The Band’s Visit may have claimed 10 trophies at the Tony Awards last week, but it also scored a big win offstage as well: a bump in music streaming.
Since the June 10 ceremony, streaming of tracks from the original Broadway cast recording has soared, according to Nielsen Music, which analyses consumption for the music industry. On the Friday before the awards, The Band’s Visit recording had 21,000 streams — a number that jumped to 215,000 on the day after the Tonys, Nielsen said.
The estimated 6.3-million viewers who tuned in to watch the CBS telecast certainly helped.
“Fans feel a strong sense of connection to the songs performed during a live awards show,” said Dave Bakula, a senior vice president with Nielsen Music. “And we have frequently seen that these televised events have a direct and positive impact on audio and video streaming.”
The Tony-winning Band’s Visit score by composer-lyricist David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) is a blend of klezmer, jazz, Egyptian folk and classical Arab music. The tale about travelling Egyptian musicians who get stranded in a sleepy town also won best musical, leading actor (Tony Shalhoub) and leading actress (Katrina Lenk).
Solo songs by Lenk have been especially popular. Omar Sharif, Something Different and It Is What It Is jumped more than tenfold after the Tony wins. The single most popular song was Omar Sharif, Nielsen said.
