GHOST's 'Mary On A Cross' Single Certified Double Platinum In U.S.

On November 13, GHOST's "Mary On A Cross" single was certified double platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) for accumulating two million certified units. The certification comes a little over two years after "Mary On A Cross" became the first GHOST single to achieve platinum status. Also on November 13, "Dance Macabre", the second single from GHOST's fourth studio album, 2018's "Prequelle", was certified platinum by the RIAA.

According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.

In November 2022, "Mary On A Cross" became the fourth GHOST single to achieve gold status that year. In June 2022, "Cirice" (from GHOST's third album, 2015's "Meliora"),"Dance Macabre" (from 2018's "Prequelle") and "Square Hammer" (from 2016's "Popestar" EP) were also certified gold. These marked GHOST's first RIAA certifications.

In September 2022, GHOST scored its first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Mary On A Cross". The song, which was originally released as a two-track single in 2019 via Loma Vista/Concord (alongside "Kiss The Go-Goat"),debuted at No. 90 on the chart with six million U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold, according to Billboard.

"Mary On A Cross" had been gaining traction after a TikTok user used a slowed down version of the song to soundtrack a short video about the Netflix show "Stranger Things". Since then, "Mary On The Cross" was used to soundtrack tens of thousands of videos on the platform. GHOST later released the official slowed down version of "Mary On A Cross" with added reverb.

This past May, GHOST's latest studio album, "Skeletá", landed at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 86,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the LP's first week of release. 89% of that figure (77,000) consisted of traditional album sales, with vinyl purchases accounting for over 44,000 copies. Notably, "Skeletá" was the first hard rock album to reach the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 since AC/DC's "Power Up" in 2020.

"Skeletá" marked the ninth time GHOST charted on the Billboard 200. The band first landed on the chart in 2013 with its second album, "Infestissumam", reaching No. 28.

"Skeletá" was GHOST's eighth album to reach the Top 40 and fifth to reach the Top 10. The band had previously peaked at No. 2 with 2022's "Impera".

In September 2022, GHOST scored its first-ever Top 40 single in the U.K. with "Mary On A Cross".

GHOST's "Skeletour" world tour will continue in the new year, with the recent announcement of 20 new North American shows kicking off January 21 at the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida and running through February 23 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

As previously reported, the final two shows on this year's edition of GHOST's "Skeletour" were filmed for future release.

After's GHOST's September 23 concert in Mexico City was canceled due to frontman Tobias Forge having food poisoning, the band's two performances at the 20,000-capacity Palacio De Los Deportes on September 24 and September 25 were shot on 16mm film "for the rest of the world to see at some point".

This past August, GHOST completed the first U.S. leg of the "Skeletour" in support of "Skeletá", which came out in April. Marking a bold evolution in GHOST's live performances, the tour was the band's most theatrical and cinematic production yet. Designed by creative director Tobias Rylander and Forge, the tour embraced a grander and more ambitious scale than ever before.