Chris Stapleton’s 2nd Week at #1 Proves He’s No Fluke

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Another week, and another #1 showing for Chris Stapleton’s debut album Traveller as the songwriter and performer continues to ride a wave of momentum after a massive showing at the CMA Awards on November 4th. A sweep of New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year categories, and a high-profile performance with Justin Timberlake put Stapleton on the map of mainstream fans in a big way. But now folks appear to like what they’re hearing, and Stapleton’s momentum is sustaining well beyond your average awards show bump.

According to HITS Daily Double‘s building albums chart, Chris Stapleton sold an additional 82,876 album last week, which is good enough for his second consecutive week at the top spot in all of music. He also accumulated an additional 26,000 album-equivalent streams over the week, for a total of 109,000 units. Stapleton’s showing clearly puts him in the lead of all competitors. It will also make him only the second artist in 2015 to spend two weeks at #1. The other was Luke Bryan.

***UPDATE: According to Billboard, Traveller sold another 97,000 copies, and 124,000 equivalent album units when adding in streaming.

Eric Church, who released his surprise album Mr. Misunderstood the day of the CMA awards, is expected to come in second with another 66,000 albums sold, and Tim McGraw, who saw the debut of his new album Damn Country Music, sold just over 41,000 albums. Traveller sold 27,000 copies upon its debut on May 5th, 2015, and had only sold a total of 93,900 copies as of late October heading into the CMA Awards.

The party at #1 will be ending for Stapleton next week however. Justin Bieber’s new record is likely to sell nearly half a million copies, and this Friday, Adele releases her new album which is likely to perform even better. However the focus for Stapleton will now turn to the Grammy Awards. His wins and massive upswing comes at a time when Grammy voters are putting the finishing touches on their nominee ballots. The awards happen on February 17th, 2016, and the nominees will likely be announced the first week of December.

Meanwhile Chris Stapleton isn’t the only one hoping to continue a post-CMA’s wave. Last week Justin Timberlake sent his song “Drink You Away” to country radio. It’s the same song Timberlake and Stapleton performed together on the CMA Awards.

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