Billboard 200 - 01/09/2010 - Boyle 510,000

[Rodze]

www.mtv.com/news/articles/1628897/20091230/boyle_susan.jhtml
Susan Boyle Tops Billboard For Fifth Week, With Mary J. Blige At #2
SuBo has sold nearly 3 million albums so far, almost matching Taylor Swift's Fearless total.

Wherever she was, Susan Boyle probably had a very good Christmas. The singer, who has gone from an unknown to one of the biggest pop stars on the planet in the past six months, will make it a clean sweep next week when her debut, I Dreamed a Dream, will close out the year on the Billboard albums chart with a fifth straight week at #1.

MTV's #8 Woman of the Year has had a stranglehold on the top position since her album's release last month, and even though business was down 23 percent during the holiday week, she still managed to move another 510,000 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, which pushed her five-week sales total to a hair under 3 million.

Boyle has been on such a run that her totals in just under a month and a half almost equal the 2009 figures for the year's sales champ, Taylor Swift's Fearless. Boyle had a bit of competition, though, from another diva, Mary J. Blige, whose upbeat Stronger will hit the #2 slot, thanks to sales of 330,000. The only other top 10 debut was the first album from Lil Wayne's Young Money crew, We Are Young Money, which will land at #9 on sales of 142,000. Those figures likely would have been much higher had the album been bundled with Weezy's Rebirth disc, as originally planned. Wayne's album was moved to February two weeks ago, though an accidental shipment from Amazon.com to a few hundred customers has resulted in the entire album leaking online.

After hitting #2 in its first week, Alicia Keys' The Element of Freedom dipped 33 percent to #4 on sales of 280,000, while the rest of the top 10 remained mostly static. Tenor Andrea Bocelli held onto #3 with My Christmas (284,000), Swift was down one to #5 with Fearless (224,000), MTV's Woman of the Year Lady Gaga held firm at #6 with The Fame (169,000), Justin Bieber moved up on to #7 with My World (157,000), Carrie Underwood slipped three to #8 with Play On (153,000) and Michael Bublé fell a few to #10 with Crazy Love (137,000).

With the Refill reissue, Eminem's Relapse had a giant 83-spot leap to #11 as sales jumped 713 percent to 128,000. Rihanna's Rated R crept up three spots to #18 (91,000) as the album steamed toward half a million in sales after five weeks, while former boyfriend Chris Brown fell three to #31 after three weeks, as sales for Graffiti inched up to 60,000.

Things were not so great for R&B loverman Robin Thicke, whose star-studded seduction suite Sex Therapy: The Experience got the cold shoulder in week two, as sales dropped 50 percent to 61,000 and the album slid nearly 20 spots to #30. And in the battle of "American Idol" top finishers, runner-up Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment continued to dominate with sales of 62,000 (#29) as winner Kris Allen's self-titled debut fell another five spots to #55 (30,000).

Boyle looks to dominate into the new year, as no major releases were scheduled during the last week of 2009.

1 BOYLE*SUSAN I DREAMED A DREAM 510,000 (2,982,000)
2 MARY J. BLIGE STRONGER 330,000
3 BOCELLI*ANDREA MY CHRISTMAS 284,000 (2,190,000)
4 KEYS*ALICIA ELEMENT OF FREEDOM 280,000 (700,000)
5 SWIFT*TAYLOR FEARLESS 224,000 (5,269,000)
6 LADY GAGA FAME 169,000 (2,306,000)
7 BIEBER*JUSTIN MY WORLD 157,000 (676,000)
8 UNDERWOOD*CARRIE PLAY ON 153,000 (1,150,000)
9 YOUNG MONEY WE ARE YOUNG MONEY 142,000
10 BUBLE*MICHAEL CRAZY LOVE 137,000 (1,187,000)
11 EMINEM RELAPSE 128,000 (1,695,000)

