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Metallica’s 72 Seasons opens at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated April 29) with the largest sales week in over three-and-a-half years for any rock or hard rock album. The set bows with 134,000 copies sold in the United States in the week ending April 20, according to Luminate. It’s the eighth No. 1 on Top Album Sales for the band.
72 Seasons marks the group’s first original album in nearly seven years, since 2016’s chart-topping Hardwired… To Self-Destruct.
Also on Top Album Sales, Waterparks notches its highest charting set and best sales week ever – as Intellectual Property bows at No. 2. Plus, Yung Bleu and Prof both log their first top 10s with the arrivals of Love Scars II and Horse, respectively.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
72 Seasons bows with the biggest sales week for any rock or hard rock album since Fear Inoculum’s debut with 248,000 sold (No. 1, chart dated Sept. 14, 2019).
Of 72 Seasons’ 134,000 sold, physical sales comprise 106,500 (59,000 on CD, 42,500 on vinyl and 5,000 on cassette) and digital download sales comprise nearly 27,500. The vinyl sales sum marks Metallica’s largest sales week for an album on the format since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.
Waterparks collects its highest-charting set and best sales week yet as Intellectual Property debuts at No. 2 with 16,000 copies sold. It’s the third top 10 for the rock act. Melanie Martinez’s former No. 1 Portals falls 2-3 with 13,000 sold (down 33%), Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Midnights climbs 5-4 with nearly 13,000 (down 6%) and Morgan Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time vaults 15-5 with 12,000 (up 102%) after a new vinyl edition of the album was released.
Yung Bleu bows at No. 6 with Love Scars II, scoring his first top 10 and best sales week yet, as the album starts with 10,000 sold. Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. falls 4-7 with 9,000 sold (down 35%). Rapper Prof achieves his first top 10 and best sales week with the No. 8 start of Horse (9,000 sold). TWICE’s former No. 1 Ready to Be dips 8-9 with nearly 9,000 (down 18%) and TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s chart-topping The Name Chapter: Temptation slips 9-10 with nearly 8,000 (down 14%).
In the week ending April 20, there were 2.023 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 0.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.675 million (up 0.4%) and digital albums comprised 348,000 (up 0.4%).
There were 693,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 20 (up 0.3% week-over-week) and 965,000 vinyl albums sold (up 0.4%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 10.464 million (up 3.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 14.487 million (up 27.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 30.786 million (up 9.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 25.116 million (up 16.4%) and digital album sales total 5.670 million (down 12.6%).
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Get your pucks ready! The 2023 NHL Playoffs will resume on Tuesday (April 25).
Three games are scheduled for Tuesday, starting with the New York Islanders vs. Carolina Hurricanes, which airs at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN.
Rather catch the action in person? Tickets to the NHL Playoffs are available on StubHub, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats and Ticketmaster. Prices and availability may vary depending on the date of the game.
Keep reading for details on ways to watch and stream the playoffs without cable.
How to Watch & Stream the NHL Playoffs
You can stream games in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on ABC, TNT, TBS, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+. There are a lot of games to keep track of, so be sure to check your local listings for additional information.
Tuesday’s Hurricanes vs. Islanders game starts at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN. Hurricanes lead the series 3-1.
Currently tied 2-2, the Los Angeles Kings vs. Edmonton Oilers will face off at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT. on ESPN; while the Minnesota Wild will take the ice against the Dallas Stars Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on TBS. The Stars and Wild are also tied 2-2.
Wednesday’s schedule includes the Florida Panthers vs. Boston Bruins (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN) and Seattle Kraken vs. Colorado Avalanche (9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT on ESPN).
No cable necessary! We rounded up a handful of streaming options that are perfect for hockey fans on a budget.
Starting at the most budget-friendly plan, SlingTV is discounted to just $20 for the first month to stream live sports, news, entertainment and more.
SlingTV
Fubo is another solid choice at $74.99/month for 154 channels (including 100+ sporting events) and a free trial for a week. Vidgo starts at $69.99/month for access to 150+ channels such as ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN Deportes, NHL Network, MLB Network, FS1, FS2, ACC Network and more (if you’re streaming internationally, use Express VPN).
DirectTV Stream offers a free trial for five days and discounted streaming packages. Right now, the Entertainment tied and Optimo Más plan for Spanish-speakers are discounted to $64.99/month (regular $74.99/month) for three months.
DirectTV Stream
Stream dozens of cable and local channels such as ESPN, TNT, TBS, HGTV, Bravo, MTV, BET, and ABC. DirectTV Stream’s higher-priced plans come with free HBO Max, Showtime, Starz, Epix and Cinemax for the first three months.
Hulu + Live TV is another option to stream sports and live television for $69.99/month. Aside from over 75+ live and on-demand channels, subscribers can stream Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Swizz Beatz joined The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday (April 25), where he gushed over his 12-year-old son Egypt, whom he shares with wife Alicia Keys.
