Adele’s’ ‘Skyfall’ Blasts Onto Radio, Headed For Hot 100

Gary Trust
Updated ·2 min read

Adele’s James Bond theme song, “Skyfall,” is headed for a notable debut on the Billboard Hot 100, based on a strong launch on radio and early sales projections. The song arrives a few weeks before the series’ latest film, starring Daniel Craig, premieres in theaters.

More from Billboard

For 24 hours beginning at 6 a.m. local time today (Oct. 5), “Skyfall” is airing at the top of each hour on approximately 180 Clear Channel Media and Entertainment mainstream top 40, adult top 40 and adult contemporary stations (roughly 100 of which report to the Billboard Hot 100). It’s the latest single supported by the chain with hourly plays, following similar launches for Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” and earlier songs by Prince, Jason Aldean, Madonna and others.

Why Radio Continues To Mine Adele’s ’21’ for Hits Without Columbia Records’ Help

After the song was released yesterday evening (Oct. 4), “Skyfall” is already trending around the No. 50 rank on the building all-format Nielsen BDS-based Radio Songs chart (which runs from Wednesday through Tuesday each week). In less than 24 hours, it’s garnered 10 million audience impressions. As for genre airplay charts (which run from Monday to Sunday), “Skyfall” is already No. 21 on the building Adult Contemporary chart (with slightly more than 100 plays so far), No. 40 on Adult Top 40 with (about 200) and just below No. 40 on Mainstream Top 40 (about 400).

As for sales, it’s difficult, at the present, to forecast how well Adele’s “Skyfall” will sell by the end of the tracking week on Sunday (Oct. 7). The song went on sale early yesterday evening (after being available as a pre-order since Monday), so we don’t yet know what it will sell on its first full day of availability (today).

That said, the song’s sales launch last night is tracking well and could point to a start in the range of 200,000 by Sunday night. Of course, that number could fluctuate wildly depending on how the song – which is currently ranked at No. 1 in the iTunes Store – will sell over the weekend. 200,000 could end up being a conservative figure, but we’ll know more definitively tomorrow, once we have knowledge about the song’s Friday sales. We’ll also then be able to better gauge where “Skyfall” could debut on the Hot 100. Highlights of the finalized chart will be released Wednesday (Oct. 10) on Billboard’s webs

newsletter
newsletter


Head HERE to subscribe to Billboard’s free music-business newsletters:
Breaking News, Touring, Top 40, Country and many more.

Best of Billboard

Click here to read the full article.