Singer-songwriter Halsey finds herself at the top of the Billboard 200 Chart, for the week of June 17, 2017, with her sophomore album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (HFK).
According to Nielsen Music, the album earned 106,000 equivalent album units which 76,000 of were traditional sales.
The album becomes Halsey’s first number one; her debut album, Badlands, debuted and peaked at number two on the chart. HFK also becomes the first album by a female solo act to claim the number one spot since Lady Gaga’s Joanne in 2016.
Halsey’s reaction to finding out HFK debuted at number one (via her Instagram)
Joanne appeared at the top of the chart during the week of November 12. A seven-month time gap occurred where a female did not hold the top spot.
Halsey also becomes one of the first four female solo acts to debut at the top of the chart in the last 12 months. She joins Lady Gaga with Joanne, Solange with A Seat at The Table and Barbra Streisand with Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.
Comparatively, 16 men have found themselves at the top in the last 12 months. Drake spent a whopping 12 weeks atop the chart with Views and spent 3 more with More Life. Other males who have topped the chart include The Weeknd with Starboy (5 weeks), Future with Future and HNDRXX (1 week each) and Kendrick Lamar with DAMN (3 weeks).
In those same 12 months, three groups found themselves at the top, only one of them featured a female (Pentatonix), two soundtracks (Suicide Squad and Fifty Shades Darker) and one compilation (Hamilton).
HFK also becomes the first album by a female solo act to claim the number one spot since Lady Gaga’s Joanne in 2016.
To take it back even further women appeared slightly more frequently during the early part of 2016 (01/09/2016 to 05/14/2016). For ten weeks female artists topped the Billboard 200 while men topped the chart for nine weeks. Four women in total appeared at the top of the chart. Adele’s 25 spent 5 weeks at the top, while this time last year Beyoncé’s Lemonade debuted at number one.
For music lovers and feminists everywhere it is heartwarming to see a groundbreaking album, such as HFK, take the top spot for the first time in seven months. Hopefully, we can avoid another drought in females holding the top honor in the music world.