OWL CITY OCEAN EYES 108,000 (609,000)
GLEE CAST GLEE: THE MUSIC, V2 102,000 (385,000)
VARIOUS NOW 32 93,000 (640,000)
GLEE VOL. 1-GLEE: THE MUSIC 89,000 (610,000)
RIHANNA RATED R 91,000 (459,000)
LAMBERT*ADAM FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT 62,000 (417,000)
THICKE*ROBIN SEX THERAPY: THE EXPERIENCE 61,000 (184,000)
BROWN*CHRIS GRAFFITI 60,000 (216,000)
DAUGHTRY LEAVE THIS TOWN 34,000 (870,000)
STEWART*ROD SOULBOOK 33,000 (321,000)
VARIOUS WOW HITS 2010 31,000 (234,000)
ALLEN*KRIS KRIS ALLEN 30,000 (219,000)
ARCHULETA*DAVID CHRISTMAS FROM THE HEART 25,000 (209,000)
VARIOUS NOW 31 20,000 (842,000)
VARIOUS NOW COUNTRY V2 16,000 (214,000)
SOUNDTRACK HANNAH MONTANA 3 15,000 (554,000)
CLARKSON*KELLY ALL I EVER WANTED 14,000 (810,000)
UNDERWOOD*CARRIE CARNIVAL RIDE 14,000 (3,042,000)
UNDERWOOD*CARRIE SOME HEARTS 13,000 (6,914,000)
IRAHETA*ALLISON JUST LIKE YOU 12,000 (70,000)
VARIOUS NOW COUNTRY CHRISTMAS 12,000 (131,000)
DAUGHTRY DAUGHTRY 12,000 (4,609,000)
PICKLER*KELLIE KELLIE PICKLER 8,000 (369,000)
LAMBERT*ADAM TAKE ONE 8,000 (38,000)
VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS VOL. 7-VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS 7,000 (48,000)
VARIOUS NOW COUNTRY 5,000 (404,000)
MANDISA FREEDOM 2,000 (85,000)

[badrobot]

Hmm I am a bit confused. In the opening paragraph it sounds like they are counting this as the last chart week of 2009. But in the last sentence they refer to next week as "the last week of 2009."

If we count next week as well (which it makes sense to do), you end up with the unusual event of having a 53-week chart year for 2009, since the first and last week of the year each had 4 days of sales. (Dec 29, 2008-Jan 4, 2009 and Dec 28,2009-Jan 3, 2010.)

[bibliotheque]

1. Susan Boyle - 510,000
2. Mary J Blige - 330,000
3. Andrea Bocelli - 284,000
4. Alicia Keys - 280,000
5. Taylor Swift - 224,000
6. Lady GaGa - 169,000
7. Justin Bieber - 157,000
8. Carrie Underwood - 153,000
9. Young Money - 142,000
10. Michael Buble - 137,000

11. Eminem - 128,000
18. Rihanna - 91,000
29. Adam Lambert - 62,000
30. Robin Thicke - 61,000
31. Chris Brown - 60,000
55. Kris Allen - 30,000

[Rodze]

www.billboard.com/news/susan-boyle-spends-fifth-week-at-no-1-on-1004055812.story#/news/susan-boyle-spends-fifth-week-at-no-1-on-1004055812.story
Susan Boyle Spends Fifth Week At No. 1 On Billboard 200

Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" holds at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a fifth consecutive week, selling another 510,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. So far, the set has shifted 2,982,000 copies in America.

"Dream" has sold more than half a million copies in each of its first five weeks of release -- something only four albums have done since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. The Beatles' "1" did it in its first six weeks, while Garth Brooks' "Sevens" and Backstreet Boys' "Black & Blue" each managed 500,000-plus frames in their first five weeks.

With just one more tracking week left in the year, "Dream" may overtake Taylor Swift's "Fearless" as the year's top selling album in the U.S. Swift's "Fearless" has sold 3,157,000 in 2009 -- thus, the gap between the two is down to just 175,000. Because of a quirk in the calendar, instead of 52 tracking weeks in 2009, there are 53. The final week of 2009 will reflect sales data for the week ending Jan. 3. Because four out of the seven days in that week fall in 2009, the full week gets credited to 2009.

