Did Donald Trump make a dubious claim when he tweeted that Jackie Evancho’s albums had ‘skyrocketed’ because she was billed to perform at his inauguration?
According to the Huffington Post , the 70-year-old president-elect is disturbed about the absence of heavy-hitters that should have jumped at the chance to perform at his presidential inauguration. This explains why he has gone out on a limb to invite teenage performer , Jackie Evancho. The 16-year-old is an American classical crossover singer who came second on America’s Got Talent in 2010.
Jackie Evancho’s album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance.Some people just don’t understand the “Movement”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Despite having five albums to her credit, the teenage opera singer was still relatively unknown when Mr. Trump announced that she was going to performing during his swearing-in. This was evidenced by the surge in Google searches of people wanting to know who she was after the December 14 announcement.
On Wednesday, the future Commander-in-Chief announced that Evancho’s album sales had hit the roof after he announced Jackie was going to be performing at his inauguration. It is really a no-brainer for a Christmas album to spike in sales during the Holidays. But trust the president-elect to take the credit from Holiday season and to try to pinch the limelight from a brave teenager who agreed to perform at an inauguration everyone else is bent on avoiding.
It is not news that Donald Trump likes taking credit for everything in sight. He is yet to step into the Oval Office, but he has already taken credit for saving jobs , rescuing the economy and s topping factories from leaving the country. So when he names himself as the sole benefactor of a young musician’s career, we know better than to take his word for it.
Donald Trump makes dubious claim about inauguration singer Jackie Evancho https://t.co/Eh6RAubs3Q pic.twitter.com/zW47CQlj89
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) January 5, 2017
In order to dispute Trump’s contentious tweet, we only have to look at the numbers. Evancho’s Someday At Christmas album did rise to the top of the charts after the Manhattan billionaire announced that she would sing the Star-Spangled Banner in Washington. But was it a coincidence?
According to Billboard , the 16-year-old’s album was released October 28 and pushed 6,000 units by the end of December 15. She received a bump the following chart week and did 11,000 in sales by December 22. Despite the 94% jump in sales, the teenager only sold an additional 5,000 copies.
These are hardly “skyrocketing” statistics. Moreover, when the numbers you are pushing are small; it does not take much effort to notch a big percent increase. In the same week, the Pentatonix holiday album sold 139,000 copies and moved 185,000 units the preceding week. The percentage of the five-member acapella group from Texas may be lower, but their numbers are definitely higher.
Fact-checking Donald Trump’s claim about Jackie Evancho’s album sales #BillboardNews pic.twitter.com/HMGWNbf8bC
— billboard (@billboard) January 5, 2017
The 70-year-old president-elect forgot to mention that Someday At Christmas sales dropped to 8,000 the following week. He also forgot to mention that Jackie’s album made it No.93 on the Billboard 200 and at the time of this report has slipped to No. 134. Trump’s star power did nothing for the teenager’s previous albums as none of them returned to the Billboard 200 when she agreed to sing January 20.
The movement that Mr. Trump is championing for the boost in record sales smacks of no political undercurrent whatsoever. The 16-year-old teen had performed on NBC’s America Got Talent , the Holiday edition, which aired on December 19 and December 29. It is more than likely that helped her sell more albums around the Christmas season, rather than Trump supporters rallying around her in defiance of the absence of superstars at the esteemed event.
Bill O’Reilly: Stars who won’t perform at Trump’s inauguration are ‘un-American’ https://t.co/osq4LihUKI pic.twitter.com/ufpzNE37Pu
— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) January 4, 2017
Evancho, a talented classical singer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bagged the runner-up spot on America’s Got Talent Season 5 when she was just 10 years old. Since then, she has released five studio albums which all made it into Billboard’s Top 200 . Three of those albums made it into the top 10. Jackie Evancho is only one of three musical acts confirmed for Trump’s inauguration. The other two groups are the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the New York-based Rockettes are already courting controversies from within with members resigning or not keen on participating .
[Featured Image by Drew Gurian/AP Images]
