Madonna topped the Billboard 200 chart for the tenth time in her career – her new studio album Confessions II took first place in the ranking. The “Queen of Pop” became the first artist to have albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in four different decades, including the 2020s.
Confessions II was announced on April 15th and released on July 3rd. This is Madonna's first studio album since Madame X, which also debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2019. The release of the record was preceded by the single Bring Your Love, recorded together with Sabrina Carpenter and hitting the Billboard Hot 100. Before the official release, the singer also presented the song I Feel So Free, as RTVI previously reported.
The new record is a continuation of the album Confessions on a Dance Floor. For Confessions II, Madonna re-teamed with Stuart Price, the DJ, composer and producer who was her main collaborator on the original album.
In its first week of release, Confessions II scored 134,00 so-called equivalent album units in the United States. When calculating this indicator, both full-length album sales and purchases of individual tracks and listening on streaming platforms are taken into account.
Of the total, 114,000 units came directly from album sales—59,000 units sold were vinyl records. Another 19,000 came from streaming, which equates to approximately 20 million official on-demand streams. This is the best streaming week of Madonna's entire career, Billboard notes.
Confessions II became the most successful dance album of the current year based on the results of the first week after release. For Madonna herself, this is the highest figure since December 2014, when the Billboard 200 switched to a system for counting equivalent album units. The release provided the singer with the best album sales on physical and digital media in more than 10 years.
Strong first-week sales were fueled by a variety of physical and digital releases: the album is available in 15 LP versions, four CD versions, one cassette version and six digital download options, Billboard emphasizes.
