Film & TV NewsThe Greatest Showman Album Hits No. 1 on BillboardAfter winning the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, Greatest Showman soars to the top of the charts.
By
Ruthie Fierberg
January 08, 2018
On January 7, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul won their second consecutive Golden Globe for Best Original Song for their single “This Is Me” from the original movie musical The Greatest Showman.
In its fourth week, The Greatest Showman soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (the most popular U.S. albums of the week) and No. 1 on the iTunes albums chart.
Directed by Michael Gracey, The Greatest Showman stars Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum and Broadway’s Keala Settle as Lettie Lutz, the Bearded Lady.
The Greatest Showman album debuted at No. 73 on the Billboard chart and climbed during its second week to No. 63. But when the movie hit theatres in its nationwide theatrical release December 20, the soundtrack catapulted to No. 5. It was the first album of the year to hit No. 1 without debuting in that spot and is the first theatrically released musical soundtrack to hit No. 1 since 2015 when Pitch Perfect 2 held the honors. Of the 184 albums that have hit the top slot on Billboard in the last five years, only ten of them have been soundtracks. The Greatest Showman is one of them.
Pasek and Paul won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2017 for their lyric contribution to La La Land’s “City of Stars.” They are also Oscar winners for the work and Tony winners for Dear Evan Hansen.
With songs by Pasek and Paul and orchestrations by Tony winner Alex Lacamoire, the album features Jackman and Settle as well as Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and The Greatest Showman ensemble.