On the charts this week, Nicki Minaj scores the top album with her first studio LP in five years, and Mariah Carey reclaims the No. 1 single with her inescapable seasonal hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Minaj has been teasing her latest album, “Pink Friday 2,” for at least four years, and for a while it seemed doubtful that it would ever happen; at one point Minaj even announced (en quickly withdrawn) her farewell to music. But “Pink Friday 2,” her fifth studio album – titled as a follow-up to her 2010 debut – finally arrived on December 8 and opens at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, becoming her third No. 1 album. “Pink Friday 2” had the equivalent of 228,000 sales in the United States, with 170 million streams and 92,000 copies sold as a complete package, 25,000 of which were on vinyl.
Also this week, Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ is at No. 2 and Drake’s ‘For All the Dogs’ is at No. 3, while 20-year-old Canadian pop singer Tate McRae arrives at No. 4 with ‘Think Later,’ her second studio -LP. Michael Bublé’s “Christmas” is in fifth place.
Carey, whose 1994 bauble “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was No. 1 for 25 years — and has spent a total of 12 weeks at the top in the past four holiday seasons — regains the top spot this week. , be first 13th cumulative time at No. 1.
For the past two weeks, the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 singles chart belonged to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which was released in 1958 and got a promotional push this year with a music video and TikTok spots. “Rockin’” drops to No. 2 this week.