At one point in the conversation, Jennifer Hudson mentioned that thanks to his musical talents, Egypt ended up producing a Kendrick Lamar song when he was just five years old. “I’m jealous as hell of that one,” Swizz, a Grammy-winning producer himself, joked. “I thought me and Kendrick was cool.”
The star went on to explain that Egypt and Lamar’s bond began at a past Super Bowl game. “He and Kendrick were talking for, like, 40 minutes,” Swizz recalled. “I went over and said to Kendrick, ‘Is he bothering you? Should I move him? Are you enjoying yourself?’ He said, ‘No, Swizz, I had writer’s block and what Egypt is telling me is helping me deal with something. I was like, ‘Man, he’s five years old.’ To this day, I still don’t know what he was helping him deal with. I let it happen.”
As a result, Egypt ended up getting a producer credit on “untitled 07,” off Lamar’s 2016 Untitled Unmastered project.
However, don’t expect Egypt to follow in his famous parents’ footsteps. The pre-teen joined his father later on in the interview, noting that he has other plans in mind for his future. “I love music but I don’t really want to be a musician. I want to be a basketball player,” he told Hudson.
Watch the full interview below.
In light of the fallout from fans following Morgan Wallen‘s last-minute cancellation of his headlining show in Oxford, Mississippi over the weekend, the wife of another country music hitmaker is chiming in.
Bunnie XO, the wife of “Son of a Sinner” hitmaker Jelly Roll, recently took to social media to discuss what goes on behind the scenes and how hard artists work to get onstage.
“I wanted to chime in on this Morgan Wallen situation that’s going on,” Bunnie XO said via Instagram Stories on Monday (April 24). “I’ve been watching it unfold all day long. I just feel like I need to say something because as a wife of an artist, I have seen what goes on behind the scenes and it’s not easy. Those decisions are never easy.”
She shed light on the effort that artists (including her husband Jelly Roll) put in to get onstage and perform for fans, saying, “I have seen my husband getting literally, like, two or three breathing treatments because he has bronchitis so bad, and an IV, getting a shot of Toradol, taking steroids like the steroid pack that the doctor gives you, I mean, like doing all of that just so he makes it onstage, because he knows that if he doesn’t make it onstage because, one, the backlash he’ll get, and two, he never wants to upset the fans.”
She added, “When an artist has to make a decision to cancel a show, especially when you get to arenas like that, it’s one of the hardest decisions they have ever made. It’s not them sitting in the back and saying, like, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t want to show up to work today.’ There are so many factors that go into that. Not only that, but they lose out on money. They have to pay the venues back. I understand, people have to travel thousands of miles to see their favorite artist. I understand that parents have had to get babysitters and time off work and this is their one night out that they are really looking forward to, but you also have to understand that health is the most important thing. If somebody’s sick, they cannot go out there and give their all. If he really lost his voice and he went out there onstage and he was singing, [and giving] the worst version of himself that he could, not only would you guys be mad at him still — you all would be making videos about that, like, ‘Look at Morgan Wallen’s worst performance ever’ — and trying to get views from it. An artist is damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”
She ended with a bit of advice for fans and those ready criticize artists who cancel shows. “But I guess my whole point is I’m coming on here to say, that maybe, have a little grace. It’s like, be nice. Be kind. It costs nothing to be nice and to just kind of put yourself in that other person’s shoes.”
Following the concert cancellation, Wallen has postponed additional shows that had been slated for this week and told fans he is on vocal rest.
Meghan Trainor is gearing up to be the ultimate boy mom!
The “Made You Look” singer and her husband, actor Daryl Sabara, stopped by The Kelly Clarkson Show on Tuesday (April 25), where Clarkson reminded the couple that they revealed the sex of their first-born son Riley on her show more than two years ago.
“Let’s do it again with Kelly Clarkson!” Trainor shouted, before the lights dimmed and a spotlight appeared on the couple. “God’s” voice then is heard over the speakers, and he requests that the sex reveal be done by none other than Riley himself. The adorable two-year-old then appears on the screen behind the couple, shouting, “It’s a boy!”
Trainor revealed that she’s pregnant back in January. “BABY #2 COMING THIS SUMMER,” the singer captioned a snap of herself on Instagram holding up a series of sonogram images.
“I’m also trying to get pregnant,” the singer told Billboard last year, foreshadowing her upcoming bundle of joy. “I’m trying to have four kids and get them out. I don’t know if we’ll tour next year, because touring is so exhausting and brutal still.”
She continued, “I don’t know if I’m as cool as Cardi B. The icon that’s like, ‘Sure I can tour and perform and do SNL pregnant.’ I don’t know if I’m as strong as her. I remember being pregnant and being like, ‘I really should lay down.’ I was pooped, so I don’t know if I want to sign up for a tour and then get pregnant while doing that. It’s a big debate, but if something happens and I can open for someone or do a short run, I would love to do something like that.”
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