After weeks of wait, with only a few rare new releases to stimulate urban sales, here we finally are: this week was the week when just about everybody dropped an album, from Rihanna to Lady Gaga or Jay Sean… But who did manage to move more copies and be number one?
Despite heavy hitters releasing their effort last Tuesday, this week’s chart topper is no urban act. British sensation and Simon Cowell’s protégée Susan Boyle grabbed the #1 spot with a staggering 670,000 copies sold of her debut album “I Dreamed A Dream.” Yes, way more than Jay-Z. Way more…
Leading the pop-urban pack is Lady Gaga at #4, whose mini-album “Fame Monster” managed to sell 181,000 units, while her previous platinum-selling album “Fame” keeps moving an impressive 145,000 records at #7. Seems that Gaga may have found the recipe for lasting success after all.
Right behind her is Rihanna, who landed at a disappointing #5 spot with her fourth studio album “Rated R.” The first singles “Wait Your Turn” and “Russian Roulette” received mix reactions from the public, and despite a huge hype building-up prior the official release date, the album “only” moved 181,000 copies. Not a really failed comeback for Riri, but definitely not the chart-crushing release we were expecting…
For its second week of availability, jazz-folk singer Norah Jones’ album “The Fall” drops 8 spots to #11 with 105,000 copies. The new rock sound she adopted for this effort seems to be a good move! In the meantime, last week’s #1 John Mayer loses ground and falls to #14 with 85,000 copies sold, followed by Colombian hottie Shakira at #15. The latin popstar’s new album pushed 84,000 copies in its first week, thanks to the lead singles “She Wolf” and “Give It Up To Me” with Lil Wayne.
All this competition was not good for 50 Cent. The G-Unit capo’s last album “Before I Self Destruct” took a blow with only 62,000 albums sold in the second week. Total sales reach 217,000 copies: a far cry from Fifty’s usual numbers. Yes, international sales will certainly make up for this rough US start. But no, 50 Cent is no longer the platinum-selling rapper we love to hate. With numbers in the 200,000 range, 50 Cent has definitely lost his crown, ending this week at #21.
This week was also the great return of New Orleans-based label Cash Money Records on the US charts. Co-founder Baby’s “Priceless” landed on the charts at #33 with 34,000 copies, while UK labelmate Jay Sean’s debut “All Or Nothing” opened at #34 with 32,000 units pushed. Decent start for these 2 albums, but nothing compared to their Young Money colleague Lil Wayne’s numbers!
As for the rest, Jay-Z keeps pushing copies of the “Blueprint III,” reaching 1.3M copies at #32. The Black Eyed Peas also must enjoy Christmas shopping season: they gained 4 spots to #23 with another 54,000 records sold, bringing total sales to 1.4M.
Surprisingly holding it down in the Top 50 is British soul singer Leona Lewis, who managed to push 21,000 copies of “Echo,” ending this week at #47: amazing performance in such a competitive environment!
Stay put next week to see if R. Kelly and Juvenile will shake off urban charts…
