Enigma Earns First No. 1 in 13 Years on Top Dance/Electronic Albums
11/23/2016 by Gordon Murray
It's a return to the top for the ambient act. Plus, chart action for Anne-Marie, Ariana Grande & NERVO.
Enigma enters Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Dec. 3) at No. 1 with The Fall of a Rebel Angel, which starts with 5,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen Music. It's the second career No. 1 and first in 13 years for Michael Cretu's Enigma project, since Voyageur vaulted to the top on Oct. 18, 2003.
Additionally, as Enigma often straddles the line between ambient electronic and new age music, Rebel starts at No. 1 on New Age Albums, where it's also the act's second leader.
As Enigma's formative success predates the July 2001 inception of Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Rebel is its ninth album to hit the Billboard 200 (No. 122), dating to its first, 1991's MCMXC A.D. That set, driven by unlikely crossover smash "Sadeness Part 1," hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200, the act's first of two top 10s. "Sadeness" also became the first of Enigma's two top five Billboard Hot 100 hits, reaching No. 5 in April 1991. In May 1994, Enigma marched to No. 4 on the Hot 100 with "Return to Innocence," from its album A Cross of Changes.
On Dance Club Songs, "Sadeness" remains Enigma's sole No. 1, leading for three weeks in 1991. The act achieved a second top 10 with "Mea Culpa Pt. II" (No. 7), also from MCMXC A.D. Enigma reprises "Sadeness" via "Sadeness, Pt. II," featuring Anggun, on Rebel. The official music video has collected more than half a million global YouTube plays since its Oct. 10 release. (Anggun fans might remember her ethereal "Snow on the Sahara," a No. 16 Dance Club Songs and No. 22 Adult Pop Songs hit in 1998.)
'ALARM' SOUNDS: Anne-Marie ascends to her first Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 with "Alarm" (11-7). Remixes from Marshmello, Cahill and Oliver Nelson, among others, have helped propel the pop track at core dance radio outlets and Top 40 mix shows. The British singer also soars 17-11 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs as a part of Clean Bandit's "Rockabye," on which she is featured along with Sean Paul. The chart's top Streaming Gainer, "Rockabye" racked 3 million U.S. streams, up 57 percent, in the tracking week.
TOP 10 HASN'T BEEN A PROBLEM: Ariana Grande scores her seventh top 10 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, while featured artist Nicki Minaj tallies her ninth, with "Side to Side" (15-10). Since Grande moved 11-7 on June 28, 2014, with her first chart hit, the Iggy Azalea-assisted "Problem" (which would peak at No. 2), Grande boasts the most top 10s; Justin Bieber and Calvin Harris follow with six each in that span.
NERVO NO. 1: NERVO (aka, Australian sisters Miriam and Olivia Nervo) notches its third No. 1 on Dance Club Songs with "People Grinnin'," featuring The Child of Lov, who earns his first (2-1). "People" samples its vocals from The Child of Lov (late Belgian artist Martijn William Zimri Teerlinck) and was helped to the top by a plethora of remixes, including from Regilio, Erick Morillo and Audiorockers.