LISA of BLACKPINK’s ‘Alter Ego’ debuts within the prime 10 of the Billboard 200 chart : NPR

This week’s pop charts do not provide a lot in the best way of recent faces, as Kendrick Lamar tops each the Billboard 200 albums chart (with GNX) and the Scorching 100 singles chart (together with his SZA collaboration “Luther”). However there is one debut value noting: LISA, a member of the blockbuster Okay-pop lady group BLACKPINK, enters the Billboard 200 at No. 7 together with her new solo album Alter Ego.

TOP ALBUMS

In latest weeks, we have seen No. 1 debuts by big-name stars in pop, hip-hop, Latin music and R&B, as albums by Tate McRae, Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR, The Weeknd, Dangerous Bunny and Lil Child have all entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 since 2025 dawned. However in weeks when a world-beater would not enter {the marketplace}, issues can get prettttttty sluggish on the ol’ charts.

With Girl Gaga‘s new album Mayhem set to make its presence felt subsequent week, the pre-storm calm sees just one album debut within the prime 50: That’d be Alter Ego by LISA of the Okay-pop group BLACKPINK, in addition to the newest season of The White Lotus; it bows at No. 7. (Extra on LISA, and the good BLACKPINK diaspora, in a second.) In any other case, we get a shuffling of pre-existing powerhouses, as Kendrick Lamar’s GNX returns to No. 1 and switches spots with McRae’s So Near What, which drops to No. 3 in its second week.)

The remaining albums within the prime 5, and far of the highest 10, maintain on the spots they occupied final week, together with Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which is proving sturdy at No. 2. However, utilizing the metric by which the Billboard 200 is ranked — a cocktail, dubbed “equal album items,” that mixes gross sales and streaming numbers — it is a down week throughout the board.

In addition to Alter Ego, the one different album to debut within the prime 100 is Fridayy’s Some Days I am Good, Some Days I am Not, which debuts at No. 51. Fridayy, a Philly-based R&B singer, has already scored hits with Lil Child and DJ Khaled, so he isn’t new to the charts. However this week does mark his introduction to the Billboard 200 as a headliner after his self-titled debut, from 2023, did not crack the chart. He is clearly ascendant, nonetheless Some Days I am Good performs within the weeks to come back.

TOP SONGS

Typically, the Billboard charts are a examine in incrementalism: When confronted with a logjam close to the highest, you search for borderline-imperceptible shifts from week to week that, over time, trace at bigger developments. As a result of, when you do not hunt down these shifts, the charts can resemble… nicely, this week’s Scorching 100, which seems to be an terrible lot like final week’s Scorching 100.

How static is that this week’s prime 10? Nicely, the highest 9 songs reside within the actual positions they occupied final week. Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther (feat. SZA)” holds at No. 1 for a 3rd straight week, adopted by Girl Gaga and Bruno Mars‘ indomitable “Die With a Smile” and two extra Lamar tracks — “Not Like Us” and “TV Off (feat. Lefty Gunplay)” — at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. The primary little bit of chart motion finds Drake’s “Nokia” ticking up a spot to No. 10 and displacing Lamar’s “Squabble Up”; within the year-old beef between the 2 rappers, this could qualify because the tiniest of victories.

However, within the spirit of incremental indicators that time to bigger development, the track holding at No. 8 — Chappell Roan‘s “Pink Pony Membership” — does prime this week’s Digital Tune Gross sales chart, marking the primary time the singer has ever hit No. 1 by way of that exact metric. Gross sales are finicky from week to week, however it does counsel that “Pink Pony Membership” (maybe with an help from no much less a lightweight than Rick Astley) continues to be reaching new audiences a 12 months and a half after the discharge of Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. And, together with her new single “The Giver” dropping Thursday night time, she seems to be more likely to obtain one other chart increase within the close to future.

For many who have not adopted Roan’s slow-then-fast rise to superstardom, “Pink Pony Membership” is much older than the album that comprises it. The singer first launched the monitor by way of a special main label all the best way again in April 2020, solely to get dropped; after she reacquired the rights to the track, she included it on what grew to become her breakthrough album. So the rise of “Pink Pony Membership” to this week’s pinnacle — the top-selling track in America, with about 6,000 digital gross sales — has taken solely 5 years. Don’t fret; not a lot else has occurred in that point.

WORTH NOTING

As talked about above, the one album to debut on this week’s prime 50 belongs to LISA, one in every of 4 members of BLACKPINK. The Okay-pop girl-group juggernaut has been quiet for a short while now — its final album, the chart-topping international phenomenon Born Pink, got here out in 2022 — with a purpose to permit its members a little bit of house to launch solo initiatives. And all 4 have carried out nicely for themselves, with extra information to comply with when JENNIE’s solo album (which got here out final Friday, only one week after LISA’s Alter Ego) inevitably turns up on subsequent week’s charts.

Let’s run down the BLACKPINK solo stats as they at present stand:

• ROSÉ has discovered the widest success within the U.S. thus far, no less than so far as the pop charts are involved. Her debut solo album rosie entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3 in December — and, most notably, spawned the colossal hit “APT.,” her earworm with Bruno Mars. That track holds at No. 6 on this week’s Scorching 100 and has been a mainstay on the chart for months now. (As for rosie, it sits at No. 41 in its thirteenth week on the Billboard 200.)
• LISA simply grew to become the second BLACKPINK member to notch a prime 10 album, as Alter Ego enters this week’s chart at No. 7. Its songs have not but caught on in a significant approach right here — her solely Scorching 100 hit this week, “Born Once more (feat. Doja Cat and RAYE),” re-enters the chart at No. 96, although three of her songs cracked the chart’s decrease areas final 12 months — however she’s made waves within the TV and film worlds in latest weeks. Not solely does she seem on the brand new season of The White Lotus, however she additionally carried out Wings‘ “Stay and Let Die” on the Academy Awards telecast earlier this month. She’ll want a lift from streaming if she needs Alter Ego to have an extended chart life (although it is this week’s prime vendor, its streaming numbers aren’t out of this world), however she’s already carved out a far-reaching pop-cultural presence this 12 months.
• JENNIE is ready to hit subsequent week’s Billboard 200, after Ruby dropped final Friday. Like LISA, JENNIE has labored as an actress; she turned up within the misbegotten HBO collection The Idol a pair years in the past. And, although her chart success as a solo artist within the U.S. has been restricted to date — three songs from Ruby have popped up close to the underside of the Scorching 100 in latest months — she’s had large solo success abroad. Subsequent week will inform the story of how a lot her solo work has taken maintain right here.
• JISOO has been slower to take off within the U.S. than her BLACKPINK cohorts, although her latest digital EP AMORTAGE will get a lift with a bodily launch this Friday. Although she hasn’t but cracked the U.S. pop charts as a solo artist, songs like “Flower” and “Earthquake” have been enormous hits abroad. And, like her counterparts, she’s taken appearing and modeling roles alongside the best way.

Then, after all, there’s BLACKPINK itself, which topped the Billboard 200 with its final album (Born Pink) and is ready to kick off a world tour in July. Between BLACKPINK’s many solo offshoots and the inevitable return of BTS, to say nothing of surefire future chart-toppers from different acts (Stray Youngsters, anybody?), Okay-pop guarantees to be one of many largest tales in music this 12 months.