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Here Are the Biggest Albums That Came as Surprises During COVID-19

Published on May 14, 2024

Here Are the Biggest Albums That Came as Surprises During COVID-19

People will remember 2020 for the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, but music lovers will always cherish the albums that seemed to have dropped from the sky and into streaming services but helped get them through.

Billboard rounded up the biggest albums from the brightest stars that no one saw coming but everyone started listening to.

A man by two names, Childish Gambino (real name Donald Glover) always keeps fans on their toes and keeps them waiting for his artistic genius to take form, whether it’s in the form of a new Gambino album or a new season of Glover’s FX series Atlanta. Well, we got one of them this year.

New music sprinkled in with 2018’s “Feels Like Summer” and 2019’s “Algorhythm” and previously unheard collaborations with fellow Coachella 2019 headliner Ariana Grande (“Time”) and 21 Savage (“12.38”) streamed exclusively from his website DonaldGloverPresents.com. Then it all disappeared within 24 hours. What was first packaged as Donald Glover Presents translated to 3.15.20, the day of Gambino’s peculiar (but idiosyncratic) activity, onto streaming services.