In the music charts this week, Pentatonix reaches No. 1 with its latest holiday album, and streams of George Michael’s music grew by nearly 3,200 per cent after news of his death emerged on Christmas Day.
Pentatonix, the quirky a cappella group that first became popular on YouTube, has scored its second No. 1 album with A Pentatonix Christmas, which has been climbing steadily since its release in October. The album had 185,000 sales and just under 21 million streams in the week that ended on Thursday, according to Nielsen data released on Tuesday. That’s Christmas to Me, Pentatonix’s last holiday album — first released two years ago — has also been a chart contender lately, and this week holds at No. 5. Both albums were released by RCA.
Also this week, Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic (Atlantic) is No 2, the Weeknd’s Starboy (XO/Republic) holds at No 3, and J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only (Dreamville/Roc Nation/Interscope), last week’s chart-topper, falls to No 4. No new albums reached the Top 10.
And in what has become a familiar pattern, listeners took to streaming services in droves after the death of a pop superstar. This time it was Michael, whose death on Sunday became global news. Over the next day, Spotify announced, worldwide streams of his music as a solo artist increased by 3,158 per cent on that service.
If those streams have an impact on Michael’s chart standing, it would come next week.
