Skillet wrapped up an extraordinary year by being named among 2011’s biggest mainstream rock acts according to year-end charts published by Billboard and Mediabase.
The two-time Grammy-nominated band were among the highest ranking artists featured in Billboard’s annual “The Year In Music” issue, with their RIAA gold- certified album Awake approaching 900,000 in sales and included among the year’s Top 20 “Rock Albums,” Top 15 “Alternative Albums,” as well as the overall “Top Billboard 200.” The album’s chart-topping single, “Awake and Alive,” came in at No. 3 on the “Active Rock Songs” tally, with Skillet also named among the Top 10 “Active Rock Artists.” The band was also listed in the upper half of the total “Billboard 200 Artists” ranking, having spent 120 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 chart with only a handful of other acts. Mediabase, which monitors radio activity in the U.S. and Canada, declared Skillet to be the past year’s eighth “Most Played Artist” at Active Rock outlets nationwide, with “Awake and Alive” coming in as the format’s No. 3 biggest hit.
Awake has proven a true sensation, with digital single sales from the album now exceeding 2.4 million. Produced by Howard Benson (Three Days Grace, Daughtry, Flyleaf), the collection reached the No. 1 spot on the iTunes “Top Albums” chart within 24 hours of its August 2009 release, while simultaneously exploding into the No. 2 spot on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 chart. Fueled by three RIAA gold certified and four top 10 Active Rock hits in “Awake and Alive,” “It’s Not Me It’s You,” “Hero,” and “Monster,” Awake was among the top 10 on Billboard’s 2010 “Top Alternative Albums” chart, with Skillet coming in at the year’s No. 7 “Top Alternative Album Artist.” “Hero” has also been used by the NFL in their Sunday Night Football and NFL Weekend Kickoff promos, and a remix of the band’s No. 1 Active Rock hit “Awake & Alive," was featured on the TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon soundtrack.
One of America’s hardest working live acts, Skillet has consistently been ranked among Pollstar’s Concert Pulse “Top 50 Tours.” The band spent much of the past two years on the road, touring alongside Atlantic labelmates Shinedown, as well as headlining their own sold-out “Alive & Awake Tour.” Having recently returned from a major European tour (including dates in Russia, Germany, Finland, Norway and the Ukraine), Skillet is now back on tour in the U.S.
In addition to cumulative album sales in excess of 2 million, Skillet has racked up a wide range of honors throughout their extraordinary career. Frontman John Cooper and producer Brian Howes received two BMI Music Awards for “The Last Night” and “The Older I Get,” both featured on 2006’s Grammy Award-nominated Comatose. That album proved Skillet’s popular breakthrough, achieving RIAA gold certification. Comatose followed the band’s 2003 label debut, Collide, which launched Skillet into the mainstream while also garnering their first Grammy Award nomination.
