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.

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.