Charli XCX Dominates Dance Charts With ‘Brat’
Charli XCX blankets Billboard’s June 22-dated dance charts following the release of her sixth studio LP, Brat. The set opens at No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums (her first leader there), while all 15 of its standard-edition tracks – plus two bonus cuts – cover Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.
Brat debuts with 77,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 13, according to Luminate. That marks the biggest week of Charli’s career, by units. It also earns her highest rank on the all-genre Billboard 200, where it starts at No. 3.
The album’s first-week sum includes 30,000 copies sold on vinyl, fueling its No. 1 debut on the Vinyl Albums ranking.
Brat drew 46.72 million on-demand official streams of its deluxe edition’s 18 songs, equaling 37,000 SEA units (streaming-equivalent albums).
Brat was released on June 7 with 15 tracks and its deluxe edition arrived three days later. The deluxe edition was aptly titled Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not, dominates Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, with 17 of its 18 titles appearing on this week’s 50-position chart. That gives Charli more than one third (34%) of the dance chart’s total real estate. Only Skrillex has ever logged more simultaneous entries, when he had 20 songs on the March 4, 2023-dated edition.
Thirteen of Charli’s 17 appearances are debuts, led by “Talk Talk” at No. 5. Four more new cuts crack the top 20, including “Sympathy Is A Knife,” “365” and “Everything is Romantic,” all between Nos. 10-14.
Charli released a handful of singles in the lead-up to Brat, and those make big moves. “360” is the week’s Greatest Gainer/Streaming, up 95% to 6.6 million clicks, pushing it from No. 7 to a new peak of No. 3. “Von Dutch” is the Greatest Gainer/Sales, buoying 25-7, returning to its debut-week high. Plus, “Club Classic” and “B2B” both re-enter the list at new peaks, back at Nos. 11 and 19, respectively.
The avalanche of Brat tracks nearly triples Charli’s history on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, where she’d previously charted 10 songs. Notably, the new album’s “Von Dutch” and the other pre-release singles marked her first solo unaccompanied entries on the list. “360” scores her highest rank as a lead artist, while she had topped the chart in 2013 via her featured turn on Icona Pop’s “I Love It.”
Brat isn’t the only new release impacting this week’s dance charts. Kaytranada’s Timeless debuts at No. 2 on Top Dance/Electronic Songs with 21,000 units, while also hitting No. 2 on Top R&B Albums, No. 6 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 28 on the Billboard 200.
Nine of the album’s tracks debut on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, topped by “Witchy,” featuring Childish Gambino, at No. 12. Other entries include collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Don Toliver, and PinkPantheress.
Keith Caulfield
Billboard