Month: December 2022

Elton John will complete his final lap of the U.K. with a performance on one of the biggest stages of them all — Glastonbury Festival.

The Rocket Man will lift off at the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, June 25, the final night of Glastonbury 2023, for what promises to be a set littered with classics.  

“It gives me enormous pleasure to let you know that the one and only Elton John will be making his first ever Glastonbury appearance, headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night next year,” writes Glastonbury’s co-organizer Emily Eavis, daughter of founder Michael Eavis. “This will be the final U.K. show of Elton’s last ever tour, so we will be closing the Festival and marking this huge moment in both of our histories with the mother of all send offs. We are so very happy to finally bring the Rocket Man to Worthy Farm.”

Elton is calling time on his extraordinary touring career with a fittingly epic trek, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

Dates began in 2018 and, when it wraps next July at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, it’s expected to set the bar as the highest grossing tour of all time. It’s just the third tour in history to pass the $600 million threshold, following U2’s 360 Tour ($736.4 million), and Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour ($776.4 million).

The British pop legend completed his final run of North America last month with a string of dates at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the final of which was captured for the special, Elton John Live From Dodger Stadium, which streams exclusively on Disney+.

Established in 1970, Glastonbury is the grandaddy of U.K. festivals. And with its enviable reputation as a rite of passage and the place where all the giants of contemporary music get to work, Glastonbury has already sold out its 2023 edition long before the final bill is announced.

Next year’s event, held once again at the Eavis’ Worthy Farm, in south west England, is expected to host about 200,000 people.

Stormzy scores his hattrick on the U.K. albums chart with This Is What I Mean (via 0207/Merky).

The Brit Award-winning grime star edges Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff (EastWest/Rhino), to make it three-from-three — a streak that includes Stormzy’s 2017 debut Gang Signs & Prayer and its 2019 followup Heavy Is The Head.

This Is What I Mean completes a “nail-biting race,” according to the Official Charts Company, as the hip-hop LP summons a “last-minute surge” to beat Richard’s first Christmas-themed set in nearly two decades, since 2003’s Cliff At Christmas. Richard now boasts 47 top 10 albums chart appearances in his homeland, a result that includes seven leaders.

Cliff At Christmas is one of several holiday-themed records making their mark on the Official U.K. Albums Chard, published Dec. 2.

Andrea, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli’s collection A Family Christmas (Decca) lifts 11-4, for a new peak; Andre Rieu & The Johann Strauss Orchestra’s Silver Bells (Decca) dips 4-8; Michael Bublé’s December juggernaut Christmas (Reprise) rises 26-13; a Christmas edition of George Ezra’s Gold Rush Kid (Columbia) is up 32-18; and Aled Jones & Russell Watson’s Christmas With Aled & Russell (BMG) improves 52-29.

The Cure‘s ninth studio album Wish (Polydor/UMR) is back in the top 10 (at No. 9), off the back of a 30th anniversary reissue featuring 24 previously-unreleased tracks.

Wish peaked at No. 1 following its release in 1992, and remains the Rock And Roll Hall of Famers’ only U.K. leader. The set also yielded the U.K. top 10 hits “High” (No. 8) and “Friday I’m In Love” (No. 6).

Following the death of Christine McVie on Nov. 30, at the age of 79, fans are finding comfort in Fleetwood Mac’s music. The band’s career retrospective 50 Years – Don’t Stop (Rhino) holds at No. 23, and their best-selling 1977 LP Rumours (Rhino/Warner Bros) climbs the chart, up 41-23, with a 43% week-on-week gain, the OCC reports.

Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” (via EMI) is still the boss in the U.K., where it racks-up six consecutive weeks at No. 1.

The Midnights tune accumulated just shy of 4.9 million streams during the latest cycle, the Official Charts Company reports, to hold off Meghan Trainor’s “Made You Look” (Epic), up 3-2; and venbee, goddard and ArrDee’s “messy in heaven” (Columbia), up 5-3. Those are new peak positions for the podium finishers.

British singer and songwriter RAYE enjoys her first taste of the high life as an independent artist, as
“Escapism” (Human Re Sources) featuring 070 Shake races 31-6. It’s RAYE’s first appearance in the top 10 as a lead artist, following her assist on Jax Jones’ “You Don’t Know Me” (No. 3 in 2016), “Secrets” with Regard (No. 6 in 2020) and “Bed” with Joel Corry and David Guetta (No. 3 in 2020).

