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An ‘Encanto’ Tune Has Landed Lin-Manuel Miranda His First Top-Ten Song On The ‘Billboard’ Hot 100 Chart

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On last week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and other vintage holiday tunes were still dominating the top ten spots. On the new chart dated January 15, though, we’re back to non-Christmas programming, as holiday tunes are out of the top ten and Adele’s “Easy On Me” is back to No. 1 for an eighth total week.

Perhaps the top-ten song that stands out most, though, is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the new Disney movie Encanto. The track — which is credited to Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz, and Encanto Cast — jumped from No. 50 last week up to No. 5 this week, making it the first top-five song from a Disney movie since Frozen‘s “Let It Go.” Aside from those two, other Disney songs to crack the top five include Vanessa Williams’ “Colors Of The Wind” from Pocahontas, Elton John’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from Tarzan, and Peabo Bryson and Regina Bell’s “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.

Furthermore, “Bruno” is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first top-ten hit, as he wrote the song (and all the others from the movie). The song is also the first top-ten track for all of the credited artists. Also, speaking of Elton John, his and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” rose to No. 7 this week, making it his first top-ten hit in the US since “Candle In The Wind”/”Something About The Way You Look Tonight” in 1997.

It’s a big week for Encanto, as it was revealed yesterday that the movie’s soundtrack is No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Disney’s ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Dethrones Adele’s ’30’ From The Top Of The ‘Billboard’ 200

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Encanto dethrones Adele's '30'
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Since its release last fall, Adele’s 30 has ruled the charts. It began with the biggest first week in four years thanks to 839,000 album units sold in its debut on the Billboard 200. At one point, 30 was the only album to sell over a million copies in the United States last year. Adele’s fourth album also went on to become the best-selling vinyl of 2021, seizing the crown from Taylor Swift’s Evermore. While 30 eventually became the first No. 1 album of 2022, the album’s uninterrupted reign on the Billboard 200 has come to an end thanks to the soundtrack for Disney’s Encanto film.

For the Billboard 200 chart dated January 15, 2022, the Encanto soundtrack spent its first week at No. 1 thanks to 72,000 album units. That number is comprised of 58,000 streaming equivalent album units and 11,000 pure album sales. Encanto is the sixth soundtrack to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and it marks two years since the last soundtrack reached the top of the charts, that being the one for Frozen II. Lastly, it marks a rare case of an album going No. 1 for the first time weeks after its release. The last project to do this was The Kid Laroi’s F*ck Love which did so last summer.

The decision to release Encanto on Disney+ a month after it debuted in theaters most likely contributed toward its rise to No. 1. As for Adele’s 30, it checks in at No. 2 with only 57,000 units sold in the week ending on January 6.

Vinyl Records Just Had Its Biggest Sales Week In Three Decades

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This year already proved to be a huge year for vinyl record sales. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyls generated $467 million in the United States by mid-2021, more than doubling the $207 million that was made at that point in 2020. The success of vinyl records this year can be credited to projects like Adele’s 30, Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, Taylor Swift’s Evermore, and more. In fact, 30 recently edged out Evermore to become the best-selling vinyl album of 2021. With just a few days left in the year, vinyls have crossed a mark previously untouched in the last 30 years.

According to Billboard, in the week ending on December 23, 2.11 million vinyl records were sold making it the largest sales week for vinyls since MRC Data began tracking music sales back in 1991. It’s also the first time that vinyl sales have surpassed the 2 million mark in the MRC Data era. It’s a 45% increase from the week prior (1.46 million), which suggests that the spike was caused by the Christmas holiday. In fact, the previous high was set on December 24, 2020 with 1.84 million vinyls being sold. Adele’s 30 was the top-selling album of the week as it moved 59,000 copies.

Furthermore, the week ending on December 23 was the sixth consecutive week that vinyl sales surpassed the one million mark. This past week, vinyl records also accounted for 50% of all albums and 57% of all physical albums that were sold in the United States.

LeBron James Trolls His Friends Maverick Carter And Rich Paul For Being Adele And Jay-Z’s Chargers Game ‘Plus-Ones’

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There was quite a stir on the internet when British singer Adele “debuted” her new beau Rich Paul after months of low-key “hanging out” (as he put it in an interview in The New Yorker in May), with fans flabbergasted (or outright confused, for the singer’s fans who don’t watch the sportsball) by the seemingly unlikely pairing. Paul, of course, is the agent of NBA superstar LeBron James, who it turns out isn’t above teasing his friend’s PDA with the “Easy On Me” singer, as he did on Twitter last night during the Thursday night football game between the Los Angeles Chargers (still feels weird to type) and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Adele, Paul, and LeBron’s other right-hand man Maverick Carter were all caught on the broadcast along with James’ mentor and favorite rapper Jay-Z, and he couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to troll his friends for being less famous than their companions. “Who the heck are Jay-Z and Adele’s +1s????” he tweeted, adding a monocle emoji for extra effect.

