Justin is on the cover of the November issue of Billboard magazine. The feature story will be on Billboard.com this Friday where they’ll discuss this new music, growth of an artist and a philanthropist.
Until this week, only four acts had ruled the still-young Social 50 chart: Rihanna, the Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. But now, we have a new No. 1 artist: Selena Gomez.
And, in an ironic twist, Gomez takes the crown by bumping her boyfriend, Justin Bieber, out of the top slot, and sends him to No. 2.
Gomez skips 5 to 1 this week thanks to online buzz generated by the release of her third album, “When the Sun Goes Down,” on June 28.
The Social 50 ranks the most active artists on the world’s leading social networking sites — YouTube, Vevo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and iLike — using a formula blending weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays.
What did it take for Gomez to dethrone the Biebs?
First, all of the promotion leading up to her album’s release, along with the success of its single “Love You Like a Love Song” helped. The latter has already garnered 10 million views on Vevo. In addition, the July 1 premiere of her romantic comedy “Monte Carlo” didn’t hurt either.
There’s also a candid YouTube video — uploaded on June 28 — where Gomez met her longtime crush, “Transformers” star Shia LaBeouf. It has since earned 6.1 million views, respectively (a 146% week-to-week increase). That same day, she also performed another of the new album’s hit singles, “Who Says,” on “Regis and Kelly.” (Also that same day, her “Track-by-Track” video interview with Billboard.com debuted.)
These events, among a dozen others, helped Gomez garner 27,000 new YouTube subscribers; 209,000 Facebook fans and 110,000 Twitter followers.
JB’s newest CD reached the top of the Billboard 100 albums this morning making “Never Say Never: The Remixes” his second official #1 album.
Bieber’s “Never Say Never: The Remixes” sold 161,000 copies during the week ended Feb. 20, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the first time a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 has sold more than 160,000 units since Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” sold 276,000 copies during the week ended Dec. 26.
Bieber debuted at No. 1 last April when his first full-length release “My World 2.0” sold 283,000 copies. More stunning: All four of Bieber’s albums are in the top 40 this week, the first time an artist has managed the feat since Garth Brooks in 1993. “My Worlds 2.0” is No. 8, “My Worlds Acoustic” is No. 18, and “My World” is No. 31.
In addition to the continued success of Bieber’s film of the same name, with sales to date of $48 million after two weekends of release across North America, the teen phenom’s big week was no doubt also fueled by the Feb. 13 Grammy Awards, where he performed on the show (but lost both his races).
CALGARY HERALD
