SZA, a singer and songwriter who for a decade has been one of the brightest lights in R&B, lands her first No. 1 on the Billboard album chart this week, while Christmas music keeps its icy grip on the singles chart.
After early singles and EPs, SZA — born Solána Rowe in St. Louis, and raised in New Jersey — made a splash with her debut album, “Ctrl” (2017), which brought her a best new artist nomination at the Grammys. She has been teasing the follow-up for two years, and this month finally released “SOS,” which features guest appearances by Travis Scott, Phoebe Bridgers and Don Toliver, along with an unearthed vocal track by Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan, who died in 2004.
In its first week out, “SOS” had the equivalent of 318,000 sales in the United States, according to the tracking service Luminate. That total includes 405 million streams, which Billboard said is a weekly record for an R&B album.
Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” holds at No. 2 in its eighth week out, and Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains,” last week’s top seller, falls to No. 3. Drake and 21 Savage’s “Her Loss” falls one spot to fourth place and Michael Bublé’s 11-year-old holiday LP, “Christmas,” holds at No. 5. Other than SZA’s album, the only other new entry in the Top 10 is “Me vs. Myself” by the Bronx-born rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, which lands at No. 6.
Most of the top spots on the Hot 100 singles chart are decades-old Christmas chestnuts: Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” holds at No. 1, while Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is No. 2, Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock” is No. 4 and Burl Ives’s “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is No. 5. SZA’s new “Kill Bill” arrives at No. 3.
