Songs Performed at 2016 Billboard Music Awards See 35% Sales Bump

Songs performed on the 2016 Billboard Music Awards collectively earned a 35 percent sales increase in the week ending May 26, according to Nielsen Music. The show was broadcast May 22, live on ABC.

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The songs performed on the show -- not including newly released tracks or those impacted by iTunes’ "complete my album" interactions -- sold a total of 499,000 downloads for the week in the U.S. (up from 369,000 in the week ending May 19).

Notably, the 35 percent gain would rise to 45 percent if we included the sales impact from Adele’s music video for “Send My Love (To Your New Lover),” which debuted during the broadcast. (The song sold 12,000 in the week ending May 19 and then 55,000 in the week ending May 26 -- an increase of 343 percent.)

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Sizable increases were collected by such songs as Nick Jonas’ “Close” featuring Tove Lo (76,000 sold for the week; up 77 percent), DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean” (48,000; up 41 percent), Troye Sivan’s “Youth” (14,000; up 54 percent), Fifth Harmony’s “Work From Home” featuring Ty Dolla $ign (73,000; up 26 percent), P!nk’s “Just Like Fire” (86,000; up 45 percent) and Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain” (30,000; up 743 percent).

Note: On the show, Kesha performed a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” and Madonna performed two songs written by Prince: “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “Purple Rain” (the latter with Stevie Wonder). As neither Kesha or Madonna had previously released their own versions of their respective performed songs, for this sales analysis, we researched: Dylan’s recording of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” Sinead O’Connor’s version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” and Prince’s recording of “Purple Rain.”