluma and his album Éxodo [Exodus], which debuts on the chart this week at No. 5. This is actually not the first time that Peso Pluma has cracked the high peaks of the Billboard 200; his 2023 album Genesis went to No. 3 last July.
Peso Pluma's narcocorrido lyrics have gotten his music banned in multiple Mexican cities, but he's clearly eyeing much wider horizons these days: Éxodo features collaborations with the likes of Cardi B, Quavo, DJ Snake and Brazilian singer Anitta, who recently appeared with Madonna on her world tour-capping performance on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach.
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