Of course, Mav and Rich are likely used to drawing just a little less attention after growing up with LeBron in Cleveland and helping to manage his career since he was drafted straight out of high school in 2003. Nearly 20 years later, it seems they’re as tight as ever — and enjoying the benefits of it, hanging out not just with LeBron, but with two of the biggest names in entertainment as well.

Oh, and the Chargers lost. Sigh.

Adele Continues To Command The Hot 100 Chart As ‘Easy On Me’ Is No. 1 For A Seventh Week

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We’re firmly in the midst of the holiday season, but this year, December is doubling as Adele season. It was revealed yesterday that 30 is on top of the Billboard 200 chart for the third straight week, and now the album’s hit single “Easy On Me” remains on top, too, as it’s No. 1 on the new Hot 100 chart dated December 18 for a seventh week.

It’s possible the song won’t stay on top for much longer, though. Over the past few weeks, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is Now” has been making its now-annual climb back up the Hot 100. It was No. 3 on last week’s chart, and now it’s up to No. 2. If the song does make it to No. 1 on the chart dated December 25 (the final Hot 100 of 2021), it would have topped the chart in three consecutive years and become the only song to ever go No. 1 in four separate years.

As far as Christmas music, Carey’s hit isn’t alone in the top 10. Returning to the space from last week are Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” at No. 3, Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” at No. 5, and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” at No. 6. Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” is new to the top 10 this week at No. 10, rounding out the five holiday songs in the region this week.

Historical precedent says it wouldn’t be surprising to see next week’s Hot 100 flooded with Christmas music: On the chart dated December 26, 2020, six of the top 10 songs were holiday tunes. The next week, that number jumped up to nine.

Chloe’s Passionate Cover Of Adele’s ‘Easy On Me’ Is Laced With Impressive Vocal Runs

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Earlier this year, months before she released her debut single “Have Mercy,” Chloe showed off her impressive vocals by covering a series of tracks from the past and present. After a break from doing so, the singer returns with a passionate cover of Adele’s “Easy On Me.” Chloe shows no issue in being able to take on the difficult track. In addition to once again impressing with her vocals, Chloe also added some whistle notes and quality vocals runs to make her rendition of the former No. 1 song all that much better.

Chloe’s rendition of “Easy On Me” joins previous covers she’s delivered in 2021. They include Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open” and Cardi B’s “Be Careful,” which left the rapper smiling from ear to ear. She also took on Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain,” Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” and Drake’s “Marvin’s Room.” All of that was great promotion for Chloe’s “Have Mercy,” which arrived in September. She later performed the song at the MTV VMAs, on The Tonight Show With Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the 2021 AMAs.

The singer is also working on her debut project which she spoke about in August. “I’m wrapping it up with such bad-b*tch energy,” he said to Billboard, adding, that it’s “the most liberated and happy that I have felt.”

You can watch Chloe cover “Easy On Me” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Adele Says Drake Convinced Her To Release ’30’ Despite Its Delays

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Adele’s chart-topping album 30 has been out for a few weeks now. True to the singer’s previous releases, the LP features a mix of empowering and heart-tugging songs. This time, however, her songs were about her 2019 divorce. The album was supposed to arrive in 2020, when all her feelings about her marriage were still fresh. But because of COVID, 30 was delayed for nearly a year and the singer now says that if she had waited any longer, she would have decided not to release the LP altogether.

Adele recently sat down with Rolling Stone UK for a cover interview, where she talked about her album’s delays. “If it wasn’t coming out now, I think I probably would never put it out,” she said. Because the music was about her divorce, the singer was nearly ready to put those emotions behind her before it actually dropped. “I know I would’ve changed my mind and been like, ‘It’s moved on. Let’s start the next album,’” she said. “And I couldn’t do that to this album. I feel like it deserves to come out.”

One major reason why she went ahead with the album’s release was due to a conversation she had with her good friend Drake. The rapper had been in a similar position as Adele, sitting on his album Certified Lover Boy for quite some time. “I had that conversation with Drake,” Adele said. “Because he kept having to push his album back. Suddenly he just announced that it was out and was like, ‘I feel like I’ve been working on it for so long because I’ve been sitting on it.’ I feel a bit like that.”

