Noah Kahan achieves his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as The Great Divide debuts atop the list dated May 9. The set, Kahan’s fourth full-length studio project, earned 389,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending April 30, according to Luminate.

That marks Kahan’s biggest week by units, the largest week for a rock album by units since the chart began measuring by units at the end of 2014 and the third-biggest week of 2026 among all albums.

Further, The Great Divide lands 2026’s largest streaming week of any album. It also claims the biggest vinyl sales week for a rock album in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991). (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)

The Great Divide is Kahan’s fifth charted effort on the Billboard 200 and his second top 10. He previously topped out at No. 2 with Stick Season, in 2024. That set returns to the top 10, rising 11-10 in its 179th week on the chart.

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Kehlani captures her fourth top 10 with the No. 4 debut of her self-titled effort, while Michael Jackson’s chart-topping Thriller re-enters the chart at No. 7 following the debut of the Michael biopic in movie theaters.

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 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 9, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 5. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X and Instagram.

Of The Great Divide’s 389,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, SEA units comprise 212,000 (equaling 215.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks, Kahan’s best streaming week and the biggest streaming week of 2026; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 175,000 (his best sales week; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 2,000.

With 389,000 equivalent album units earned, The Great Divide scores the biggest week for a rock album since the Billboard 200 began measuring by units in December 2014. It surpasses the previous high by a rock set in that span, by the No. 1 debut of Dave Matthews Band’s Come Tomorrow, with 292,000 units (June 23, 2018). Plus, with 175,000 copies sold in pure album sales, the set notches the largest sales week for a rock album in nearly seven years, since Tool’s Fear Inoculum bowed at No. 1 with 248,000 (Sept. 14, 2019).

Vinyl purchases comprise 118,000 of The Great Divide’s first week, which is both Kahan’s best week ever on vinyl and the best sales week on vinyl for a rock album in the modern era.

The Great Divide was announced on Jan. 28, and the album’s release on April 24 was preceded by its title track, which spends an 11th week at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart this week (the most weeks atop the chart this decade). The track debuted and peaked at No. 6 on the all-genre multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (Feb. 14-dated list), marking Kahan’s highest-charting hit ever.

The album’s first week got a boost from its availability across nine vinyl variants (including a signed edition and a Target-exclusive set with two bonus live tracks), three CD editions (including a signed edition and a Target-exclusive with two bonus live tracks) and a deluxe digital download and streaming version that added four bonus studio songs (dubbed The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs).

Kahan will launch his The Great Divide Tour on June 11 in Orlando, Florida.

A pair of former No. 1s follows Kahan on the latest Billboard 200, as Ella Langley’s Dandelion drops a spot to No. 2 (112,000 equivalent album units, up 6%) and Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem dips 2-3 (81,000, down 3%).

Kehlani captures her fourth top 10-charted album on the Billboard 200 as her self-titled set debuts at No. 4 with 69,000 equivalent album units earned — the biggest debut for an R&B album by a woman in 2026. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 45,000 (equaling 45.37 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 5 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 24,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.

The new album was preceded by a trio of top 10s on the Hot R&B Songs chart, including the five-week No. 1 “Folded,” also her first top 10 on the all-genre Hot 100, reaching No. 6 in January. Kehlani was released on five vinyl variants (including a signed edition), six CD variants (including multiple signed editions), and via a standard digital and streaming edition and a deluxe “Uncut” digital download edition with 10 additional tracks.

BTS’ former No. 1 ARIRANG falls 4-5 on the latest Billboard 200 (56,000 equivalent album units, down 8%), while Justin Bieber’s SWAG slips 5-6 (47,000, down 22%).

Michael Jackson’s Thriller re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 7 with 45,000 equivalent album units earned (up 425%), following the April 24 release of the Michael biopic in movie theaters and its blockbuster opening weekend at the U.S. and Canada box office. Thriller, which spent 37 weeks at No. 1 in 1983-84 — the most weeks at No. 1 for an album by a singular artist — was last in the top 10 on the Dec. 3, 2022-dated chart, when it jumped 115-7 after its 40th anniversary reissue.

Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving falls 6-8 on the latest Billboard 200 (43,000 equivalent album units, down 7%), Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time drops 10-9 (39,000, down 2%) and Kahan’s Stick Season steps 11-10 (38,000, down 2%).

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.

Debbie Harry made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live on Saturday night (May 2), emerging from the wings to introduce Olivia Rodrigo‘s performance of new single “drop dead” — giving the pop star a rock ‘n’ roll co-sign in front of a live Studio 8H audience.

The Blondie frontwoman’s cameo came as Rodrigo pulled double duty on the show, serving as both host and musical guest for the first time.

Harry introduced Rodrigo’s first musical performance of the night, which saw the singer-songwriter perform “drop dead” in an airy green and pink dress, rocking out to the boisterous, energetic track. The single — released April 17 and directed by Petra Collins at the Louvre — debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Rodrigo’s fourth chart-topper.

Harry’s appearance was one of several surprise cameos on the night. Later in the episode, Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie introduced Rodrigo’s second performance, the previously unreleased ballad “begged,” while Aziz Ansari also stopped by to skewer FBI director Kash Patel in the cold open.

Rodrigo opened the show with a monologue that revisited her Disney Channel beginnings on Bizaardvark — including a jab at former co-star Jake Paul — and included a musical parody of her breakout hit “drivers license,” reworked into a story about getting a Real ID at the DMV.

Harry and Blondie pioneered the new wave scene from 1974 onward, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. The band has sold over 40 million records worldwide and announced last year that a new album, High Noon, would arrive in spring 2026. The pairing of Harry and Rodrigo carried a clear symbolic weight — both artists having defined their respective generations’ idea of guitar-driven pop with an edge.

Rodrigo has appeared on SNL twice before, as musical guest in May 2021 promoting debut album Sour and in December 2023 behind Guts. Saturday’s episode marked her first time hosting. Her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, produced by longtime collaborator Dan Nigro, is due June 12.

Charli xcx is not releasing a rock album any time soon, though it was assumed she was when it was reported she had rock music in the works in last month’s issue of British Vogue.

On Friday (May 1), Charli posted previously unseen studio footage on Instagram. The video contains a teaser of an unreleased song recorded in October 2025 at Rue Boyer Studios in Paris.

“It would be cool if we had a song that was called ‘Rock Music,’” she’s seen saying in a brainstorming session, which cuts to scenes of her recording vocals.

“a video of me making a song called ‘rock music’ that is not actually rock music which is funny because i never said i was making a rock album. love you xx,” she captioned the clip Friday on Instagram.

The song does feature guitar, but leans more hyper-pop in production. Lyrics on Charli’s notes app flash by at one point in the reel. They read: “Heritage/ Me, me and my friends/ We go out/ We take pictures/ We make stuff together/ We sometimes cry/ We kiss each other, incestuous vibes/ I knew you’d like that/ Yeah we’re so inspired/ Basically all of the time/ Never stop/ ‘Coz we’re on to the next/ I think the dancefloor is dead/ So now we’re making rock music.”

What Charli herself was actually quoted as saying in that British Vogue cover story, in regards to rock music, was: “What’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.”

She also noted then that rehashing the dance-world Brat built for her followup to the hit album “would have felt really hard, really sad.”

That article’s writer accompanied Charli in February to a West London studio — when her upcoming album was not yet finished, and where she held a listening session reported on for the story — to hear the song that is now known to be “Rock Music.” The only lyric of the song to make it to print: “I think the dance floor is dead, now we’re making rock music.”

At the time, Charli did comment on putting guitar on the album. “For me, it’s fun to flip the form,” she said. “We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”

In that interview Charli also revealed that her upcoming album “is commenting on how I interact with the joint main love of my life outside of George [Daniel, her husband]” — her other love being creating art — “and what would happen if that was taken from me. How I would have no purpose, and how for good or bad, art does provide me with purpose in my life.”

Brat peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in 2024, marking Charli’s highest position on the all-genre album chart to date.

Since then, she’s worked on an album alongside Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, which arrived in February. The soundtrack reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and debuted at No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart.

Catch a preview from Charli’s “Rock Music” studio session in her Instagram reel below.