Sales and streams are not factors in the selection of the Grammy nominations according to Harvey Mason Jr. Recording Academy CEO.
The Grammy Awards are a peer group awards with nominations and winners selection by registered Grammy voters.
You could hear the collective sigh of relief by Jamaicans who found out today that no matter who wins, the 2023 Grammy for Best Reggae album will be coming home to Jamaica.
Earlier this year US based reggae group SOJA sparked controversy when they walked away with the coveted trophy.
Their wining album Beauty In The Silence had debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Albums charts upon its release in 2021 and it also debuted at No. 34 on Billboard’s Current Albums Sales chart. It peaked at No. 52 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.
This year, two time Grammy winner Shaggy was nominated for “Come Fly With Me, Sinatra Songbook”, Protoje picked up his second nomination with Third Time’s The Charm, 2020’s winner Koffee’s Gifted, one time Grammy winner Sean Paul’s Island Records debut Scorcha and first time nominee Kabaka Pyramid’s The Kalling, produced by Damian Marley were among this year’s contenders for music’s most coveted trophy.
With an all Jamaican cast, WMV dives into the chart and sales performance of the albums selected:
Koffee’s – “Gifted” Album is the most commercially successful new project by a reggae act in the US according to data provided to WMV by Billboard sales trackers Luminate.
The album released March 25, has so far clocked 223,000 album equivalent units(with SEA, and with TEA). This includes pure album sales of 1,600 (equalling total on-demand streams (audio + video) of 340 million.)
The Colombia/RCA recording release debuted at number 2 on the Reggae Billboard chart on the week of April 5 with 3500 total units sold in the US in the first week according to Luminate. At the time the album did 700 in total album sales and 3,290,800 streams in one week. Koffee’s “Gifted” also debuted at number 9 on the UK top 100 albums chart.
The album landed at number 5 on the UK physical albums chart and that gave Koffee the distinction of being the first female Jamaican to make the UK albums chart top ten.
Gifted also landed at No. 11 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, which ranks the sales by new and developing musical recording artists each week.
This is Koffee’s most successful project to date and her second entry on the weekly sales and streaming-driven Reggae Albums chart. Her Rapture EP debuted at No. 1 on March 30, 2019.
The second most successful album selected for Best Reggae album at this year’s Grammy Awards is Sean Paul’s “Scorcha”. It is Sean’s Island Records debut.
After charting at No. 24 on the U.K’s midweek chart in the week of its release, Sean Paul Scorcha debuted at No. 6 on the U.S Billboard Reggae Albums chart. The 16 track modern dancehall album did briefly peak at No. 1 and also popped up on the iTunes and Apple Music charts in 48 countries across the world at various positions.
Scorcha had 8 iTunes chart positions: #8 in Indonesia, #16 in Hong Kong, #24 in Mexico, #29 in Canada, #49 in the United States, #54 in France, #54 in Japan, and #94 in Germany.
The album sold 1700 equivalent units from sales and streams in the U.S according to data provided to World Music Views by Luminate. This includes just over 600 copies in album sales and 1,400,000 in on-demand audio and streaming recording since its release on May 27.
To date the album has sold 22,500 album equivalent with SEA, with TEA according to data provided to WMV by Luminate.
Of that figure 1000 copies are pure album sales. The album has 28.1 million total on-demand streams (audio + video) over its lifetime to date.
The third most consumed album is Protoje’s Third Times The Charm. So far the RCA/Indignations release has sold 3200 album equivalent units with sales and streams. It has moved 400 pure album copies in the US equipping 4 million total on-demand streams (audio + video) in its lifetime.
Third Time’s The Charm debuted at No. 8 on Billboard’s Reggae Albums chart in the first week of its release on September 23.
Within a week it sold 710 equivalent units in the US according to data provided to World Music Views from Luminate formerly MRC Data. This includes 270 in pure album sales for the week.
It is Protoje’s third studio album, since his deal with RCA Records and it follows his other Grammy-nominated album A Matter Of Time and In Search Of Lost Time.
Kabaka Pyramid’s “The Kalling”, comes in as the fourth most consumed album among the Grammy nominees this year . Produced by Damian Marley and released on Ghetto Youths International and Pyramid’s Bebble Rock Music, the project sold 620 album equivalent units with sales and streaming in the US during its first week of release.
At the time it sold 280 in pure album sales and 423,700 in total on-demand audio and video streaming in the US, according to Luminate.
Edging on the final eligibility date for this year’s Grammy Award- September 30 , the album has so far sold 2900 album equivalent units with sales and streams as of November 15. This included 400 pure copies and total on-demand streams (audio + video) during its lifetime equalling 3 million.
Rounding out the selections is Shaggy’s ‘Come Fly With Me’; Sinatra SongBook, produced by Sting, released on May 26. The album initially sold 358 copies in the opening week of tie release and did not make the Billboard Reggae Albums top ten chart. There was no streaming data to report according to Luminate, but the album peaked at No. 1 on the reggae iTunes chart and charted at No. 28 in Austria on iTunes.
As of November 15, the album has sold 700 equivalent units according to our Luminate corespondent.
Stay tuned to WMV as your trusted source since 2018 for Grammy, chart data and updates.
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