Luke Bryan's 'What Makes You Country' debuts at No. 1 on Billboard

[December 19, 2017]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Luke Bryan's "What Makes You Country" album debuted in the top spot this week on the Billboard 200 chart, giving the country singer his fourth No. 1 album.

According to Nielsen Music data released on Monday, Bryan sold more than 107,000 units of the album during a week in which Irish band U2 plummeted from last week's top spot to 13th place with "Songs Of Experience."

In a week of few new releases, chart favorites Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran moved up to second and third places, respectively, on the Billboard 200. Swift's "Reputation," released in November, added another 99,000 in sales, while British singer Sheeran's March release "Divide" sold more than 69,000 copies for the week.

The Billboard 200 chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

Sheeran's love song "Perfect" again dominated the digital songs chart, which measures online single sales, thanks to a newly released collaboration with Beyonce. "Perfect" sold another 97,000 units to keep the No. 1 spot.

Among other new album releases, the "Double or Nothing" collaboration between rappers Big Sean and Metro Boomin debuted at No. 5, while the rap compilation album "Quality Control: Control the Streets, Vol. 1," featuring various artists, arrived at No. 6.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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