H.E.R. scores the third No. 1 of her career on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart as Back of My Mind starts in the top slot. The project, promoted as the singer-songwriter’s first full-length studio album, begins with 36,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 24, according to MRC Data.
The 36,000-unit start represents H.E.R.’s best weekly performance. Of the album’s first-week total, just over 29,500 units derive from streaming-album equivalents (representing 43.56 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks), 5,500 are from traditional album sales and the remaining 1,000 arrives via track-equivalent units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Mind follows H.E.R.’s I Used to Know HER: The Prelude EP and a self-titled set to the Top R&B Albums summit. The former debuted in the top spot in August 2018 and held for one week, while the latter arrived at No. 14 in 2017 but topped the chart in February 2019 after its Grammy win for best R&B album that month.
Beyond its R&B coronation, Back of My Mind debuts at No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and at No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard 200. On the latter list, the album marks H.E.R.’s first top 10 visit.
As Mind arrives, six of the album’s tracks debut on the Hot R&B Songs chart, which blends U.S radio airplay, song sales and streaming data into its ranking. Here are the new recruits:
No. 9, “Paradise,” featuring Yung Bleu
No. 14, “Back of My Mind,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign
No. 15, “Find a Way,” featuring Lil Baby
No. 17, “My Own”
No. 21, “Closer to Me”
No. 23, “Trauma,” featuring Cordae & Hit-Boy
In addition, H.E.R. nabs a seventh and eighth concurrent placement on Hot R&B Songs with “Come Through,” featuring Chris Brown and “We Made It.” The former repeats at its current No. 6 peak for a fourth consecutive week, while the latter, a promo single released in advance of the album, rises 14-13 in its second charting week. Similarly, three earlier released Mind singles also have history on Hot R&B Songs: The 2020 releases “Slide,” featuring YG and “Damage” both peaked at No. 5 last year in March and November, respectively.
Activity surrounding the Mind album spurs H.E.R. 84-32 on the Billboard Artist 100, which ranks artist popularity through four music consumption metrics — album sales, track sales, radio airplay, streaming — and social media fan interaction. The surge gives the singer-songwriter her best showing the chart in over two years, since she climbed to her No. 26 career peak in February 2019.
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