After reality TV stars Heidi Montag and husband Spencer Pratt lost their home in the Pacific Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles, an outpouring of support drives Montag’s 2010 album Superficial and its songs to debuts across a range of Billboard’s charts (all dated Jan. 25) – including the Billboard 200, Top Album Sales, Top Dance Albums and Hot Dance/Pop Songs.
Montag herself also graces the Billboard Artist 100 chart for the first time, which ranks the most popular artists of the week.
Montag and Pratt, who are best known for their roles on MTV’s The Hills, took to social media after the loss of their home to encourage fans to purchase the album and stream its songs to help the family rebuild and generate income. The couple posted dozens of social media posts across their accounts, driving fans to engage with the music.
All of Billboard’s new Jan. 25, 2025-dated charts will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 22 (one day later than usual, owed to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in the United States on Jan. 20).
Following the couple’s initial fan appeal on social media, and the subsequent campaign that was triggered, the pair joined Billboard’s Tetris Kelly for a TikTok livestream to chat about the fan response. In their discussion, Montag and Pratt revealed that there is more music coming, possibly with some well-known collaborators, and even how the president of a major record label reached out to them to chat. Montag also added, “We really want to focus on getting a portion back to the community too, so we’re trying to figure out how to incorporate charities into everything we’re doing.”
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On the Album Charts
Montag’s 2010 album, Superficial, debuts at No. 53 on the Billboard 200, No. 2 on Top Dance Albums, No. 4 on Top Album Sales, No. 9 on Independent Albums and No. 13 on Catalog Albums (No. 13).
Until this week, Montag had visited the Billboard charts just twice – with the single “More Is More” reaching No. 27 on the Dance Club Songs chart in 2009 (based on reported club plays of the song by DJs) and Superficial reaching No. 41 on the Heatseekers Albums chart in 2010. (Both charts have since ceased publishing.)
Superficial earned 15,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Jan. 16, according to Luminate, with album sales (all digital) accounting for 11,000. Collectively, the set’s songs generated 3.5 million on-demand official streams in the tracking week and sold 12,000 downloads.
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On the Song Charts
Montag also debuts a pair of songs on Billboard’s newly launched Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart. “I’ll Do It” and “Superficial” arrive at Nos. 5 and 9, thanks to significant streaming and digital song sales gains. The cuts also enter at Nos. 2 and 4 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart.
During the tracking week, “I’ll Do It” tallied 1.4 million U.S. official streams (up 531%) and 6,000 downloads sold (up from a negligible figure), while “Superficial” raked in 462,000 streams (up 7,900%) and 5,000 downloads (also up from a negligible figure).
TikTok contributed to the song’s growth, with a sped-up remix of “I’ll Do It” having soundtracked over 462,000 clips on the platform to date. The original has been used in over 45,000 videos.
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Montag Among the Top 20 Most Popular Artists of the Week
On the Billboard Artist 100 chart, which ranks the 100 most popular artists of the week, Montag debuts at No. 17. The chart measures artists’ activity across key metrics of music consumption: album sales, track sales, radio airplay and streaming. Using a methodology comprising those metrics, the chart provides a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
