Sunday night at the 59th Annual Grammys Red Carpet, “Princess” Joy Villa made, what some are calling, bold move in her wardrobe choice. Sporting a dress that endorsed the President, she left some shocked and others celebrating the mainstream recognition.
This morning the digital sales for her album I Make The Static (released in 2014) on Amazon moved her from the 543,202 ranking to the number one spot over night. [Her 2016 single Empty has moved up to number 6 in the same ranking category]. A clear sign that many decided to say yes to her dress by contributing to the album sales.
On the “Top 100 Paid” albums on Amazon she sits at number one next to Beyonce’s Lemonade and Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic. All 300 comments / ratings were posted at some point in the last 24 hours each noting at least 4 or 5 stars. This is quite the phenomenon as one rater notes
This rise in popularity, however, is only measurable through the lens of the Amazon marketplace. Joy is still sitting below 14,500 streams on her song Play on Spotify. Her monthly listens sitting at around that number, top city of listeners from Houston (309), it makes one wonder if the recent success is defined as success at all. Unfortunately we could not access Apple’s metrics but there is a similar trend in the comments. Most of them take place on the 12th or 13th of February with a mix of reviews. Those that give the album a listen are a little less generous in the 5 star rating whereas those that trumpet her dress and statement give her a five star rating across the board. This happens on the Google Music dashboard as well where the album sits at #24 on the top chart.
There is quite the debate going on over on Twitter, but we won’t discuss that here. One thing that is not a partisan issue and what I think that most of us can agree on is that the music is really nothing special. The support for the album is more of a reaction to the dress that will, in the end, only boost her for this short time period. Yes it may have taken courage to wear such a dress and will put the spotlight on her. But in order to make fans stay with you and support your music you need more than a statement at the Grammys --you need to say something and show passion in your music.
Update: As of 1:02pm on Tuesday February 14th, 2017, she is no longer within the top 100 on Amazon.