It’s official: Barbie is slaying at the box office, and she’s also smashing the music charts.
Barbie: The Album (via Atlantic) leads the U.K.’s compilations chart and three tracks from it climb into the national singles chart top 5 — Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” (up 10-3 on a 71% week-on-week gain in chart sales, via Interscope), Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night” (up 15-4 on a 86% lift in chart sales, via Warner Records) and Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua‘s “Barbie World” (up 20-5 with a 115% boost in chart sales, via Atlantic/Capitol/Republic).
Until now, no film soundtrack has simultaneously landed three top 5 singles in the U.K.
The first film soundtrack to bag three simultaneous U.K. top 10s was 1978’s Saturday Night Fever (“Night Fever,” “If I Can’t Have You,” “More Than A Woman”), and the Grease soundtrack from the same year launched three top 10 hits (“Summer Nights,” “Grease,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You”).
Disney’s Encanto from 2022 became the first animated film soundtrack to claim three simultaneous top 10s (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” “Surface Pressure” and “The Family Madrigal”).
It’s a good week for Aqua, with not one but two top 40 appearances. Powered by the popular Margot Robbie-starring film, “Barbie World,” which interpolates Aqua’s one-time U.K. No. 1 “Barbie Girl,” gives the Norwegian pop outfit their first U.K. top 5 spot in 25 years, since 1998’s “Turn Back Time,” the Official Charts Company reports. It’s Aqua’s sixth U.K. top 10 appearance, Minaj’s 15th and Ice Spice’s first.
“Barbie Girl,” meanwhile, reenters the top 40 for the first time in 25 years, at No. 40, with a 91% week-on-week uplift in combined sales, according to the OCC. The kitsch classic from 1997 is a member of the U.K.’s million-seller club, coming in at No. 16 on the all-time list.
Barbie playtime doesn’t end there; a total of six entries from the soundtrack appear in the U.K. top 40, published Friday, July 28, including cuts by Charli XCX, “Ken” actor Ryan Gosling, and Lizzo.
Barbie: The Album is the current No. 1 in Australia, where it becomes the first soundtrack since Encanto to lead the ARIA Chart.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie movie has raked in $774.5 million at the global box office in just 12 days.
At the top of the singles chart mountain in the U.K. is Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” (Live Yours/Neighbourhood), which wins the chart race for an eighth consecutive week, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” (Geffen), which holds at No. 2.
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