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FYI

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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Executive of the Week: Justin West of Secret City Records on the Secrets of Independent Music Success​
FYI

Executive of the Week: Justin West of Secret City Records on the Secrets of Independent Music Success​

The man behind one of Canada's most successful indie labels talks about the late-blooming success of French-language streaming record-holder Patrick Watson, why he builds long-term relationships with artists, and why it's important for the indie sector to work together.

Justin West is a leader and advocate in Canada’s independent music scene, but he didn’t plan it out that way. When he started his record label Secret City Records in Montreal in the mid-2000s, it was out of necessity. He had met an artist he loved and wanted to build a career with, and the label was a means to do it. That artist was Patrick Watson, and 20 years later he — and Secret City — are more successful than ever.

West — a multiple time Billboard Canada Power Player – leads one of the biggest indie labels in Canada while also advocating for the sector on multiple boards both locally and internationally. When we speak to him for this Executive of the Week interview, he’s just returned from Banff for the National Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Culture, and is a central figure in discussions around the Online Streaming Act and collective negotiations with online streaming platforms.

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