Britney Spears scores her sixth US #1 album this week with Femme Fetale pulling a strong 276,000 first week sales. This sets the pop legend in a tie with Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson at an equal third for most #1 albums in America. The only queens bettering that is Barbra Streisand, who’s had nine #1s, and Madonna, with seven.
Having said that, this is actually BritBrit‘s second lowest first week album sales. The only one faring less is her 1999 debut Baby One More Time, which managed to rake in 121,000 to go #1. Her last album Circus debuted at #1 with 506,000 first week sales but you gotta keep in mind that it was launched during the lucrative December shopping period. Even Blackout managed to pull 290,000 first week sales to debut at #2.
Billboard notes that this is the first Brit album in over a decade to drop in the American spring time. Most of the albums have been released during the November/December peak shopping months. Might explain the FF sales then but really, there’s been a shift in consumer trends in the last few years. I’m seeing digital track downloads slowly overshadowing album sales.
Over in the UK, Femme Fatale does a death drop from #8 to #16 this week and in Australia, the album slips from #1 to #4.
Snoop Dogg‘s ’Sweat (David Guetta Remix)’ tops the Aussie singles chart this week, making this the Doggfather’s second solo #1 here after 2005′s ’Signs’ with Justin Timberlake and Charlie Wilson. This 2011 remix has also charted at #2 on the UK dance charts and #7 on the New Zealand singles charts.
Looking at our Australian Top 20 singles this week, it’s clear that we’re still hard for the urban and dance fusion. See: Snoop (#1), Black Eyed Peas ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ (#5), Diddy – Dirty Money ‘Coming Home’ (#6), Lupe Fiasco ‘The Show Goes On’ (#7), Chris Brown‘s ‘Beautiful People’ (#9), Flo Rida ‘Who Dat Girl’ (#13), Pitbull feat. Neyo, Afrojack and Nayer‘s ‘Give Me Everything’ (#14) and Ian Carey feat. Snoop and Bobby Anthony ‘Last Night’ (#15).
Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne‘s ‘Hit The Lights’ straight to #18 this week, thanks to a healthy dose of radio addition here in Australia. This is the British R&B singer’s second serving from his fourth studio album freeze time. You’d think the first single ’2012 (It Ain’t The End)’ featuring Nicki Minaj would do better than #40 here but no. That was an unexpected fail! Jay‘s most recent Aussie Top 20 appearance was on Jessica Mauboy‘s current single ‘What Happened To Us?’ which drops to #36 this week.
Adele clocks her 11th consecutive week on top of the UK charts and shatters records for longest running #1 for a solo artist’s studio album in British chart history. I wanna emphasise studio album because Elvis has had longer runs but they were both for soundtracks - G1 Blues and Blue Hawaii, both living on top for 17 weeks. Since its release in January, 21 has sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide. BAM! Someone please tell me why there’s still no videos for the singles ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Set Fire To The Rain’.
Adele is finally making moves on our Aussie singles chart. ‘Rolling In The Deep’ jumps from #40 to #25 this week and ‘Someone Like You’ debuts at #47. The stunning album – 21 – returns to its peak here of #3 this week.
Rumer makes her Australian chart debut at #35 this week with her hugely successful Seasons of My Soul. Have you inspected her choons yet? Take a listen to one of my favourite album tracks ‘Long Long Day’ here:
I am getting tingles and a little flashback to the legendary Karen Carpenter - especially on tracks like ‘Slow’. I had been saying for years that there’ll never be another vocalist that can come close to Karen but I think I was just proven wrong.
Wiz Khalifa‘s first major label album Rolling Papers debuted at #2 in the US, selling 197,000 copies. The record comes supported with a US #1 single ‘Black and Yellow’ and current Top 10 ‘No Sleep’.
Gwynneth Paltrow‘s country flirtation ‘Me and Tennessee’ with Tim McGraw shoots from #110 to #63 in the UK this week. The track is taken from her recent flick Country Strong and believe it or not, it was actually written by her husband Chris Martin (Coldplay).
Katy B is the flavour of the moment, isn’t she? The funky – can’t believe I’m using that term – artist saw her debut LP On A Mission enter the UK charts at #2 this week. The record is supported by three UK smash singles – ‘Katy On A Mission’ which leapt back from #100 to #45 this week, ‘Lights On’ (#4), and ‘Broken Record’ (#8).
Parade – the upcoming UK girl group – sees their debut single ‘Louder’ tumble to #50 this week. Having read so much about them and checking their photos, I have to admit feeling a little underwhelmed when I heard the track. A punchy title like ‘Louder’ deserved to be complemented with more in-your-face production and vocals. What’s next, gurls?
Mary Mary‘s fifth studio album Something Big enters the US Billboard 200 at #10 this week week, clocking over 42,000 first week sales. Halleloo! Over on the US gospel charts, Something Big charts at #2, making this the divas’ first album to not reign on top there.
Yelle‘s Safari Disco Club cracks the US dance/electronic albums chart at #9 this week. The kooky French electro pop artiste premiered her double A-side video ‘Safari Disco Club’/'Que Veux-tu’ recently and I’m just gagging to hear the rest of the album.
Filed under: Chart Feed Tagged: Adele, Black Eyed Peas, Britney Spears, Chart Feed, Chris Brown, Diddy - Dirty Money, Flo Rida, Gwynneth Paltrow, Ian Carey, Jay Sean, Jessica Mauboy, Katy B, Lupe Fiasco, Mary Mary, Parade, Pitbull, Rumer, Snoop Dogg, Tim McGraw, Wiz Khalifa, Yelle