The Londoner (real name Rachel Keen) was nominated for BBC Music’s Sound of 2017 award and is expected to drop 21st Century Blues, her debut LP, in 2023. Her debut mini-album, Euphoric Sad Songs was released in November 2020.

Stormzy is moving on up with “Firebabe” (0207/Merky), which roars 26-11 following the release of his third LP This Is What I Mean, new at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. Also, the record’s title track starts at No. 32 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, published Dec. 2, for his 28th Top 40 title.

The Christmas spirit can be measured on the latest singles survey, as a string of holiday classics make their annual return.

Leading the way is Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (up 18-8 via Columbia), and Wham’s “Last Christmas” (up 23-9 via RCA), both former leaders.

Elsewhere in the U.K. top 40 are Ed Sheeran & Elton John’s “Merry Christmas” (up 40-15 via Atlantic), Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (up 42-18 via MCA), Michael Buble’s “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” (up 49-20 via Reprise), Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone” (up 54-26 via RCA), Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” (up 55-28 via Republic Records), The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl’s “Fairytale of New York” (up 57-30 via Warner Bros), Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath The Tree” (up 62-31 via RCA), Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (up 63-34 via Mercury), and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (69-36 via MCA).

That’s 11 Christmas-themed songs in the top 40, and there’s still time for the publication of three more weekly charts before Dec. 25.

RM‘s debut solo album, Indigo, has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Dec. 2) on Billboard, choosing the BTS member’s long-awaited full-length as their favorite new music release of the past week.

Indigo beat out new music by Morgan Wallen (One Thing at a Time), Lewis Capaldi (“Pointless”), Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande (“Santa, Can’t You Hear Me”), Latto featuring GloRilla and Gangsta Boo (“FTCU”), and others.

The K-pop superstar’s new offering features guest turns from a wide array of global stars, including Erykah Badu (opener “Yun”), Anderson .Paak (“Still Life”), Epik High’s Tablo (“All Day”), South Korean singer-songwriter Kim Sawol (“Forg_tful”), and more.

“Indigo recounts the stories and experiences RM has gone through, like a diary,” a news release revealed ahead of the album, promising to “present a different charm” to the rapper.

RM becomes the latest member of BTS to deliver a solo LP, just months after J-Hope dropped the 10-track Jack in the Box. He previously released his self-titled EP in 2015 and follow-up Mono in 2018.

Trailing behind Indigo on the fan-voted poll was Wallen’s three-track sampler, One Thing at a Time, with 7% of the vote. Placing third was Capaldi’s new romantic ballad “Pointless,” with 1% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.

Taylor Swift’s Midnights logs a fifth week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 10), while a flurry of holiday albums jingles in the top 10. Midnights earned 151,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending Dec. 1 in the U.S. (down 15%), according to Luminate. The last Swift album with more weeks at No. 1 is Folklore, which notched eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2020. Since then, she’s claimed four more chart-topping albums: Evermore (four weeks at No. 1 in 2020-21), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (two weeks, 2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (one week in 2021) and Midnights (five weeks so far).

Also in the top 10, catalog holiday albums powered by streaming activity make waves as Michael Bublé’s former No. 1 Christmas rises 10-4, Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song vaults 18-8 and Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack jumps 17-10.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 10, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Dec. 6). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Midnights’ 151,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 89,000 (down 24%, equaling 117.93 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 60,000 (up 5%) and SEA units comprise 2,000 (down 6%).

Five former No. 1s are Nos. 2-6 on the latest Billboard 200 chart. Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss holds at No. 2 (93,000 equivalent album units earned; down 22%), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is stationary at No. 3 (52,000 units; down 7%), Bublé’s Christmas climbs 10-4 (47,000 units; up 55%), Lil Baby’s It’s Only Me falls 4-5 (43,000 units; down 10%) and Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album dips 5-6 (40,000 units; down 3%). The Weeknd’s compilation The Highlights descends 6-7 with 40,000 units (up 2%).

Cole’s The Christmas Song rises 18-8 with 36,000 equivalent album units (up 58%). The album, which includes such seasonal favorites like the title track and “O Holy Night,” peaked at No. 6 two holiday seasons ago, on the Jan. 2, 2021-dated chart. Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House falls 8-9 with 35,000 units (up 5%). Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack jumps 17-10 with 33,000 units (up 45%). The seasonal set peaked at No. 6 nearly a year ago on the Jan. 1, 2022-dated list.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.