Gwen Stefani Flops, But Rihanna Is Still On Top

There is a completely different story for two major female superstars this week. Gwen Stefani, who debuted at No. 1 last week with her album This Is What The Truth Feels Like, takes a huge dump from No. 1 to No. 17. Gwen Stefani’s fall to No. 17 after hitting No. 1 is one of the biggest album drops in years.

There have been no exact sales figures from Billboard. However, according to Hits Daily Double, whose numbers closely resemble Billboard‘s, Gwen sold an equivalent of 21,634 albums, including streaming figures. Since Stefani sold over 80,000 album equivalents last week, her drop would be around 75 percent if the Billboard numbers are close. The average drop for an album from the first week of sales is usually 40 to 60 percent. Some artists, such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Mariah Carey have dropped more than 80 percent in their second week of sales recently.

There is good news for Gwen Stefani. Her performance on Saturday Night Live was very well received. Most on Twitter praised Stefani.

Because of Stefani’s SNL performance, This Is What The Truth Feels Like crashed back into the top 10 on iTunes and has remained at No. 10 for most of the day on Tuesday, according to KWORB, which charts iTunes albums in real time. If things work out for Gwen, she’ll be back in the top 10 next week.

Unlike Gwen Stefani, Rihanna isn’t worried about any major drops from the charts. Rihanna tops Billboard‘s Hot 100 for the seventh week in a row with “Work,” her duet with Drake. Billboard celebrated the news this morning.

“As on the Hot 100, ‘Work,’ released on Westbury Road/Roc Nation, spends a seventh week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart with 28.8 million U.S. streams, down 9 percent, in the week ending March 31, according to Nielsen Music. ‘Work’ also tops the subscription services-based On-Demand Songs chart (13.4 million, down 7 percent) for an eighth frame.”

Billboard adds that Rihanna’s “Work” rises from No. 3 to No. 2 on the Radio Songs Chart with an airplay audience of 120 million. However, the song slips from 4-5 on Billboard‘s Digital Songs chart, but still sold an impressive 89,000 downloads — up 4 percent from the previous week. “Work” has spent an incredible 9 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Rihanna is also performing extremely well on the Billboard 200 album chart, where her album ANTI, which was expected to be a huge flop due to all the delays, remains at No. 3 this week after peaking at No. 1 last month. Although ANTI won’t even come close to being one of Rihanna’s best-selling albums, it isn’t even close to being a flop.

As The Inquisitr reported last week, some fans were upset that The Weeknd backed out of her ANTI World Tour. According to Billboard, The Weeknd is more interested in promoting his hit album Beauty Behind The Madness. Still, Drake has been showing up at some of Rihanna’s shows to sing their current No. 1 hit, so Rihanna fans have been more than happy. Let’s hope Rihanna can spend another week at the top on next week’s Hot 100.

[Photos by Paul Hiffmeyer and Christopher Polk/Getty Images]