‘Encanto,’ ‘Bruno’ Remain No. 1 on Album and Song Charts, as Radio Finally Starts Adding Disney Single
“Encanto” seems to be the new Adele, as far as the Billboard charts are concerned. The Disney film’s soundtrack and lead single have a lock on the top of the album and song charts for a second straight joint week, enjoying the kind of multi-week domination of both that only Adele’s “30” and “Easy on Me” had seen recently.
And while “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with close to no radio play whatsoever, it now appears that more stations are starting to take a chance on the ensemble song, as it makes its debut this week on two airplay charts.
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The “Encanto” soundtrack is on top for its fourth non-successive and third straight week, with 113,000 album-equivalent units. This marks the first time since December that the album has not seen a rise in numbers, but with only a 2% decline from the previous week, there’s not much deceleration happening with it.
Billboard notes that the last time a soundtrack spent four weeks at No. 1 was when “A Star Is Born” did it in 2018-19. If “Encanto” is back on top for a fifth time next week, as expected, then it will be the first soundtrack to last that long on top since “Frozen II” in 2014. (That streak may be harder to beat, as “Frozen II” was No. 1 for 13 weeks.)
“Bruno,” meanwhile, has set a record for the longest run for a Disney song at the top of the charts, even by just holding that position for a second week. The only previous tune from a Disney film to manage the feat, “A Whole New World,” lasted just one week.
Billboard also notes that “Bruno” is the first soundtrack song to top the Hot 100 for multiple weeks since “See You Again” in 2015; even “Shallow” lasted just one week at No. 1.
The two new Billboard radio charts the song is debuting on: Adult Pop Airplay, at No. 33, and Pop Airplay, at No. 38. “Bruno” still faces long odds in ever getting to the top of any mainstream radio charts. But the fact that radio programmers are finally crying “uncle” and experimenting with programming the song is a good indication that they’ve realized much of their audience already knows and loves the Lin-Manuel Miranda-written tune, whether or not it’s an easy segue from anything else they have on the playlist.
Radio audience impressions were at 3.6 million for the week, up 132%. But that’s still a minimal amount compared to almost all the other songs in the top 10. “Bruno” is topping the Hot 100 mainly because of its streams (37.6 million for the week) and downloads (13,600). These figures all represent highs to date for the song.
The “Encanto” domination gives chart watchers something to talk about, in an unremarkable week where there are no new albums or songs debuting in the top 10 of either chart.
In the upper ranks of the Hot 100, Adele’s “Easy on Me” repeats at No. 2, followed by Glass Animals, the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber, Kodak Black, Gayle, Ed Sheeran, Jessica Darrow’s “Surface Pressure” (the other top 10 song from “Encanto,” at No. 8), Gunna with Future, and Doja Cat rounding out the top 10.
On the album chart, there was one surprise bump. The Weeknd’s “Dawn FM,” which debuted at No. 2 and had slipped a couple of spots since then, moved back up into second place because of the first-time release of a CD version, including a large number of autographed copies that hit some stores, a la Taylor Swift’s signing sprees. Although “Dawn FM” was in no danger of overtaking “Encanto,” it did register a strong 70,000 album-equivalent units, representing a 63% gain for the week. Of that sum, 37,000 came in traditional album sales, almost all of those being the freshly arrived CDs — a 2,547% jump from last week, when the only one to purchase the album was digitally. A vinyl version is on the way, but not till April 29, when the album can be expected to get another bump.
Also holding over among the top 10 albums are Gunna at No. 3, followed by Morgan Wallen, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Adele, Drake, the Weeknd’s other top 10 album (“The Highlights”), Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo.
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