Believe it or not, with the continued domination of "I Dreamed a Dream," Boyle is the first artist in the Billboard 200's 53-year chart history to enter the list at No. 1 with a debut album and spend five consecutive weeks at the summit. In second place are Lauryn Hill (1998) and Ashanti (2002), each with three weeks in charge out of the gate with "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" and "Ashanti," respectively.

Because Boyle continues to dominate the Billboard 200, a superstar diva is forced to sit on the sidelines again this week: Mary J. Blige's "Stronger With Each Tear" debuts at No. 2 with 330,000 copies. Her arrival comes one week after Alicia Keys' "The Element of Freedom" bowed at No. 2 behind Boyle with 417,000.

This is Blige's third studio album in a row to start with more than 300,000 sold. Her last set, "Growing Pains," launched at No. 1 with 629,000 in December of 2007, while "The Breakthrough" debuted at No. 1 with 727,000 in December of 2005. Blige is the ninth woman in SoundScan's 18-year history to see at least three albums all debut with an opening sales week of 300,000 or more. "Stronger" is her 10th top 10 album on the Billboard 200 and her seventh set to reach the top two slots. It fares better on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, where it starts at the summit. Now with nine No. 1s on the latter chart, Blige trails only Aretha Franklin (10 No. 1s) for most No. 1s among women in the R&B/Hip-Hop tally's 44-year history

Blige's "Stronger" is one of just two debuts within the top 40 of the Billboard 200 this week, as the year slowly comes to a close. The lone other entry comes from the "We Are Young Money" collaborations album featuring artists on Lil Wayne's Young Money label. It debuts at No. 9 with 142,000.

Next week's batch of debuts will look especially barren, as no major releases were issued this week. The next big arrival will be Ke$ha's "Animal" on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

The rest of this week's top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 remains full of familiar titles. Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" holds at No. 3 with 284,000 (down 27%) while Keys' "Freedom" falls two slots to No. 4 with 280,000 (down 33%). Swift's "Fearless" moves down one rung to No. 5 with 224,000 (down 6%), while Lady Gaga's "The Fame" stays put at No. 6 with 169,000 (up 20%). Justin Bieber's "My World" EP climbs from No. 8 to No. 7 with 157,000 (up 23%) while Carrie Underwood's "Play On" slides three slots to No. 8 with 153,000 (down less than 1%). Closing out the top 10 is Michael Buble's "Crazy Love," down three positions, with 137,000 (down 3%).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 27) totaled 17.14 million units, up 13% compared to the sum last week (15.14 million) and up 1% compared to the same sales week of 2008 (17.03 million). Year to date album sales stand at 374.6 million, down 13% compared to the same total at this point last year (428.4 million).

(Additional reporting by Gary Trust, Alex Vitoulis and Silvio Pietroluongo)

[badrobot]

Well that clears up my question about how they are officially viewing 2009 -- didn't realize the first article was from MTV, not Billboard.

Taylor will most likely remain #1 for the year though -- next week sales will fall too much overall for Susan to overtake her. Sales drops last year were mostly in the 50-70% range. Susan would have to have one of the strongest holds and Taylor one of the weakest in order to overcome the gap. There's a chance it could happen but I doubt it.

[popindustrialist]

Dec 30, 2009 11:46:55 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Hmm I am a bit confused. In the opening paragraph it sounds like they are counting this as the last chart week of 2009. But in the last sentence they refer to next week as "the last week of 2009."

If we count next week as well (which it makes sense to do), you end up with the unusual event of having a 53-week chart year for 2009, since the first and last week of the year each had 4 days of sales. (Dec 29, 2008-Jan 4, 2009 and Dec 28,2009-Jan 3, 2010.)

Every year is actually 365 & 1/4 days long, so we account for and burn off that extra 6 hours every 4 years with a Feb 29th leap year.

After 28 years, we have an extra week to burn off the calender, so we get a week 53.

