Rauw Alejandro scores his first No. 1 on any Billboard albums chart as Vice Versa, his sophomore effort, starts atop the Top Latin Albums chart (dated July 10).
Vice Versa was released June 25 via Duars/Sony Music Latin. It starts with 21,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 1, according to MRC Data. His debut set, Afrodisiaco, debuted at No. 30 and eventually peaked at No. 10 on the 50-deep tally.
“Vice Versa, like everything I do, was created from the heart,” Rauw Alejandro tells Billboard. “The main difference is that I was willing to take more chances and experiment more than when I did Afrodisíaco, which was a lot more traditional.”
The Top Latin Albums chart ranks the most popular Latin albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. 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 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Nearly all of Vice Versa’s starting sum is powered by streaming activity. The album registered 20,000 SEA units, which equals 29.1 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks. Album sales and TEA units comprise less than 1,000 units combined.
Vice Versa bends Rauw Alejandro’s usual reggaetón structure by integrating synth-pop, drum’n’bass and dance rhythms to the 14-track set produced by Mr. NaisGai, Tainy and Caleb Calloway; the project also features artists Anitta and Lyanno.
“There were two challenging parts to making this album,” Rauw Alejandro adds. “Being able to separate the artist from myself and the second one was deciding which track was going to be the first single. I wanted every track to be the first single.”
Vice Versa was preceded by two singles on Hot Latin Songs: the No. 3 high “Todo De Ti” (June 12-dated tally) and “2/Catorce,” with Mr. NaisGai (which reaches a new peak of No. 11 on the current chart). Concurrently, two other tracks debut on the airplay-, streaming- and digital sales-blended list: “Sexo Virtual” at No. 20 and “Aquel NapZzZz” at No. 48.
“Todo De Ti” also sees progress on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, pushing 36-32.
Over on the Billboard 200, Vice Versa arrives at No. 17, marking the Puerto Rican’s highest-charting entry there.
Vice Versa is the fourth album to bow at No. 1 on Top Latin Albums in 2021. It follows Anuel AA and Ozuna’s Los Dioses (29,000 units, Feb. 6-dated list), Selena Gómez’s Revelación, on which Rauw is featured (23,000 units, March 27-dated tally), and Karol G’s KG0516 (24,000 units, April 10-dated survey).
About branching out of the Latin rhythmic genre and exploring pop and dance sounds for his next studio set, Rauw says: “In a way this is what this album is all about, venturing out exploring the pop and Anglo side of things!”
