Adele and Houston Lead Post-Grammy Sales Boom

If you had put money down on who would fare well following the Grammy Awards, the smart bet would have been on multi-category winner Adele. And sure enough, the British songbird came out on top, according to sales data from Nielsen SoundScan.

Adele’s 21, which has been at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 sales chart for 21 consecutive weeks now, continues to dominate. Following the singer’s big night at the Grammys, 21 moved 730k units—the album’s largest sales week since its release and the highest post-Grammy album sales increase in SoundScan history. The previous title-holder was Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me, which swept the Awards in 2003 and sold 621k the week following. RTD grand total for 21 is now up to 7.4 million. Additionally, Adele’s debut album 19 had its largest-ever sales week with 87k sold.

Whitney Houston’s untimely passing created a renewed interest in her work, with sales of her self-titled first album up 113% and the Bodyguard soundtrack up 123%. Houston’s Greatest Hits package was up 174%, selling 175k combined physical/digital.

Among country artists, Grammy winners Lady Antebellum returned to No. 1 by moving over 37k copies (physical and digital) of Own The Night. Despite their very brief performance intro for Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars also sold admirably, bringing in 36k units sold for an increase of 178%.

Swift had a great week as well. The Big Machine star got to play her hit “Mean” on the Grammy stage and the song experienced a 183% sales jump to 63k units. Sales of Swift’s Speak Now were up 60%. Band Perry and Blake Shelton were also rewarded for their show appearances; TPB’s self-titled debut experienced a sales upswing of 22% and Shelton’s Red River Blue was saw a 21% increase.

Other artists got the Grammy bump as well. Bruno Mars’s Doo-Wops and Hooligans got a 133% increase to sell 38k units. Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto moved 35k for a 26% increase, and two performances plus a win helped the Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light sell 23k copies for a 134% surge.