It's Cesar's fault.

[badrobot]

Dec 30, 2009 12:08:42 GMT -5 @popindustrialist said:

Dec 30, 2009 11:46:55 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Hmm I am a bit confused. In the opening paragraph it sounds like they are counting this as the last chart week of 2009. But in the last sentence they refer to next week as "the last week of 2009."

If we count next week as well (which it makes sense to do), you end up with the unusual event of having a 53-week chart year for 2009, since the first and last week of the year each had 4 days of sales. (Dec 29, 2008-Jan 4, 2009 and Dec 28,2009-Jan 3, 2010.)

Every year is actually 365 & 1/4 days long, so we account for and burn off that extra 6 hours every 4 years with a Feb 29th leap year.

After 28 years, we have an extra week to burn off the calender, so we get a week 53.

It's Cesar's fault.

I appreciate the effort but your math's a bit off -- each year is actually 52 weeks + 1 day, with the exception of leap years, which are 52 weeks + 2 days.

So you actually end up with a week 53 every 5.5 years or so.

[popindustrialist]

Dec 30, 2009 12:17:11 GMT -5 badrobot said:

I appreciate the effort but your math's a bit off -- each year is actually 52 weeks + 1 day, with the exception of leap years, which are 52 weeks + 2 days.

So you actually end up with a week 53 every 5.5 years or so.

***Undelete****

The Earth rotates around the Sun once every 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, or 365.242199 days, or rounded, 365 and 1/4 days.

For 3 out of 4 years, we effectively pretend that the last 6 hours of every previous year happens simultaneously with the first 6 of a new year.

Then we "make up" the "ghost 24 hours" with a real day tacked onto the calender in years divisible exactly by 4.

So the Earth dosent rotate at one speed for 3 years, then speed up for 1 year, then regress.

I feel as though this moment, where we are arguing about outer space and calenders, is a breakthrough for all of us on Pulse.

[HolidayGuy]

Billboard notes that Mary J. is the 9th woman in the SoundScan era to see at least three albums debut with 300K+ in their first week- the other 8?

Celine Dion: 4 (I don't think These Are Special Times topped 300K in its first week)
Britney Spears: 4
Madonna: 3
Janet Jackson: 3
Mariah Carey: 3
Beyonce: 3
Alicia Keys: 3
Carrie Underwood: 3

[Push The Button]

These Are Special Times opened to 126,000 back in November 98.

[badrobot]

Other years with 53 chart weeks:

2009
2004
1998
1992
1987
1982

Next one is 2015.

[Arabella21]

Some rounded sales figures from the [url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2009/12/carrie-underwood-plays-on-through-christmas-in-idol-album-sales[a href="USA Today"]USA Today[/a] American Idol blog:

Carrie Underwood, Play On (153,000, 0 percent change, 1.15 million total/8,000 digital, +174 percent, 112,000 digital total)

Glee Cast, Glee: The Music Vol. 2 (102,000, -8 percent, 385,000/16,000 digital, +24 percent, 75,000 digital total)

Various, Now That's What I Call Music! 32 (93,000, -4 percent, 640,000/2,000 digital, +180 digital, 9,000 digital total)

Glee Cast, Glee: The Music Vol. 1 (89,000, -6 percent, 610,000/11,000, +51 percent, 114,000 digital total)

Adam Lambert, For Your Entertainment (62,000, +5 percent, 417,000/4,000 digital, +57 percent, 52,000 digital total)

Daughtry, Leave This Town (34,000, +13 percent, 870,000/3,000 digital, +105 percent, 144,000 digital total)

Rod Stewart, Soulbook (33,000, -9 percent, 321,000)

Various, WOW Hits 2010 (31,000, -19 percent, 234,000/2,000 digital, +7 percent, 4,000 digital total)

Kris Allen, Kris Allen (29,000, -6 percent, 219,000/2,000 digital, +85 percent, 34,000 digital)

David Archuleta, Christmas From the Heart (25,000, -22 percent, 209,000/2,000 digital, +5 percent, 26,000 digital total)

