The Winner Takes It All: Cher scores biggest sales week of 2018 for a pop album by a woman

m_cherdancingqueen_080918-3

Warner Bros. Records

Mamma Mia! Cher‘s new album of ABBA covers, Dancing Queen, has debuted at #3 on the Billboard album chart, tying the record for her highest-charting solo album ever. What’s more, it also scored the biggest sales week of the year for any pop album by a woman.

According to Nielsen Music, Dancing Queen sold 153,000 units to secure the #3 debut, of which 150,000 were actual album sales. That makes it the best-selling album of the week. The #1 album, by rapper Lil Wayne, sold more units, but most of those came from adding up millions of streams of individual songs.

In addition, the 150,000 albums that Dancing Queen sold makes it Cher’s biggest sales week of the Nielsen Music era, which started in 1991.

Dancing Queen‘s #3 debut matches the position of Cher’s previous album, 2013’s Closer to the Truth.

On top of that, no pop album by a woman has sold more in a week in 2018 than Dancing Queen. Taylor Swifts Reputation was the last pop release by a female artist to sell more, and that was back in December of 2017.

The only pop album by any artist that sold more than Dancing Queen in 2018 was Justin Timberlake‘s Man of the Woods, which moved 242,000 units its first week of release back in February.

Billboard notes that one reason Cher’s album had such great sales is because it was part of a promotion that included a ticket to her upcoming U.S. tour. The Here We Go Again tour launches in North America on January 17, 2019, in Estero, Florida.

Another veteran artist, the late Tom Petty, also landed in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week. His new rarities compilation, An American Treasure, debuted at #9 after moving 34,000 units.

Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.