Drake Keeps ‘Queerbaiting’ Nick Jonas From Topping The ‘Billboard’ Album Chart

Drake holds on to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart this week with Views. Billboard has the news.

“As Drake’s Views stays put at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — for a seventh week — Nick Jonas’ Last Year Was Complicated arrives at No. 2 and the Hamilton cast album hits the top 10 for the first time, rising 13-3. Views earned 121,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 16, according to Nielsen Music (down 10 percent for the week).”

Billboard adds that Nick Jonas’ Last Year Was Complicated marks his highest charting solo album. Previously, Who I Am debuted at No. 3. Jonas’ new album debuts with 66,000 album equivalent sales earned, with 47,00 of those in traditional album sales. This isn’t bad, but a lot of people expected higher first week sales from Jonas.

Meanwhile, Jonas suffered a backlash among some in the LGBT community last week after he was chosen to be the main speaker at the historic Stonewall Inn to commemorate those lives lost in the Orlando shootings. Huffington Post columnist JamesMichael Nichols fired the first shots.

“But the most sour taste I can’t seem to wash out of my mouth is the introduction of straight pop star Nick Jonas as one of the evening’s speakers (he was only one of a few straight speakers). For months now, Jonas has engaged in what is colloquially referred to as ‘queerbaiting’ — marketing himself, and his sex appeal, to gay men during the lead up to the release of his new album which came out last Friday.”

Nichols adds that Jonas and his PR team have tried a little too hard marketing Jonas to gay men. He has repeatedly appeared at gay nightclubs and has insinuated that he has engaged in gay sex. Some of the commenters after the article were very angry with the author’s point of view.

“This is f****d up. He is an ally. He’s not going to sell one more fucking record for doing this, he’s just giving some of the spotlight he has to a worthy cause that legitimately means something to him. The term ‘queerbaiting’ is really stupid anyway,” wrote Matthew Rettenmund, who is also the author of the popular gay blog Boy Culture.

“That was a ridiculous article. We are one nation – We want total acceptance, but we don’t accept love and support from Nick cause he’s straight and you accuse him of Gay baiting? Please grow up, expand your mind and your acceptance,” said Sara Depies.

However, there were some who supported Nichols’ reasoning.

“No no. I was there. It started out with Cuomo and then Nick Jonas. To a crowd of mostly LGBT people in front of the stonewall inn where the modern gay liberation movement started. This wasn’t a time for straight people to tell us how much their hurting too,” claimed Kevin Murphy.

The attacks against Nick Jonas were pretty severe on Twitter.

Nick Jonas — whose new album happens to be out this week — got to speak at the Stonewall Inn vigil tonight. How embarrassing. How telling.

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) June 14, 2016

Some in the gay community have welcomed Nick Jonas, especially because he comes from a strong religious background and his father was a pastor. He goes against the stereotype that very religious Christians don’t want to be associated with gay people. Do you think people are being too harsh on Jonas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

[Photo by Ernesto Distefano/Getty Images]