Chart Watch

  • Billboard's Gary Trust may have put it best: "How ironic that a song about something as old-fashioned as a pay phone sets a digital download record." "Payphone" by Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa sold 493K copies this week, which is more than any other song by a group or duo has sold in any one week in digital history. The old mark was set by the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow," which sold 465K copies in its first week in April 2009.

    Only two other songs in digital history have sold as many copies in their debut weeks. Flo Rida's "Right Round" sold 636K copies in its first week in February 2009. Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" sold 521K in its first week just three weeks ago.

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  • Lionel Richie's Tuskegee tops The Billboard 200 for the second week. It's the first album that was released in 2012 to manage a second week on top. Albums by two legends (Bruce Springsteen and Madonna) were unable to pull this off, as were the sophomore album by the red-hot Nicki Minaj, the debut album by teen dreams One Direction and the soundtrack to the year's top-grossing movie, The Hunger Games.

    Adele's 21 has held the top spot for nine weeks so far this year, but it was released in February 2011.

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  • Florence + the Machine's MTV Unplugged enters the current Billboard 200 at #51. It's the highest-charting Unplugged album in a little more than five years, since Korn's MTV Unplugged hit #9 in March 2007.

    Thirty-two artists have charted with Unplugged albums in the past 21 years. They're a surprisingly diverse bunch. In addition to the pop and rock artists who are most often associated with the series, Latin, R&B, hip-hop, traditional pop and Contemporary Christian artists are also represented. (Two Various Artists albums have also charted.)

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  • "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra sold 542,000 copies last week, which constitutes the biggest one-week sales total in more than a year. It swipes the 2012 sales crown from Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend," which sold 521K copies in its first week two weeks ago. This helps the song jump from #2 to #1 on the Hot 100, displacing "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae.

    This marks the first time that rock tracks have been back-to-back #1 hits on the Hot 100 since July 2000, when Matchbox Twenty's "Bent" followed Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want."

    TV exposure triggered the sales surge for "Somebody That I Used To Know." Gotye and Kimbra sang the song on Saturday Night Live on April 14. It was featured on Glee on April 10. The Glee version enters the Hot 100 at #26. Digital sales rank: #10 (152K).

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  • Lionel Richie lands his first #1 album in more than 25 years as Tuskegee jumps from #4 to #1 in its third week on The Billboard 200. Richie first topped the chart in December 1983 with Can't Slow Down. He returned to the top spot in September 1986 with Dancing On The Ceiling. A two-hour TV special based on the album aired Friday on CBS, which gave the album the push it needed to reach #1.

    You may recall that two weeks ago, Madonna's MDNA kept Tuskegee to a #2 debut. Madonna's tally was boosted by a much-debated album/concert ticket bundle, which added an estimated 185K copies to her tally. Without those copies, the race for #1 two weeks ago would have been much closer. (In fairness to Madonna, some of her fans probably would have bought the album if they hadn't been getting it as part of the bundle, so she would probably still have debuted at #1.) In any event, I'm glad the dust-up didn't keep Tuskegee from reaching the top spot. (Meanwhile, MDNA drops from #8 to #18 in its third week. More on that in a minute.)

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  • Until about four months ago, relatively few pop fans had heard of fun., an indie pop group from New York City. More had heard of R&B singer Janelle Monae, who performed on the Grammys in February 2011, but most probably couldn't have named one of her songs. This week, these newcomers break a record previously held by two of the biggest superstars in pop music, Eminem and Rihanna. "We Are Young" becomes the first song in digital history to top 300K in weekly sales six times. The old record was held by "Love The Way You Lie," which topped 300K in weekly sales five times in the summer of 2010.

    And "We Are Young" will probably extend its record. It sold 390K copies this week, its best showing to date. It may well top 300K for one to three more weeks.

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  • Madonna's MDNA tumbles from #1 to #8 in its second week on The Billboard 200. Sales plummeted by 87%, from 359K to just 48K.  That's the largest second-week decline for an album that debuted at #1 since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991. It surpasses two albums from last year: Lady Gaga's Born This Way (which dove by 84% in June) and Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park (which dropped off by 83% in November).

    Sales of Michael Buble's Christmas plummeted by 96% the week after Christmas, but it was in its 10th week at that point. And the drop was inevitable. Once Christmas is over, it's over. Gaga's first week was inflated by an infamous 99-cent promotion. And Miller isn't exactly an icon and an international superstar.

    So what's the story with Madonna?

    Madonna's opening-week sales tally included about 185K copies that were bundled with the purchase of tickets to her upcoming tour. It's impossible to know how many of those fans would have bought the album if it hadn't been bundled with the concert ticket. Some would have, to be sure. But others wanted to see the show and didn't much care about the new album. It's the same story with many other veteran artists, from the Rolling Stones to Barry Manilow.

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  • Adele's 21 sold more copies in the first quarter than the next five best-selling albums combined. 21 sold 2,667,000 copies in the first quarter. The next five albums combined sold 2,400,000. That's tremendous for Adele, but a shaky sign for the rest of the music business.

    It's not overstating the case to say that 21 saved the first quarter. Without it, overall album sales would have declined by 3.4%, compared to the first quarter of 2011. With it, album sales were flat.

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  • Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" sold 521K copies in its first week. Only one other song in digital history has gotten off to such a fast start. Flo Rida's "Right Round" sold 636K copies in its first week of digital availability in February 2009. So you might reasonably expect "Boyfriend" to enter Billboard's Hot 100 at #1. It doesn't. It opens at #2 behind "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae, which holds at #1 for the fifth straight week.

    What gives? Digital sales are just one component of the Hot 100, which also measures radio airplay and, as of the past few weeks, on-demand streaming data.  "We Are Young" was ahead in airplay points (it jumps to #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart, while "Boyfriend" debuts at #24.) Also, "We Are Young" was way ahead in terms of streaming points (it remains at #1 on a separate On-Demand Songs chart, whereas "Boyfriend" wasn't available on most streaming services during the tracking week).

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  • Lionel Richie gave Madonna a run for her money on this week's Billboard 200. Madonna came out on top with her new album MDNA, but Richie was a surprisingly strong #2 with Tuskegee, a collection of his greatest hits performed as duets with such country stars as Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Shania Twain. The album sold 199K copies, which is Richie's strongest weekly sales tally since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991. Moreover, it's his highest-charting album since October 1986.

    In addition, Tuskegee enters Top Country Albums at #1. Richie is only the fourth African American artist to top that chart, following Charley Pride, who amassed 12 #1 country albums between 1968 and 1980; Ray Charles, who topped the country chart in 1985 with Friendship, which was also a collection of duets; and Darius Rucker, who has had two #1 country albums, in 2008 and 2010.

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News for You

  • NYers furious over photos taken through windows

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • Denmark favorite to win Eurovision Song Contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — An ethno-inspired flute and drum tune from Denmark is the bookmakers' favorite to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, which also features a bizarre opera pop number from Romania and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

  • Denmark's de Forest wins Eurovision song contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

  • Native American actress proud to walk Cannes red carpet

    By Belinda Goldsmith CANNES (Reuters) - Native American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation. Upham features in "Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst. Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. ...

  • NYC artist's secret photos raise privacy issues

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • 'American Idol' finale draws record low ratings

    NEW YORK (AP) — Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.

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