The announcement that Prince had died was made late on Thursday morning in the U.S. The Billboard charts for the week closed at midnight Thursday night.
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Prince looks set to take the top spots in both the single and album charts after his unexpected death at age 57 this week, according to early charts data.
With much of Prince’s back catalogue not available on streaming services, the addition of streaming data could affect the estimates, the Official Charts Company said.
Billboard reports that The Very Best of Prince, which was released in 2001, is aiming to top the Billboard 200 chart with 150,000 copies sold (90,000 to 100,000 in pure album sales). At this point, there is only one thing that would keep Prince from the top of the charts for a second week and that would be the rumored release of a new Beyonce album this weekend. “The rapid impact on the Official Albums Chart – and no doubt the Official Singles Chart next week – underlines just what this extraordinary, iconic artist meant to the great British public”.
Prince could also score his first United Kingdom number one single in more than 20 years with his 1994 hit The Most Beautiful Girl In The World. That gives the band a projected start of number 5 for the week.
Elsewhere on the charts, PJ Harvey scored her first United Kingdom number one with “The Hope Six Demolition Project“.
However, in a 1997 interview for VH1, Prince explained to Chris Rock that the line is a metaphor about the devil (elevator going down) and God (the higher floor).
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Final charts will be out on Tuesday.
