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Billboard #1s | March 2018
See all the Billboard charts at http://www.billboard.com/charts/
3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31: “God’s Plan” (Drake)
3/3, 3/17: Black Panther: The Album (Various Artists)
3/10: This House Is Not For Sale (Bon Jovi)
3/24: Bobby Tarantino II (Logic)
3/31: ? (XXXTentaction)
3/3: Drake
3/10: Bon Jovi
3/17: Ed Sheeran
3/24: Logic
3/31: XXXTentaction
After nearly two years of weekly posts, Scoreboard is switching up to a monthly format that will tally up the biggest music stories of each month @theknockturnal. Revamped Scoreboard also includes a playlist of the hottest new songs from the month.
March 2018 happened to be a supersized month with five Saturdays. The big winner on the Hot 100 all five weeks (and nine weeks in total) has been @champagnepapi. Drake’s “God’s Plan” has now earned nine weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. The nine weeks tie Drake’s longest consecutive runs at #1, both of which took place in 2016: Rihanna‘s “Work” and “One Dance” ft. Wizkid and Kyla (“One Dance” spent 10 weeks at #1 in total). Drake’s success on the Hot 100 also earned him a #1 on the Artist 100 during the first week of March.
Drake is on track to have the year’s biggest single
Chart Wins for Bon Jovi and Other Legacy Artists
Bon Jovi’s debut album came out 34 years ago, but the legendary New Jersey group proved that they still got it by returning to #1 this month with their 2016 album This House Is Not For Sale. While the album was only Billboard’s #83 rock album of 2017, Bon Jovi still earned $45 million touring last year and this month’s surge in album sales was driven by a promotional bundle for the second leg of the This House Is Not For Sale Tour, which resumed in Denver on March 14th. Read Scoreboard’s take on This House Is Not For Sale here.
This House Is Not For Sale is Bon Jovi’s 13th album
Metallica’s first album came out 35 years ago and the band’s tenth album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct became Billboard’s #1 Rock Album of 2017, beating out Imagine Dragons. Like Bon Jovi, Metallica bundled its album with tickets to the band’s three-year WorldWired tour and Hardwired surged to #2 on the Billboard 200 in the last week of March. Read Scoreboard’s take on Hardwired…To Self-Destruct here.
Other legacy acts that came back to the charts this month include British metal pioneers Judas Priest, whose 18th album Firepower started at #5 on the Billboard 200. The band’s first album came out 44 years ago and the band’s 67-year-old bassist Ian Hill is a year away from the 50 year anniversary of the band’s founding. David Byrne, the founder of Talking Heads, also returned to the charts with his 11th solo album American Utopia, which started at #3 on the Billboard 200. The album’s lead single “Everybody’s Coming To My House” is classic Byrne – manic, existential, and catchy.
American Utopia is David Byrne’s highest-charting solo album
Maren Morris & Bebe Rexha Advance On The Hot 100
When it came to pop music in March, the staying power of Ed Sheeran was on display when he spent his fifth week at #1 on the Artist 100 this year. Unlike Sheeran, Taylor Swift had a harder time staying on the charts. Mid-month she had zero songs on the Hot 100, but since then she came back with “Delicate,” the sixth single off her best-selling album Reputation. The soft, airy track is slowly climbing the Hot 100; it is at #66 at month-end.
Taylor Swift took over Times Square, because she could
March moves in the top 10 of the Hot 100 came on behalf of Maren Morris, who is primarily a country singer, and Bebe Rexha, who is primarily a pop-dance singer. Yet both melded country and pop to earn chart success. Prior to 2018, Morris’s highest-charting single was the duet with country star Thomas Rhett “Craving You,” which peaked at #39 last year. This year, she teamed up with electronic musicians Zedd and Grey as the vocalist on “The Middle.” The song’s video premiered during the Grammys and this month it reached a peak of #6 on the Hot 100 and gave @marenmorris her first mainstream hit.
Maren Morris had quite a month, getting married to country singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd in Nashville
Bebe Rexha made her chart debut in 2014 and her biggest hit was as the singer on G-Eazy‘s “Me, Myself & I,” which reached #7 in 2016. She broke that high mark this month while also setting an unlikely record on the Billboard Country charts. The song that rocketed all the way up to #2 of the Hot 100 is a collaboration with Florida Georgia Line called “Meant To Be.” Since November the saccharine hit has been marketed to Pop, Country, and Lite FM stations, and the multi-genre approach took the song to #1 on Hot Country Songs, where “Meant To Be” became the longest-running #1 in the history of the chart for a female vocalist. Florida Georgia Line have a history of crossover successes, the biggest one being “Cruise (Remix)” ft. Nelly and with apologies to Reba, Shania, Faith, Carrie, and Taylor, it looks like their pairing with @beberexha was #MeantToBe.
Bebe Rexha went to the March For Our Lives after being on tour with Katy Perry in Latin America
Logic and XXXTentaction Have #1 Albums
Speed is the name of the game in hip-hop and two rappers who topped the charts in March did so less than a year after their previous releases. Logic, best known for the suicide prevention anthem “1-800-273-8255” (ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid), returned with #1 mixtape Bobby Tarantino II, 10 months after going to #1 with album Everybody. His biggest single off of the mixtape is the ferocious “44 More,” on which he slays enemies and shouts out to his friend, NBA star Kevin Durant.
Logic is riding a hot streak in 2017-18
Like Logic, Florida rapper XXXTentaction had a big album less than a year ago – his 17 took #2 on the Billboard 200 just 28 weeks before his new album ? went to #1 in the last week of March. XXXTentaction has a checkered record of arrests and other controversies – he even feuded with Drake last year. But his music – a blend of hip-hop and alternative R&B – is clearly resonating. Album track “Sad!” is already at #7 on the Hot 100. The track recalls recent successes of Bryson Tiller, Khalid, and Post Malone, who this month released “Psycho” ft. Ty Dolla $ign. “Psycho” started at #2 on the Hot 100 and the success of both “Psycho” and “Sad!” demonstrates that chilled-our hip-hop is having a moment in 2018. Both songs may be in the top 5 of the Hot 100 in April.
Post Malone has spent six months in a row in the Billboard Artist Top 10
Other hip-hop stars with major album releases in March were Brooklyn rapper 6ix9ine (Day69) and Atlanta’s Lil Yachty (Lil Boat 2), whose biggest hit off the album is “NBAYOUNGBOAT,” a freestyle featuring Louisiana’s YoungBoy Never Broke Again that took #63 on the Hot 100. And then there’s the return of white comedian/rapper Lil Dicky, who first made the Hot 100 in 2015 with “$ave Dat Money” ft. Fetty Wap and Rich Homie Quan. That track was accompanied by a “rap video” where Dicky begged his way to film in a mansion, on a boat, and in a nightclub. For the sequel, the rapper (born David Burd) switches bodies with eternal R&B bad boy Chris Brown, on a track called “Freaky Friday.” In its first week the song is already #9 on the Hot 100, check out the humorous video below and check Scoreboard at the start of May to see who crowned the charts in April.