It has been almost two weeks since Shadow and Bone star Ben Barnes released his debut EP Songs For You. The EP which Ben himself has dubbed as “Old Soul Pop” has been on heavy rotation for us since it dropped. It’s an emotional debut (‘Ordinary Day’ still has us shouting “Tell me I’m enough” at the top of our lungs). We love the EP so much and wish it was longer than five tracks. Along with the release of his EP, Ben dropped two music videos, the first a month ago for the popular upbeat track ’11:11.’ His latest video for the emotional ballad ‘Rise Up’ was released the week the EP came out.
Ben has always been a talented person. We know he’s an amazing actor and now we’re seeing how much of a talented musician he is. It seems the music world is starting to take notice as well. Ben is beginning to ‘Rise Up’ (Pun intended) the charts as we speak. Right now, his music video for ‘11:11’ which stars his Westworld co-star Evan Rachel Wood has over 579,000 views on YouTube and has earned almost 1.5 million streams worldwide on Spotify.
Currently, Ben Barnes’s latest music video for ‘Rise Up’ which is one of my faves, and stars his The Punisher co-star Floriana Lima, has over 160,000 views. Isn’t that awesome? Even more amazing is the fact that Ben has landed on a few Billboard music charts. That is a HUGE accomplishment, and we couldn’t be prouder. Check out the chart lists Ben is currently sitting on at this very moment.
#2 Top New Artist Album (MRC Data)
#6 Pandora’s Prediction Chart
#12 Billboard Heatseekers
#16 Billboard Emerging Artists
#25 Billboard Top Current Album Sales
#30 Billboard Top Album Sales
Do you see this? Ben is not just on one Billboard chart, he’s on FOUR. And those numbers are pretty impressive if you ask us. We want to see Ben hit even more charts and climb even higher. Songs For You truly is an amazing EP. We’re going to keep on streaming it and so should you. While you’re at it, check out our review of the EP and how we ranked all five of his tracks. Then when you’re done, check out his first live performance of ’11:11′ below.
Songs For You is available now on all digital platforms.