Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Chris Tomlin’s Burning Lights enters The Billboard 200 at #1. Tomlin, 40, is a worship leader at Passion City Church in Atlanta. Tomlin isn’t the first artist who has a leadership role in a church to climb high on the chart. Marvin Sapp, the founder and senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church, located in Grand Rapids, Mich., debuted and peaked at #2 in March 2010 with Here I Am.

Burning Lights is Tomlin’s 12th album; his second to make the top 10. Hello Love hit #9 in September 2008. Tomlin won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for his 2010 album And If Our God Is For Us… He has won 17 Dove Awards (the top honor in the Christian music field).

“Skyfall,” which Adele co-wrote and recorded for the James Bond movie of the same name, and “Suddenly,” which Hugh Jackman performs in the hit movie version of Les Miserables, are the leading Oscar contenders for Best Song. Both songs are also nominated for Golden Globes in the top song category.

The other nominees for Best Song are “Pi’s Lullaby” from Life Of Pi (music by Mychael Danna, lyrics by Bombay Jayashri), “Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted (music by Walter Murphy, lyric by Seth MacFarlane) and “Before My Time” from Chasing Ice (music and lyrics by Josh Ralph).

“Scream & Shout” by will.i.am featuring Britney Spears is the first song to enter the top 10 in 2013. It’s the 14th top 10 hit for will.i.am; the 12th for Spears. Spears first cracked the top 10 in December 1998 with “…Baby One More Time.” will.i.am first cracked the top 10 in August 2003 with the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is The Love?” (featuring Spears’ former beau, Justin Timberlake).

This is will.i.am’s first top 10 hit as a solo artist in the top-billed position. It follows three top 10 hits on which he was the featured artist: Fergie’s “Fergalicious” (#2 in 2007), Flo Rida’s “In The Ayer” (#9 in 2008) and Usher’s “OMG” (#1 in 2010).

It’s the first time that Spears has held the featured spot on a top 10 hit. (I’m not counting Rihanna’s “S&M” toward Spears’ top 10 tally. Spears was featured on a remix that was popular for a time, but that’s not the same as being featured on the original or most popular version of a song.)

One Direction’s DVD Up All Night—The Live Tour logs its 29th week at #1 on Billboard’s Top Music Videos chart. This ties Ray Stevens’ Comedy Video Classics for the longest run at #1 since this chart originated (as Top Music Videocassettes) in March 1985.

A total of 44 music videos have logged 10 or more weeks at #1 since 1985. New Kids on the Block has three of these, which is more than any other artist.  Backstreet Boys, Garth Brooks and Michael Jackson have each had two. So have Linkin Park (counting a collabo with Jay-Z), George Michael (counting a video with Wham!) and Snoop Dogg (counting The Up In Smoke Tour video, on which he was featured).

Here’s a complete list of the music videos that have logged 10 or more weeks at #1 since 1985. Ties are listed in alphabetical order by artist. I also show what records various videos hold and other points of interest.

Les Miserables jumps to #1 in its third week on The Billboard 200. It’s the first soundtrack to a movie that was based on a stage musical to top the chart since Mamma Mia! scored in August 2008. Les Miz has grossed $103,503,000 in its first two weekends at the box-office. It dipped from #3 to #4 in the box-office rankings in its second weekend.

Les Miz opened on Christmas Day. The movie version of Dreamgirls, which also spawned a #1 soundtrack, opened on Christmas Day in 2006. Les Miz is likely to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture tomorrow.

The Les Miz Broadway cast album vaults from #171 to #104 (its highest ranking to date). It has sold 1,596,000 copies. The London cast album re-enters the chart at #160. It has sold 887K copies. Putting this together, Les Miz is #1 on Top Soundtracks for the third straight week and holds the top two spots on Top Cast Albums, a neat trick.

The media made a lot of Justin Bieber’s shut-out in the Grammy nominations, but iHeart radio listeners think Coldplay’s failure to land an Album of the Year nomination was the year’s biggest Grammy snub. Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto is nominated for Best Rock Album, but that’s a bit of a consolation prize for acts that are hoping for a nom in the higher-profile Album of the Year category. (The band’s previous album, 2008’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, was nominated for the top prize.)

Here’s how iHeart radio listeners responded to the question, “Who's the biggest Grammy snub this year?”

Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven” tops the Hot 100 for the fourth straight week, while Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” jumps from #4 to #2. “Locked Out Of Heaven” is now tied with “Just The Way You Are” and “Grenade” as Mars’ longest-running #1 hit to date. “I Knew You Were Trouble.” surpasses its initial #3 peak and now ranks as one of Swift’s four highest-climbing hits to date.

These songs are in the opposite order on Hot Digital Songs. “I Knew You Were Trouble.” is #1 with sales of 582K copies, which constitutes the fourth highest one-week sales tally in digital history. “Locked Out Of Heaven” is #2 with sales of 497K copies, which is the 10th highest tally in digital history. (Sales traditionally swell in the week after Christmas as fans redeem iTunes gift cards.)

This is the second biggest one-week tally for both Mars and Swift. Mars’ “Grenade” sold more copies (559K) two years ago this week. Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” sold more (623K) in its first week in August. Mars and Swift are the only artists with two of the all-time top 10 digital tallies.

The Les Miserables soundtrack vaults from #33 to #2 in its second week on The Billboard 200. It’s already the highest-charting soundtrack to the movie version of a Broadway musical since Mamma Mia! hit #1 in August 2008. The movie, which stars Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe, was #3 at the box-office in its opening weekend.

Les Miz first opened on Broadway on May 12, 1987, which means it took 25 years and eight months for the show to spawn a top 10 movie soundtrack. That’s the longest wait since Chicago took 27 years and eight months. Chicago opened on Broadway on June 3, 1975 and finally yielded a top 10 movie soundtrack in February 2003.