Glastonbury 2022: Huge uplift expected for festival acts this week from Billie Eilish to Sam Fender

Several acts who hit the stage at the weekend’s Glastonbury Festival are on course for huge uplifts on the Official Albums Chart this week.

With only initial data submitted on Monday, albums by Billie Eilish, Sam Fender and Wet Leg are set to climb up the chart; further albums by Paul McCartney, Kendrick Lamar and Diana Ross are also expected to surge as streaming data comes through over the coming two days.

As it stands, history-making headliner Billie Eilish (the youngest headline act in the history of Glastonbury) has several collections showing gains on the Official Albums Chart. Sophomore LP Happier Than Ever currently leads the charge, up 19 places to Number 9 at the midweek point with chart volumes growing 115% week-on-week. In turn, her debut When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? is set to rise from Number 61 to Number 16 (volumes up 104%), while her 2017 EP Don’t Smile At Me is soaring from 81 to 44 (volumes up 57%).

Geordie rocker Sam Fender’s early Friday evening set on the Pyramid Stage marked him out as a future headliner and both his albums are set to rise back into the Top 40, Seventeen Going Under moving up to 14 and Hypersonic Missiles rising to 38; chart volumes of both titles almost doubled week-on-week.

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Indie-rock phenomenon Wet Leg are also set to rocket back into the upper-echelons of the chart with their eponymous debut currently up from 77 to 25, with chart volumes already rising 55%. Wet Leg topped the Official Albums Chart earlier this year in a landmark week for independent releases.

Other acts enjoying a post-Glastonbury uplift include Arooj Aftab, with Vulture Prince (55), Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with Raise The Roof (56). And, while data for the period after her performance is still to be finalised, the anticipation alone for Diana Ross’s performance is already in evidence, with two of her albums set to re-enter the Top 100 - greatest hits collection The Greatest (in at 57) and 2021 studio album Thank You (in at 100).

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot said, “Even though we have only received initial data from the weekend, it is already clear that Glastonbury Festival is having a huge impact. How huge will only become clear over the coming days, but the fact that Billie Eilish, Sam Fender and Wet Leg are surging already raises the possibility of a record impact from the world’s greatest music festival.”

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI, BRIT Awards & Mercury Prize commented, “The ‘Glastonbury effect’ often has a marked effect on sales and streams of music, but this year its impact is likely to be more pronounced than ever – in large part due to the fact many more of us stream now, but thanks also to the spectacular performances by Billie Eilish and Paul McCartney, which went beyond show-stealing, as well as by a generation of brilliant new British talent that has now truly come into its own – Arlo Parks, Glass Animals, IDLES, Joy Crookes, Little Simz, Sam Fender and Wet Leg, to name just a few. Artists can expect to see multiple increases in their global number of streams, which already measure in the tens and hundreds of millions, as well as lifts in vinyl and CD sales.”