USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Man's Best Friend' at No.1 on Billboard Top 200
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

Sabrina Carpenter scores her second No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as Man’s Best Friend debuts atop the list dated Sept. 13. It launches with 366,000 equivalent album units

earned in the United States in the week ending Sept. 4, according to Luminate. Of that sum, traditional album sales comprise 224,000. Both figures mark career-high weeks for the singer-songwriter. Man’s Best Friend also collects 2025’s biggest week, by units and by album sales, for an album by a woman. It logs the third-biggest week of the year among all albums, by units and by album sales. Of Man’s Best Friend’s 366,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 224,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 141,000 (equaling 184.11 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 12 songs; it also debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000. In 2025, the three largest weeks for albums, by units, are the opening frames of Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem (493,000), The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow (490,000) and Man’s Best Friend (366,000). In traditional album

sales, the three biggest weeks of 2025 belong to the bows of Hurry Up Tomorrow (359,000), Stray Kids’ Karma (296,000) and Man’s Best Friend (224,000). As Man’s Best Friend’s first-week SEA units total 141,000, that equates to 184.11 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 12 songs in its first week. That’s the largest streaming debut for an album by a woman in 2025, as well as Carpenter’s best streaming week yet. Man’s Best Friend is the lone debut in the top 10 on the latest Billboard 200. Holding at No. 2 is the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, which logs its seventh nonconsecutive week in the runner-up slot (its peak), with 120,000 equivalent album units earned (down 5%). Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping I’m the Problem is a non-mover at No. 3 (105,000, down 10%), Stray Kids’ Karma falls 1-4 in its second week (61,000, down 80%) and Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright, Kid climbs 8-5 (38,000, down 1%). Wallen’s former leader One Thing at a Time jumps 10-6 with 35,000 equivalent album units earned (down 6%), Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet skips 15-7 (34,000, up 17%), Gunna’s The Last Wun rises 9-8 (34,000, down 11%) and SZA’s chart-topping SOS ascends 12-9 (34,000, down 1%). BigXthaPlug’s I Hope You’re Happy falls 7-10 in its second week to close out the top 10 (30,000, down 37%). Couch, couch, couch will have to wait, as Huntr/x works its way to a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Golden,” from the soundtrack to the smash animated Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters. Upon the original ascent to No. 1 for “Golden,” Huntr/x — the singing trio of Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami (in the roles of the film’s characters Rumi, Mira and Zoey) — became the first female group associated with Korean pop to crown the Hot 100. “Golden,” on Visva/Republic Records, tallied 34.5 million official streams (down 2% week-over-week), 22.1 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 13%) and 9,000 sold (up 4%) in the United States Aug. 29-Sept. 4. The track secures a seventh week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart; rises 29-24 on Radio Songs — as it hits the top 10, lifting two spots to No. 10, on the Pop Airplay chart; and adds a second week at No. 1 on Digital Song Sales. Sabrina Carpenter scores two songs in the Hot 100’s top five: “Tears” debuts at No. 3 and former chart-topper “Manchild,” which led in its debut week in June, surges 7-4. Both cuts are from her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which arrives atop the Billboard 200. “Tears” starts with 26.3 million streams (good for a No. 2 premiere on Streaming Songs), 11.9 million in airplay audience and 2,000 sold. Carpenter collects her fifth Hot 100 top 10, all since April of last year. “Manchild” drew 19.5 million streams (up 86%) and 49.3 million in radio reach (up 2%) and sold 2,000 (up 129%). It charges 25-5 on Streaming Songs, which it led for one week, and climbs 5-3 for a new high on Radio Songs. Elsewhere in the Hot 100’s top 10, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” holds at No. 2, after 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in June. It tallies a 12th week at No. 1 on Radio Songs (73 million, down 1%). Below Carpenter and Saja Boys’ two Hot 100 top 10s apiece, Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want,” featuring Tate McRae, slides 3-7, after it debuted in May as Wallen’s fourth No. 1 and McRae’s first. Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” falls 6-8 on the Hot 100, after reaching No. 5. Below Huntr/x’s “How It’s Done,” which remains at No. 9, Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” which led the Hot 100 for a week in March 2024, and went on to become the year’s No. 1 song, drops 8-10. It logs a record-extending 107th week on the chart overall and a record-furthering 77th week in the top 10.

Record Of The Month
'Back To Friends' became the breakout hit of the 20-year-old American singer / songwriter
Shane Michael Boose, known professionally as Sombr. The song entered many charts
around the world after going viral on the video-sharing app Tik Tok.

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
Olivia Dean holds still the runner-up slot
Monday, September 8, 2025
by Alan Jones, London
 
Initially looking vulnerable to Sabrina Carpenter’s attempt to secure her fifth No.1 with a track from her new album, Man’s Best Friend, Golden eventually emerged victorious, claiming the No.1 slot for the fourth week in a row and fifth time in total for Huntr/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & K-pop Demon

