Dua Lipa’s Top 5 Billboard 200 Debut Is a Big Pop Moment for Warner Records
Dua Lipa lands her first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as her second effort, Future Nostalgia, debuts at No. 4 (on the April 11-dated chart). It easily surpasses the No. 27 peak of the pop…
Dua Lipa lands her first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as her second effort, Future Nostalgia, debuts at No. 4 (on the April 11-dated chart). It easily surpasses the No. 27 peak of the pop singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut in February 2018.
Future Nostalgia also marks a big pop music moment for Warner Records, which released the album March 27. Future Nostalgia is the highest-charting pop album from Warner since October 2018, and it earns the largest streaming week ever for a pop release from the label.
Warner Records was previously known as Warner Bros. Records until May 2019. The label was founded in 1958.
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. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Future Nostalgia bows with 66,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 2, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 44,000 are in SEA units, 18,000 are in album sales and 3,000 are in TEA units.
Let’s break down some of the achievements Lipa tallies with the arrival of Future Nostalgia:
Dua Lipa’s Best Week Yet: Future Nostalgia’s entry at No. 4 with 66,000 units marks both Lipa’s highest-charting album and biggest week in terms of units for an album. Her self-titled debut was released in June 2017 and logged both its highest chart position and biggest unit week on the Feb. 17, 2018-dated chart, when it peaked at No. 27 with 15,000 units earned.
Biggest Streaming Week Ever for a Pop Album on Warner: Future Nostalgia’s start of 44,000 SEA units translates to 61 million on-demand streams of the album’s 11 songs in its first week. That’s the largest streaming sum for a pop album on Warner ever and the fourth-largest streaming week for any Warner album (regardless of genre).
Pop albums are those that did not chart on a genre-specific tally such as Top Rap Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Jazz Albums, etc.
The only larger streaming weeks a Warner Records title has earned have come via Mac Miller’s Circles (139.3 million in its debut week; chart dated Feb. 1, 2020), Michael Bublé’s Christmas (78.4 million; chart dated Jan. 5, 2019 — the album was released in 2011 on 143/Reprise/Warner, hit No. 1 on Top Jazz Albums and continues to perform well each holiday season) and Miller’s Swimming (66.7 million in its debut week; chart dated Sept. 22, 2018). Both Circles and Swimming hit the top five on Top Rap Albums.
Highest-Charting Pop Album on Warner Since 2018: Notably, Future Nostalgia is the highest-charting pop album from Warner Records since Cher’s all-ABBA covers set Dancing Queen debuted and peaked at No. 3 on Oct. 13, 2018.
Since then, Warner has logged top-four-charting efforts with rock albums from Green Day (Father of All, No. 4; 2020, via Reprise/Warner) and The Black Keys (Let’s Rock, No. 4; 2019, Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch/Warner), and Bublé’s Christmas (the former No. 1 returned to the top four over both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 holiday seasons).
Third-Largest Week for a Pop Album by a Solo Artist in 2020: Future Nostalgia’s debut of 66,000 units is the third-biggest week for a pop effort by a soloist in 2020, following the opening frames of Halsey’s Manic (239,000) and Selena Gomez’s Rare (112,000).
Future Nostalgia was led by the smash single “Don’t Start Now.” The track reached career-high peaks for the entertainer on both the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 2) and Radio Songs chart (No. 1 for three weeks, so far; it was No. 1 on the latest chart, dated April 4). The song also logged a sixth week at No. 1 on Pop Songs (as of the April 4 tally).
Dua Lipa’s first album yielded the high-charting single “New Rules,” which reached No. 6 on the Hot 100, No. 3 on Radio Songs, and No. 1 (for three weeks) on Pop Songs.
Strikingly, Future Nostalgia is the first Warner Records album (of any genre) to reach the top five on the Billboard 200 and also generate a top five-charting single on both the Hot 100 and Radio Songs chart in nearly four years. Lukas Graham was the last Warner Records act to pull off this feat, when the group’s single “7 Years” reached the top five on the Radio Songs chart dated April 30, 2016 (later peaking at No. 1 for four weeks), following the song’s peak at No. 2 on the Hot 100 (dated April 9). The group’s self-titled album bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 dated April 23.
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