Lady Gaga's halftime show at Super Bowl LI on February 5 was a career milestone for the pop star, one that had
her leaping from the roof of Houston's NRG Stadium
into a set of new and old hits that played on every one of her strengths as a
performer. Then on February 12 she joined Metallica onstage at the Grammys for a few ear-blistering moments that brought out her metal best.
She had a huge week — huge
— but we didn't know how huge it was until a surge in Gaga sales showed that,
yup, even though Joanne dropped a few months ago, these performances
reminded fans that they have a million reasons to buy or stream (or both!) her
stuff.
Billboard crunched the numbers and shared that Joanne and one of its singles, "Million Reasons," saw some major chart movement thanks to Gaga's televised triumphs. The album soared to the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 and closed out her Super Bowl week at No. 2 after selling 74,000 units, while Born This Way, her 2011 LP, moved 17,000 units as well, which brought the album up to No. 25 on the chart.
"Million Reasons" hit a
high point at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot 100
charts, which is no surprise given how well it went over with the
Super Bowl crowd. Between the buzz generated and the hard numbers on the sales
front, this brought Gaga to the very top of Billboard's Artist 100 chart, which makes her "the
top musical act" in the country, according to this multifaceted
definition.
She didn't take home the Lombardi
Trophy or one of those little golden gramophones, but yeah: Gaga's a champion,
all right.
