The regional Mexican genre continues to sweep across the Billboard charts. The latest example of the genre’s strides on the charts comes from Eslabon Armado‘s fifth studio album Nostalgia, as it storms in at No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart, plus top 10 on the Top Latin Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 charts (all dated May 21).
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The California-based group — brothers Brian and Pedro Tovar (18 and 19, respectively), Ulises Gonzalez (20) and Damian Fidel Pacheco (20) — arrives at a new career achievement, scoring the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the Billboard 200. (Regional Mexican albums are defined as those that have hit Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart.) Debuting at No. 9, Nostalgia bests the group’s previous three entries there, including a top 20 appearance (Vibras de Noche, No. 18, August 2020).
“We never expected to debut so high, it’s truly a blessing,” Pedro Tovar tells Billboard. “We hope this becomes our best project; we really love it.”
Further, Eslabon is the first group to score a top 10 with a Latin album on the Billboard 200 since Santana’s Africa Speaks arrived and peaked at No. 3 in June 2019.
Over on the Latin charts, Nostalgia, released May 6 via DEL Records, starts at No. 1 on Regional Mexican Albums with 29,500 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 12, according to Luminate. The chart ranks the most popular regional Mexican albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, comprising album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Biggest Streaming Week for a Regional Mexican Album: Nearly all of Nostalgia’s starting sum was driven by SEA units, which equates to 42.82 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 14 songs. That’s the biggest streaming week for a regional Mexican album.
The set’s arrival at the summit of Regional Mexican Albums marks the group’s fifth consecutive No. 1 — the entirety of its charting efforts. The act previously topped the chart, which launched in 1985, with Tu Veneno Mortal, Vol. 2 (No. 1 for three weeks), Corta Venas (54 weeks), Vibras de Noche (11) and Tu Veneno Mortal (eight). Corta Venas continues to have the third-most weeks at No. 1 on the chart, behind Christian Nodal’s Me Dejé Llevar (73 weeks) and Selena’s Amor Prohibido (97).
“The most challenging aspect of the creative process of the album was putting everything together, the guitars, the bass, the vocals,” Tovar continues. “Putting it all together with new band members made the magic.”
Notably, all five albums still rank solidly on Regional Mexican Albums, all in the top 10 except for Vibras de Noche which dips 15-19 on the current tally.
Nostalgia concurrently debuts at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums, the band’s best start, in terms of rank, since Vibras de Noche arrived at No. 1 with 23,000 equivalent album units in August 2020. The former arrives in the runner-up slot behind Bad Bunny’s monster start of 274,000 units with Un Verano Sin Ti.
As Nostalgia arrives, nine of its songs dot the all-metric Hot Latin Songs chart. Here’s a recap:
No. 27, “Si Supieras” with DannyLux
No. 28, “Dos Morritas,” with Junior H
No. 31, “Vete a la Fregada”
No. 32, ‘Modo Depre :(”
No. 35, “Hasta La Muerte,” with Iván Cornejo
No. 38, “La Perrie,” with Fuerza Regida
No. 39, “Luces Rojas”
No. 42, “Mente en Alto”
No. 43, “Solo,” with Erre