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The Weeknd Has This Week's No. 1 Album & BC Rapper Merkules Rules Too

The Weeknd achieves his third No. 1 album with his latest six-song set that includes a strong lineup of session supporters, and BC rapper Merkules breaks into the top 20 with his new project that too has an impressive supporting cast.

The Weeknd Has This Week's No. 1 Album & BC Rapper Merkules Rules Too

By David Farrell

The Weeknd’s unexpected six-song EP, My Dear Melancholy debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart this week with 19,000 total consumption units. Melancholy is Abel Tesfaye’s third straight chart-topper and the second No. 1 by a Canadian artist so far in 2018, following Tory Lanez’s Memories Don’t Die.


The release, featuring contributions by Gesaffelstein, as well as DaHeala, Mike Will Made It, Skrillex and Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, picks up the highest album sales and on-demand stream totals for the week. With over 17 million on-demand streams, it is the highest one-week total since Migos’ Culture II picked up 19 million in late January. All six songs from My Dear Melancholy enter the top 20 Streaming Songs chart this week, including “Call Out My Name,” which lands at No. 1 with over five million. The song is also the top new entry on the Digital Songs chart, debuting at 5.

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American rapper Dimitri Leslie Roger, better known as Rich The Kid, debuts at 3 with his debut album The World Is Yours. The Interscope set includes guest appearances from Rich Forever Music labelmate Jay Critch, alongside Chris Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Khalid, Rick Ross, Swae Lee, and Quavo and Offset from Migos.

Other top 40 new entries include American country singer Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour, at 11; American child actress-turned-pop singer Hayley Kiyoko’s Expectations, at 16; and BC rapper Merkules’ Cole (featuring singer/producer Stevie Ross, Project Pat, Evil Ebenezer, Caspian and Jelly Roll) lands at 19.

 

Drake’s “God’s Plan” rebounds 3-1 on the Digital Songs chart with a 19% download increase. This is the song’s third non-consecutive week at No. 1.

 – All metrics courtesy of SoundScan with additional facts and colour supplied by Nielsen Music Canada Director Paul Tuch.

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Rush performing in 1977.
TIFF
Rush performing in 1977.
Tv Film

Toronto International Film Festival to Premiere New Documentary on Neil Peart of Rush in 2026

The recently announced film honouring the late Rush drummer will be receiving its world premiere on Sept. 16 along with several additional screenings, ahead of its release on CBC on Sept. 23. Plus, Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams joins TIFF for its In Conversation With... series.

TIFF is celebrating a Canadian rock music legend. The Toronto International Film Festival has released its full programming, revealing that it will host the world premiere of the forthcoming documentary Neil Peart: No One's Disciple, which was announced by CBC last week. The 106-minute film gathers Peart's Rush bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, plus other famed drummers like Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, The Police’s Stewart Copeland and Tool’s Danny Carey, all of whom honour the late musician's life, legacy, upbringing and illustrious career as part of one of the biggest Canadian bands of all-time.

"That Peart’s parts are so challenging even for such revered players says a lot about the ingenuity and dexterity he brought to Rush’s music," TIFF programmer Jason Anderson writes of the film. "The performances also become one of several means of commemorating a man who — as Dunn’s film reveals — was equally complex. The remembrances and anecdotes of the musicians and other intimates help fill out the portrait that Dunn creates via archival interviews and other footage."

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