Chris soars to top spot

Busted reunite

LOS ANGELES, Nov 11, (RTRS): Country singer Chris Stapleton has soared to the top spot on the US album chart following his CMA Awards performance with Justin Timberlake. Stapleton’s “Traveller” moved 177,000 units for the week ending Nov. 5, according to data from Nielsen Music.

“Traveller” dropped in early May, when it peaked at No. 14 on the chart. The week before the CMAs, the album (which is Stapleton’s first) moved just shy of 3,000 units. Stapleton and Timberlake set the Internet abuzz with their fiery collaboration, which united Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” and Timberlake’s “Drink You Away” on the Nov 4 awards show on ABC — Stapleton took home awards for male vocalist of the year, new artist of the year and album of the year. “Traveller” sold more in this past week than it had in total since its release, according to Billboard.

Country vocalists dominate the top of the chart. Carrie Underwood’s “Storyteller,” which bowed the week before in second place, remains at No. 2, down 54% with 81,000 units moved. In third place is a new entry from Eric Church; “Mr. Misunderstood” debuted with 76,000 units sold.

Also debuting in the time frame was the latest installment in the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” series, “Now 56.” The compilation bowed at No. 4, having moved 58,000 units; it includes such smash singles as “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth and “Can’t Feel My Face” by the Weeknd.

Also: LONDON: British pop punk band Busted announced a reunion tour on Tuesday, nearly 11 years after Charlie Simpson left the group and forced it to break up.

The trio, made up of Simpson, James Bourne and Matt Willis, said they would also make new music for the first time since 2004.

The band, known for hits like “Year 3000” and “You Said No”, won two Brit Awards and sold more than 5 million records at the height of its success.

Simpson left to perform in a rock band and was later quoted as saying his time in Busted was “like torture”.

Willis and Bourne went on to join forces with fellow boyband McFly in 2013 to form McBusted, but the trio said things changed when they recently went to a recording studio in Philadelphia.

“This has been sort of building for the last couple of years now, with us getting back, rebuilding our friendship,” Simpson told Reuters in a joint interview with Willis and Bourne.

Stapleton