Grammy Awards Drive More Than 200 Percent Sales Gain for Adele, Beyonce & More

**chinski** · 02-14-2017

Grammy Awards Drive More Than 200 Percent Sales Gain for Adele, Beyonce & More

The 2017 Grammy Awards generated instant sales gains for the songs performed on CBS’ Feb. 12 broadcast, according to Nielsen Music. The tunes performed on the show scored a 207 percent gain in download sales in the United States on the day of the show, according to initial sales reports by Nielsen. Combined, the tunes performed on the awards (as well as the original versions of songs treated to cover renditions) sold more than 178,000 downloads on Feb. 12 (up from 58,000 the previous day).

This year’s Grammy Awards racked up 26.05 million TV viewers according to Nielsen -- up 4 percent compared to last year’s shindig (24.93 million).
"This immediate and impressive reaction proves the unparalleled power of the Grammy Awards to reach a wide audience and engage fans," says David Bakula, Senior VP of Global Product Leadership and Industry Insights for Nielsen Music.

Adele’s “Hello,” which opened this year’s show, scored a 255 percent sales bump (rising to 6,000 sold on Sunday, vs. a little less than 2,000 on Saturday), while George Michael’s “Fastlove” -- which was performed in tribute to Michael, by Adele -- was up 5,367 percent to 2,000 downloads (up from a negligible figure on Saturday). “Fastlove” was Michael’s final hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 8 in 1996. He died on Dec. 25, 2016.

“Hello” won the Grammy Awards for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance. “Hello” spent 10 weeks atop the Hot 100, and was the lead single from her blockbuster 25 album, which took home the Grammy Awards for album of the year and best pop vocal album.

Beyoncé, meanwhile, treated the Grammy Awards to a performance of two songs from her Grammy Award-winning Lemonade album: “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles.” The songs tallied sales increases of 1,217 percent and 958 percent, respectively (rising to about 2,000 downloads sold, each, on Sunday).

Lemonade won the award for best urban contemporary album. Beyoncé won an additional Grammy for best music video for “Formation.”

Overall, the songs on the Lemonade album sold 21,000 downloads on Sunday (up from 11,000 on Saturday), while the album itself sold 4,000 copies on Sunday (up from 1,000 on Saturday). Meanwhile, Adele’s 25 saw its tracks sell a total of 19,000 on Sunday (vs. 9,000 on Saturday), and the album on its own sold 4,000 (vs. 2,000 on Saturday).

Other big performance gainers on Sunday include Katy Perry’s new single “Chained to the Rhythm,” featuring Skip Marley, which rose 128 percent to 24,000 sold (up from 10,000 a day earlier). The song was released on Feb. 10, and Perry gave the song’s premiere performance on the Grammy stage.

Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” (which was also performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live on Feb. 11), zoomed by 87 percent to 46,000 downloads, while Bruno Mars’ current single “That’s What I Like” claimed a 354 percent rise to 23,000 downloads. The Weeknd’s “I Feel It Coming,” featuring Daft Punk, drew a 154 percent gain to 15,000 downloads, and Keith Urban’s “The Fighter,” featuring Carrie Underwood, jumped 896 percent to 12,000 sold. Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” and Kelsea Ballerini’s “Peter Pan,” which were performed together in a medley, rose by 793 percent (to 12,000) and 266 percent (to 4,000), respectively. Maren Morris’ “Once,” which was sung with Alicia Keys on stage, nabbed a big 7,430 percent sales gain (to 6,000 sold).

The four songs celebrated in a Bee Gees tribute on the show notched a 388 percent sales gain on Sunday. Collectively, “Stayin’ Alive,” “Tragedy,” “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Night Fever” sold 6,000 downloads -- up from a little more than 1,000 on Saturday.

Sturgill Simpson landed a big increase for his performed track “All Around You,” from his Grammy Award winning A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. The tune sold a little more than 2,000 downloads on the day of the Awards -- a gain of 9,772% compared to the previous day, when it sold essentially nothing.

Also rising: “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which was performed on stage by its songwriter William Bell, alongside Gary Clark, Jr. The combined sales of the original version of the track, performed by Albert King, and Bell’s 2016 cover version, were up by 4,430 percent to about 2,000 downloads sold.

Source: Billboard