Panic! At The Disco's June 22 release, Pray For The Wicked, is on top of the Billboard 200 chart dated July 7, their second consecutive album to reach No. 1 with 180,000 units including album-equivalents. Traditional sales reached151,000 while vinyl accounted for 26,000. That's the fifth largest vinyl sales week since the chart began in 1991. The band's previous studio album was 2016's Death Of A Bachelor, nominated at the 59th GRAMMY Awards for Best Rock Album.
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Lead single "Say Amen (Saturday Night)" became Panic!'s first trip to No. 1 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart dated June 30. The band's U.S. tour kicks off on July 11 in Minneapolis and goes international in late August.
Riding high on the new album's success, the band is sharing the love. On June 28, lead singer Brendon Urie announced that $1 from every U.S. ticket sold will be donated to his newly created Highest Hopes Foundation.
"Every single day, all of you show me strength, courage and motivation, and as a result it felt important to create something to show you that I see all of wonderful things you're doing out there in the world," Urie said in a statement. "I want to join in on the fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Today I present to you the Highest Hopes Foundation, created to support the efforts of non-profit organizations that lead, develop, and advocate support for human rights. This is dedicated to all people + communities who are subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation + gender identity."
Last summer was Urie's Broadway debut playing the lead in Cyndi Lauper's musical Kinky Boots, winner of Best Musical Theater Album at the 56th GRAMMY Awards. Can he top that this summer? It looks like Panic! is going to jazz up summer 2018 and chart success is only the beginning.
