Ariana Grande does it again. The “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” singer’s latest album, Eternal Sunshine, is a certified hit, according to the music charts. Today (March 17), Billboard released its metric for the week ending on March 14.
Grande’s Eternal Sunshine is the no. 1 album, setting a new milestone for the singer. Six of her seven full-length studio albums have secured the coveted slot (2013’s Your Truly, 2014’s My Everything, 2018’s Sweetener, 2019’s Thank U, Next, and 2020’s Positions). But the record-setting doesn’t stop there.
Based on Luminate’s findings, Eternal Sunshine had the largest first-week sales of the year (dethroning Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign’s Vultures 1), with 227,000 equivalent album units earned in the US. The other metrics include track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Eternal Sunshine‘s SEA units comprise 148,000 (equaling 194.92 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs). The album sales for Eternal Sunshine is listed at 77,000 units. Lastly, the TEA units for Eternal Sunshine came in at 2,000.
Upon its release, users online began to speculate about the project’s true meaning. Many assumed it was Grande’s response to her rumored relationship with Ethan Slater. However, on March 9, Grande slammed the theory with a message in her Instagram stories.
“I just wanted to say, anyone that is sending a hateful message to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album,” she wrote. “It is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage. [This] is also entirely misinterpreting the intention behind the music,” she wrote. “I ask that you please do not. It is not how to support me. It is the opposite.”
