Elite 100: Migos, Above & Beyond Shine With New Albums

John Davisson – Migos
Migos is on the bill for Wild 94.1’s The Last Damn Show at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., Nov. 3.

Several artists with new albums, as well as some who cleaned up at the Grammy Awards rose to the top of the Elite 100 chart for the week ending Feb. 1.

Migos released its massive Culture II album Jan. 26, and the trio is at the No. 1 spot with 241.5 million streams, 114,400 song sales and 36,800 album sales.

Above & Beyond is at the No. 4 position on the chart, with 61.8 album sales being their strongest metric by far. They released their Common Ground album on Jan. 26.

Bruno Mars and Chris Stapleton both did well at the Grammys and rose to the No. 5 and 6 positions on the chart respectively. Bruno’s best statistic for the week was song sales, with 116,100 which makes sense as he won Song of the Year for “That’s What I Like.” He also won Record of the Year for 24k Magic and was tracked with 27,600 album sales on the week. Mars recently announced he is doing one more “Finale” leg of his 24K Magic World Tour with special guest Cardi B.

Stapleton won in Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Album, and Best Country Song (with Mike Henderson). His song sales were also good, with 67,500, but he actually surpassed Mars and even Migos in album sales, with 36,900 on the week, showing that perhaps country fans are still a bit more willing to fork over cash for a worthwhile album. He also recently unveiled several months of All-American Road show dates.

Fall Out Boy and Def Leppard, who had strong showings last week thanks to surges in album and song sales, each came down a few pegs. Fall Out Boy fell from the No. 2 position to No. 25 this week, with their best metric being streams at 21.5 million, whereas last week they sold 79,400 albums.

Def Leppard similarly sold 77,300 songs last week, which got them to the No. 11 on the chart, but they fell to No. 69 this week, with song sales at 27,900. Def Leppard recently announced a super-tour with Journey, and our analysis of their business over the years shows their fans keep showing up in droves. The two acts have even locked in gigs at 10 stadiums this year, so they are sure to make waves on our 2018 charts.

One new single that seems to be climbing is “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey. The three artists combine as one entry for 51,600 song sales, 10.4 million streams and 100 album sales, which indicates all the stats are for the one song. The video for the single premiered at the Grammy Awards.

Up-and-comer Bazzi released a new single Jan. 26, titled “Why”, and he had 18,300 song sales for the week in question. He is likely to keep gaining traction as he was recently highlighted by Taylor Swift on her Spotify playlist. 

Lorde reappeared on the chart at No. 100, perhaps giving credence to the phrase “No press is bad press,” as she was in the headlines when fans in Israel announced they were suing New Zealand-based activists who may have persuaded her to cancel her gig in the country.

Justin Timberlake is all but a shoe-in for next week’s Top 5, as his Man Of The Woods album came out Feb. 2.