Chart Watch: Sia Bumps Off Drake

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(photos: Entertainment Tonight)

Sia is the giant slayer. Her rousing “Cheap Thrills” (featuring Sean Paul) knocks Drake’s “One Dance” (featuring Wizkid and Kyla) out of the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, following his 10-week run on top. This is Sia’s first #1 hit as an artist. Her previous highest-charting hit was Flo Rida’s “Wild Ones,” on which she was featured (#5 in 2012). Her only previous top 10 hit as a lead artist was “Chandelier” (#8 in 2014). That smash brought her Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year.

Sia, 40, is the oldest female artist to land a #1 hit since Madonna, who was 42 in September 2000 when she scored her most recent #1, “Music.”

Sia co-wrote Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” which logged three weeks at #1 in 2012. “Cheap Thrills” was originally intended for Rihanna, but Sia wound up recording it herself.

“Cheap Thrills” reaches #1 in its 23rd week on the Hot 100. That’s the slowest climb to the top spot since John Legend’s “All of Me” hit the top in its 30th week in May 2014. “All of Me” also bumped off a smash that logged 10 weeks at #1: Pharrell Williams’s “Happy.”

This is the fourth #1 hit for Sean Paul. His #1 hits are split evenly between lead and featured credits. He was in the lead on “Get Busy” and “Temperature” and was featured on Beyoncé’s “Baby Boy.”

Big Brother & The Holding Company (which featured Janis Joplin) had a #1 album titled Cheap Thrills. The classic album logged eight weeks on top in 1968, longer than any other non-soundtrack album that year.

“One Dance” fared better in the U.K. The smash holds at #1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart for the 15th consecutive week. That ties Wet Wet Wet’s “Love Is All Around” for the longest consecutive run at #1 since Bryan Adams’s “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” had 16 straight weeks on top in 1991.

Top Singles

Calvin Harris’s “This Is What You Came For” (featuring Rihanna) jumps from #4 to #3 in its 12th week. It and “Cheap Thrills” are the only songs in this week’s top 10 to reach new peaks this week.

Katy Perry’s “Rise” is the week’s top new entry at #11. It’s Perry’s first single following a nearly two-year hiatus. In 2014, you may remember, Perry had two chart disappointments in a row (by her lofty standards). “Birthday” peaked at #17. “This Is How We Do” stalled at #24. That marked the first time in her long career that Perry missed the top 10 with back-to-back singles (on which she was the lead artist). Given the fact that she was facing some resistance, I think Perry was wise to take some time off. There’s a lot of wisdom in the old saying “How can we miss you if you won’t go away?”

“Rise” was created for NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Perry co-wrote the song with Max Martin (who also produced the record), Savan Kotecha, and Ali Payami.

Another song that was created for the 2016 Games, the Band Perry’s “Live Forever,” has climbed as high as #29 on Hot Country Songs.

Several other songs from the Olympics have been hits in the past. Christopher Cross’ “A Chance for Heaven,” which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, hit #76. Giorgio Moroder’s “Reach Out” (featuring Paul Engemann), which the two musicians co-wrote with Richie Zito for those same Games, reached #81. Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time,” which NBC used in its 1988 Summer Olympics coverage, reached #5. Gloria Estefan’s “Reach,” which she co-wrote with Diane Warren for the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, hit #42. Celine Dion’s “The Power of the Dream,” which was written for the 1996 Summer Games, was the B-side of her #2 smash “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.”

“Rise” enters the Top Digital Songs chart at #1, displacing Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!,” which spent its first 10 weeks on top. This is Perry’s 11th #1 on the Digital Songs chart. Only Rihanna has had more (14). “Rise” sold 137K copies in its first week.

This is the second song titled “Rise” to crack the top 20 on the Hot 100. Herb Alpert took an instrumental with that title to #1 in October 1979. Perry can be excused if she doesn’t remember it: That was five years before she was born.

We have two songs in this week’s top 20 with titles that are just one letter apart. In addition to “Rise,” we have “Ride” by twenty one pilots, which holds at #6 in its 19th week.

Britney Spears’s “Make Me” (featuring G-Eazy) debuts at #17. This is Spears’s 34th Hot 100 entry; her third charted collabo with a hip-hop artist. It follows “Scream & Shout,” a collaboration with will.i.am (#3 in 2013) and “Pretty Girls” with Iggy Azalea (#29 in 2015). (In addition, Nicki Minaj was featured on a remix of Spears’s 2011 hit "Till the World Ends,” but the remix version of the song was listed on the chart for only one week).

Meghan Trainor’s “Like I’m Gonna Lose You)” (featuring John Legend), which reached #8 early this year, tops the 2 million mark in digital sales this week.

Looking ahead to next week, expect a potent debut by Major Lazer’s “Cold Water” (featuring Justin Bieber and MØ). Major Lazer’s “Lean On” (with DJ Snake featuring MØ) reached #4 last year.

Top Albums

Drake’s Views logs its 11th week at #1. That puts it in a tie with Taylor Swift’s 1989 for the longest run at #1 since the Frozen soundtrack topped the chart for 13 weeks in 2014. Moreover, Views is the first album to spend 11 of its first 12 weeks at #1 since Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1992-93. Billboard reports that just 18 percent of the album’s total points on the Billboard 200 this week comes from traditional album sales. Another 18 percent comes from track sales. The remaining 64 percent comes from streaming activity. We have entered a new era.

NeedToBreathe’s HardLove debuts at #2. This is the highest-charting album to date for the Christian rock band from Seneca, S.C. It’s the group’s third top 10 album in a row, following The Reckoning (#6 in 2011) and Rivers in the Wasteland (#3 in 2016).

twenty one pilots’ Blurryface inches up from #4 to #3 in its 62nd week. The album debuted at #1 in May 2015. The duo’s 2013 album Vessel drops from #24 to #33 in its 101st chart week. The album has climbed as high as #21. Vessel is #1 on the Top Catalog Albums chart for the second week.

The streaming-only compilation, Epic AF, rebounds from #11 to #6 (a new high) in its fifth week, thanks to the addition of French Montana’s “No Shopping” (featuring Drake).

Kidz Bop 32 debuts at #9. It’s the 24th volume in this long-running series to make the top 10. The new edition has kid-friendly versions of many of this year’s biggest hits, including DNCE’s covertly risqué “Cake by the Ocean.” But then what kid doesn’t like cake?

Two albums that debuted inside the top 10 last week tumble out in their second week. Chevelle’s North Corridor dives from #8 to #73. Switchfoot’s Where the Light Shines Through plummets from #10 to #117. In addition, blink-182’s California drops from #3 to #13 in its third week.

Steven Tyler’s first solo album, We’re All Somebody From Somewhere, debuts at #19. Tyler, 68, released his first studio album with Aerosmith in January 1973. Aerosmith landed its first top 20 album the week of Aug. 9, 1975 (with Toys in the Attic), giving Tyler a 41-year span of top 20 albums.