Photo of Justin Timberlake & Chris Stapleton performing at 2015 CMA Awards, courtesy ABC/Image Group LA
Chris Stapleton is proving to be the big winner of Wednesday's CMA Awards, as his debut album Traveller has catapulted back onto the U.S. charts after weeks outside the top 200 and is now aiming for the top.
Industry forecasters are projecting Traveller will likely finish the sales tracking week (which ends tonight) with about 100,000 units moved, most of which were sold after 8 p.m. EST last night, when the CMAs started.
Before the show even ended, the country-bluegrass crooner's LP had surpassed Adele's forthcoming 25 on the iTunes album rankings, hitting No. 1 moments after his duet with Justin Timberlake (it's still No. 1 on iTunes as of this writing).
Interestingly, Stapleton's album, which was released in May, had fallen out of the Billboard 200 (top 200 albums in the U.S.) back in September. According to Nielsen Music data, 96,000 copies have been sold in the States through Oct. 29.
Stapleton was arguably the CMAs' most buzzworthy name following the show, having walked away with three trophies, including Album of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. And in addition to his show-stealing performance with Timberlake, Traveller is currently sale-priced on iTunes for $6.99, likely giving an extra boost.