Bad Bunny Breaks 'Canciones' Record or is just a rumor?

[MokyWI]

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Friday, September 9, 2022BUNNY'S ENDLESS VERANO: A NEW MILESTONE
The unprecedented run of Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti (Rimas) continues. The set is now the biggest non-English-language album in U.S. history, this week surpassing 2.3m in activity.

The record was held for more than three decades by Linda Ronstadt's 1987 release Canciones de mi Padre (Asylum/Rhino). Ronstadt's landmark album of mariachi songs was certified double platinum last November by the RIAA. Since Canciones was released four years before the modern chart era, during which actual units are tabulated to determine ranking, there's something of a gray area surrounding the album's first few years of market activity. Industry-supplied data, the RIAA certification and streaming activity have led us to a total of just under 2.2 million.

Un Verano Sin Ti will return to #1 on the HITS Top 50 this week and is currently tracking to be the biggest album of 2022. No non-English-language album has ever finished the year on top. Will Bunny stay the course? Will Taylor Swift be the spoiler with her 10/21 release of Midnights (Republic)? We'll be standing by with our trusty abacus.

[erik]

Unless one can get honest confirmation of it, I will hold off on calling mea culpa that the 35 year-old record Canciones held has been broken. From what I have read over the years, Canciones sold 2.7 million copies, which of course was unprecedented in pretty much every way you can think of. One is that Linda primarily sang in English. Secondly, while she is Mexican-American, she looks decidedly Anglo (though as we know there's nothing unusual about that). And thirdly, no foreign language album before it had ever sold maybe more than a few hundred thousand copies, if even that. Linda did have the clout to pull this off, even though just talking about it to the folks at Elektra/Asylum probably caused those people to turn white as a sheet.

But the recording business is a strange business, so you never know. Watch this space.

[Holly]

US demographics are changing with an increasing percentage of Spanish speaking citizens and migrants from South of the border. It would be no surprise if this keeps happening but I think Linda's place in music history is secure as a popular and beloved figure much the way her idol Lola Beltrán was in Mexico. 

[fabtastique]

I prefer the quality of CdmP over the quantity of anything Bad Bunny produces !

[eddiejinnj]

I am confused as the article says CDMP was certified last November double platinum but no reference to date and can't tell by context. The album, tmk, has been certified double platinum for a long time, prob in 1990 when a lot of the last certs occurred. eddiejinnj

[RobGNYC]

Here's what RIAA has on its site:

www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=canciones#search_section

Release Date: NOVEMBER 9, 1987
2x Multi-Platinum | November 15, 2001 
Platinum | August 27, 1991
Gold | February 17, 1988

[fabtastique]

Also won’t Bad Bunny’s be mostly streaming?? Not the same in my book …. Pure sales beat streaming!

I think Linda would have sold more CDs of CdmP when the remastered editions were produced in 2016 but unfortunately I don’t think there is any desire to recertify for RIAA purposes.

[eddiejinnj]

We have discussed the fact that there have been no new certs since 2001. I thought that there was no way it was just recently certified double platinum. Thanks!!

eddiejinnj