The Weeknd’s New Album Debuts At #1 With Second Biggest Sales Week Of 2015
Too bad the Weeknd can’t feel his face, because news of his new album’s first week sales would definitely cause him to smile. Today Billboard reports that Abel Tesfaye’s Beauty Behind The Madness recorded a whopping 412,000 equivalent units and 326,000 in pure album sales.
The Toronto dark-R&B singer’s debut mixtape collection Trilogy peaked at #4 in 2012, and 2013’s Kiss Land came in at #2, so this is his first #1 album. Assuredly, his face-melting Max Martin co-write “Can’t Feel My Face,” which became Tesfaye’s first #1 single earlier this year, played a role in this new achievement.
The only person to have a bigger debut than that this year is the Weeknd’s pseudo-boss, the OVO godhead Drake, who logged 535,000 equivalent units and 495,000 in album sales for If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Yes, Drake still owns 2015’s best sales week, and that’s for a self-dubbed “mixtape” — but as we all know, that shit sounded like an album.