While the movie might not have made it to No. 1, the soundtrack that accompanies it gives Gaga her fifth chart-topper and Cooper his first.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper walk the red carpet ahead of the ‘A Star Is Born’ screening during the 75th Venice Film Festival (Photo by Matteo Chinellato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
After a week of battling it out with several other high-profile releases from some of the most popular artists in the U. S., Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s soundtrack album that accompanies their film A Star Is Born has been declared the champion, as it debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the U. S.
The record kicks off at the top of the tally with 231,000 equivalent units. Of that sum, 162,000 are actual sales, and all those pure purchases helped it rocket straight to the No. 1 slot. The album is the first No. 1 for Cooper, who has never ventured into music properly before this project. The same can’t be said for Gaga, who has been in this position many times before.
A Star Is Born is Lady Gaga’s fifth No. 1 on the Billboard 200. She has previously reached the peak with her own pop records Born This Way (2011), Artpop (2013) and Joanne (2016), as well as with the album she recorded and released with Tony Bennett, Cheek to Cheek, which ruled for one week back in 2014.
In addition to her five No. 1 albums, Gaga has also sent three other titles into the top 10 on the Billboard 200. Her breakout debut The Fame stalled in the runner-up slot a decade ago, and it remains her only proper studio album to miss the throne. Her simply-titled remix collection The Remix rose to No. 6, and her EP The Fame Monster, which served as an added-on collection that reinvigorated her debut The Fame (in addition to being sold on its own as well) peaked at No. 5 in 2009.
So far, A Star Is Born has spun off one proper single, “Shallow,” which was released before the soundtrack was made available in full. It has risen as high as No. 28, becoming Cooper’s first Top 40 hit and Gaga’s twenty-first.
A Star Is Born was in the running for the No. 1 spot against Twenty One Pilots’ Trench, Lil Baby and Gunna’s Drip Harder and Eric Church’s Desperate Man, and though they missed the pinnacle, they will all debut inside the top 10.
I am a freelance music journalist based in New York City. My byline has appeared in The Huffington Post, Billboard, Mashable, Noisey, The Hollywood Reporter, MTV, Fuse, and dozens of other magazines and blogs around the world. I love following charts and the biggest and most…
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