Justin Bieber Re-Enters the Billboard Canada Charts Following Coachella Performances
Seven songs and six albums from the Canadian singer’s discography have re-emerged on the charts after his headlining sets at the music festival — including one debut. 2013’s Journals hit the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, over 12 years after its release.
Justin Bieber’s music is taking over the charts in his home country.
Following two weekends of Bieberchella — the adoring name for Bieber’s headlining sets at Coachella (April 11 and April 18) — multiple songs and albums from the Canadian pop and R&B singer have emerged on the Billboard Canadian Albums and Billboard Canadian Hot 100 charts, dated April 25.
Notably, Bieber’s 2013 album, Journals, makes its first ever appearance on the Canadian Albums chart at No. 96, over 12 years after its initial release.
The album rollout for Journals was unique for Bieber, who kicked off promotion in October and released one new song every Monday for ten weeks, leading up to the theatrical release of his Believe concert film that December. The tracks — including five additions — were packaged into the compilation album released at the end of the year.
It’s one of six albums (including five re-entries) from the entertainer on the ranking. Bieber’s most recent album, the chart-topping Swag, zooms from No. 48 up to No. 4, as four more titles re-enter: Purpose (No. 20), Believe (No. 27), My World 2.0 (No. 29) and Justice (No. 63).
So, what prompted this? Well, Journals was originally released exclusively for purchase on the iTunes Store, which reportedly blocked it from entering the Canadian Albums chart as Apple did not at the time report its iTunes sales to Billboard's data services. While it eventually became widely available to listen to on digital download and streaming platforms, this week marks the first time the album drummed up enough activity to emerge on the charts.
The album includes the hit “Confident” featuring Chance the Rapper, which recently reached one billion streams on Spotify. The mature track is one of seven songs that re-emerged on the Canadian Hot 100, following Coachella, at No. 41. It previously peaked at No. 29.
The majority of Bieber’s songs that re-entered the chart were his most popular hits, many of which he performed during his set’s YouTube throwback section at the major music festival. This includes the Nicki Minaj-featuring “Beauty and a Beat” (No. 16), “Sorry” (No. 34) and “Baby” featuring Ludacris (No. 39). The 2016 track “Love Yourself,” penned by hitmaker Ed Sheeran, snuck onto the ranking, despite its lack of performance at No. 42.
Two Swag tracks re-emerged, too, including “Daisies,” which arrived at No. 10, and “Yukon” at No. 19.
While many artists were hyped for Bieber’s Coachella set, including artists like Geese and Addison Rae, Bieber’s performance became one of the most divisive performances of the festival, namely for his sonic trip down memory lane, which saw the Biebs sitting at a desk to sing snippets of some of his biggest hits and scroll through some memes.
But it worked. It’s clear many fans were into the nostalgia as the singer’s streaming numbers, as evidenced by the 54% boost on April 12, the day after his first weekend performance.
Bieber’s Weekend 2 performance was just as nostalgic, as he serenaded Billie Eilish during “One Less Lonely Girl” and performed back-to-back hits with Big Sean, among performances with Sexxy Red and SZA.
The May 1-dated Billboard Canada charts will reflect any additional gains gleaned by Bieber’s catalogue from the second weekend of Coachella, as that chart’s tracking week runs from April 17-23.