Based on how wildly popular her album has been, Adele is likely glad she decided to heed Drake’s advice and go ahead with the release. The LP became the best-selling release of the year just three days after it debuted. This week, 30 also hit a major milestone: The album became the only release of 2021 to reach one million sales in the US.

Read Rolling Stone‘s conversation with Adele here.

Seth Rogen Still Has No Idea How He Ended Up Sitting Front Row At Adele’s Televised Concert Special

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Seth Rogen digs weed. Let me take that back. Seth Rogen absolutely loves weed. He recently lit up with Conan O’Brien on the last episode of the host’s TBS late-night show. Rogen’s got his own weed company and is rolling in success, along with rolling in joints. For those reasons, it’s not at all hard to believe that Seth was high while recently appearing in the front row of Adele’s CBS TV concert special, “Adele One Night Only.”

There were a few surprises during the course of that special, apparently. Adele helped one gentleman pull off a surprise proposal that night, and as it turns out, Rogen was very surprised to be front row at an Adele show while the thing was being taped for TV. Here’s how he boisterously explained (to Jimmy Fallon) how this happened. Let’s just say that weed wasn’t the reason, but it still came up in conversation:

“I was in the front row of the Adele concert. And that is as surprising to me as anyone because I had no idea I was attending the taping of an Adele television special at all. I got an invitation, ‘Do you want to go to a small Adele concert?’ is what I remember absorbing. And I go to my wife Lauren, ‘You want to go to this small Adele concert?’ ‘Great, sounds fun’ … So, if I’m being honest, I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, I smoke weed, Jimmy.”

Rogen continued while adding that he “smoked a ton of weed” that night, and then, when he and his wife (Lauren) arrived at she show, “we see camera cranes.” That was when he realized that this was probably going to be on a TV show, but he reasoned, “Maybe it’s not that big a television special.” That’s when he saw Oprah at the show, and then Rogen thought maybe he could “just sit in the back.” However, that’s not what the powers in be had in mind for him, despite not being “equipped mentally to deal with doing this right now, really.” The situation progressed to where “I sit down, there’s like a camera literally just pointed at my face.”

Sounds surreal. And as one might expect, Rogen rolled with it. He stars as Santa Claus in Santa Inc. (which is currently streaming on HBO Max), and you can watch him at the aforementioned Adele concert in the below video from Entertainment Tonight.

Fans Added Twerking Megan Thee Stallion As A Backup Dancer For Adele

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It’s Thanksgiving week, so holiday malaise has already set in. People are at home, possibly bored, possibly eating too much turkey, and very likely pondering the existential questions of the universe. Like, what makes a good relationship? When will I discover my true calling? And, of course, my personal favorite: How come Adele never has any back up dancers? At least, that last one was what one Twitter user had on their mind a few days ago, given the arrival of 30 and its insane first-week sales, she’s definitely been on everyone’s minds quite a bit lately.

But of course, in true Twitter fashion, it was a reply to the tweet — with a homemade, DIY solution — that really had the internet up in arms this Thanksgiving. To solve the problem that the original poster pointed out, another Twitter genius added footage of Megan Thee Stallion twerking to a song with the closest rhythm match. Seriously, this mashup is almost perfect, which makes the whole thing even better. While Adele belts out her 25 hit “Water Under The Bridge,” Megan pops and rolls behind her. Honestly, this is a collaboration that the internet has already gotten ahem, behind, it might just make sense to bring it into the real world. Adele, your move!

Bobby Shmurda Wants To Collaborate With Adele On A ‘Strip Club Anthem’

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Now that he’s out of jail, Bobby Shmurda, aka Ackquille Pollard, is taking Covid-19 seriously, back in the game, and listening to… Adele? The Brooklyn rapper had some thoughts about a potential collab with the 30 star, but frankly, his idea isn’t very realistic. Though Shmurda may or may not have been spinning 30 when he had the thought of Adele working on a “strip club anthem” with him, there’s nothing on Adele’s new record that would suggest she’d be down. However, would it be epic? Oh it certainly would be, so we have to give Shmurda credit there, for the creativity.

“You know what the world needs,” the rapper began. ” #BobbyShmurda & #Adele to make a Strip Club Anthem.” As one would necessarily need to do in these situations, Shmurda followed the sentiment up with a crying smiley emoji. Perhaps Bobby noticed that within three days, 30 became the best-selling album of the entire year, and those numbers were just as motivating as his desire to make an anthem that sends the club up. Or, maybe he figured if Drake is friends with Adele, then she’s probably worth getting to know. Here’s a better idea, Bobby, hop on the remix of the fifteen minute version of “I Drink Wine” — win win.