Hunters Cast. And it did so in style, further increasing its consumption by 5.90% week-on-week to 69,326 units (2,422 digital downloads and 66,904 sales-equivalent streams) – the highest of its 10-week chart career, and the highest for any track for 20 weeks. Carpenter did manage to impact the two other songs from the Netflix movie soundtrack – Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & K-pop Demon Hunters Cast’s Soda Pop and Your Idol, which dip 4-5 (38,010 sales) and 6-8 (32,790 sales) respectively, despite both increasing their consumption for the 10th week in a row. Eleven new songs from Carpenter’s album and its recent No.1 offcut, Manchild, had to fight it out for the three chart berths available to them under primary artist rules. Although it was unable to maintain the No.1 position it held in the first couple of the week’s sales flashes, Tears outperformed everything else from the album, opening at No.3 (55,488

sales), while Manchild surges 26-4 (42,185 units) after a reset from ACR, ahead of My Man On Willpower (No.7, 34,073 sales). Tears’ sales are the highest for a No.3 so far in 2025. When Did You Get Hot? (32,982 sales), House Tour (30,963 sales) and Sugar Talking (30,951 sales) are the top three of nine ‘starred-out’ tracks from the album between No.7 and No.15. Altogether, consumption of Sabrina Carpenter tracks increased by 492,033 units in the latest frame to a career total of 15,825,640 units. Carpenter has now had 13 Top 75 entries, eight of which have made the Top 10. Olivia Dean has another great week although some of her hits are buffeted by Sabrina Carpenter. Man I Need isn’t one of them – it increases consumption 36.09% to 59,152 units, as it holds at No.2 – but Nice To Each Other (7-9, 30,876 sales) falls from its peak, despite increasing its consumption by 4.44% to a new personal best, and Sam Fender collaboration, Rein Me In, dips out of the Top 10 (10-11, 25,205 sales). Further down the chart, Dive reaches a new peak (31-22, 14,063 sales), while The Hardest Part (13,481 sales) and Lady Lady (9,736 units) have their best weeks yet in terms of consumption but miss out under primary artist rules. Back at the top end of the chart, the Top 10 is completed by No Broke Boys (3-6, 35,788 sales) by Disco Lines & Tinashe and The Subway (5-10, 27,728 sales) by Chappell Roan, while erstwhile No.1s Daisies (9-13, 24,772 sales) by Justin Bieber and Dior (8-14, 24,733 sales) by MK feat. Chrystal settle on lower ground. Overall singles consumption is up 0.65% week-on-week to 29,683,357 units, 2.99% above same week 2024 consumption of 28,822,125 units. Paid-for sales are up 0.97% week-on-week at 283,602, 9.72% below same week 2024 sales of 314,146. Summer is almost over but the dog days continue for Sabrina Carpenter, whose seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend has the competition licked as it sprints to a No.1 debut on first week consumption of 85,305 units (12,911 CDs, 27,178 vinyl albums, 7,214 cassettes, 825 digital downloads and 37,177 sales-equivalent streams), while spinning off two new Top 10 singles. Falling 4.86% short of the 89,658 opening frame achieved by its immediate predecessor, Short N’ Sweet a year ago last week, it nevertheless outsells the No.2 by a margin of greater than five to one, and the rest of the Top 10 combined, scoring the second highest weekly consumption of 2025, behind only the 107,124 start made by Sam Fender’s People Watching 27 weeks ago. Its release helps Short N’ Sweet – which has topped the chart on five separate occasions since its release – to return to the Top 10 after a three-week absence, with consumption growing 3.92% week-on-week to 7,262 units as it bounces 13-8. Meanwhile, Carpenter’s fifth album, Emails I Can’t Send - which belatedly made its chart debut the same day that Short N’ Sweet did, and achieved its previous peak of No.40 25 weeks ago – catapults into the Top 30 for the first time, rocketing 134-21 (4,119 sales), following the release of a deluxe expanded vinyl edition, which accounted for 2,326 of those sales. Short N’ Sweet sold as many copies in its first year on release as the next two biggest albums (Time Flies 1994-2009 by Oasis and +-=÷× Tour Collection by Ed Sheeran) combined in the same time frame, and now raises its to-date tally to 797,931 units, while Emails I Can’t Send raises its cume to 227,030. Dublin singer/songwriter CMAT – 29-year-old Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – continues to make great strides, with her third studio album, Euro-Country, debuting at No.2 (16,266 sales). Her 2022 debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (sic) fell short of the Top 200, but follow-up Crazymad For Me debuted and peaking at No.25 in 2023. All three have reached No.1 in her native Ireland, with Euro-Country notably preventing Sabrina Carpenter from topping the chart there this week. A track from Euro-Country – Take A Sexy Picture Of Me – earned CMAT her UK singles chart debut in June, peaked at No.42 in July, and now becomes her first song to achieve six-figure consumption, ending the week on 102,385 units. Bryan Adams is the sole composer of every track on his 16th studio album, Roll With The Punches. Debuting at No.3 (10,613 sales), it is the first ever album by the 65-year-old UK-based Canadian on which he had no writing assistance, provides his 12th Top 10 and 21st Top 75 entry and extends his album chart career to more than 40 years. In the Top 10 for the fourth time, the Top 40 for the fifth time and the Top 75 for the sixth time thanks to their seventh studio album The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives, which debuts at No.5 (7,871 sales), Swedish punk garage band The Hives comprise five musicians in their late forties, four of whom have been together since its formation in 1993. The rest of the Top 10: Time Flies – 1994-2009 (4-4, 8,660 sales) by Oasis, You’ll Be Alright, Kid (5-6, 7,611 sales) by Alex Warren, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (6-7, 7,542 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, +-=÷× Tour Collection (12-9, 7,032 sales) by Ed Sheeran; and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory (11-10, 6,391 sales) by Oasis. Overall album sales are up 1.71% week-on-week to 2,477,251 units, an 11-week high and 2.80% above same week 2024 sales of 2,409,677. Physical product accounts for 320,488 sales, 12.94% of the total.