Various, Now That's What I Call Music! 31 (20,000, +13 percent, 842,000)

Various, Now That's What I Call Country Vol. 2 (16,000, +6 percent, 214,000)

Soundtrack, Hannah Montana 3 (15,000, no change, 554,000)

Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted (14,000, +8 percent, 810,000/1,000 digital, +74 percent, 168,000 digital total)

Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (14,000, +24 percent, 3.042 million)

Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts (13,000, +11 percent, 6.914 million)

Allison Iraheta, Just Like You (12,000, -4 percent, 70,000)

Various, Now That's What I Call Country Christmas (12,000, -52 percent, 131,000)

Daughtry, Daughtry (12,000, +16 percent, 4.609 million)

Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler (8,000, +10 percent, 369,000)

Adam Lambert, Take One (8,000, +11 percent, 38,000)

Various, A Very Special Christmas 7 (7,000, -37 percent, 48,000)

Various, Now That's What I Call Country (5,000, +10 percent, 404,000)

Mandisa, Freedom (2,000, -37 percent, 85,000)

[HolidayGuy]

Why does the Idol blog mention random, non-Idol-related titles? (i.e. Glee, Hanna Montana- especially Rod Stewart lol)

[Arabella21]

Dec 30, 2009 12:59:08 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

Why does the Idol blog mention random, non-Idol-related titles? (i.e. Glee, Hanna Montana- especially Rod Stewart lol)

Jennifer Hudson has a duet with Rod Stewart on that album and David Archuleta has a duet with HM. Kelly and Carrie each have one of their songs featured on a Glee soundtrack.

[areyoureadytojump]

SOUNDSCAN (WEEK ENDING 12/27/09)

1) Susan Boyle – I Dreamed A Dream – 510,166 (After 5 weeks – 2,967,893)
2) Mary J. Blige – Stronger – 330,354
3) Andrea Bocelli – My Christmas – 283,683

Other Debuts
9) Young Money – We Are Young Money – 142,118

[Deleted]

Top sales weeks 2009

1 12/12/2009 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 700,779
2 1/2/2010 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 661,227
3 6/6/2009 RELAPSE EMINEM 606,244
4 12/26/2009 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 581,966
5 12/19/2009 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 527,345
6 1/9/2010 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 510,166
7 3/21/2009 NO LINE ON THE HORIZON U2 483,925
8 9/26/2009 THE BLUEPRINT 3 JAY-Z 475,670
9 12/19/2009 MY CHRISTMAS ANDREA BOCELLI 428,351
10 6/20/2009 BIG WHISKEY & THE GROOGRUX KING DAVE MATTHEWS BAND 424,089
11 1/2/2010 ELEMENT OF FREEDOM ALICIA KEYS 417,277
12 12/26/2009 MY CHRISTMAS ANDREA BOCELLI 400,433
13 11/14/2009 MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT MICHAEL JACKSON 373,100
14 4/25/2009 UNSTOPPABLE RASCAL FLATTS 351,025
15 7/25/2009 NUMBER ONES MICHAEL JACKSON 348,507
16 7/18/2009 NUMBER ONES MICHAEL JACKSON 339,000
17 1/9/2010 STRONGER WITH EACH TEAR MARY J BLIGE 330,354
18 11/21/2009 PLAY ON CARRIE UNDERWOOD 317,095
19 7/25/2009 BLACKSUMMER'S NIGHT MAXWELL 316,499
20 9/19/2009 I LOOK TO YOU WHITNEY HOUSTON 304,801

[Rodze]

Eminem, party pooper.

[#LisaRinna]

Did Susan pass Taylor?

[Deleted]

not yet

[c0ldasfire]

Wow, HDD really overestimated Susan Boyle's sales, they predicted 600-625k for her this week.

[#LisaRinna]

Dec 30, 2009 13:41:37 GMT -5 @2m said:

not yet

Will she next week?

[👑 Eloquent ™]

Dec 30, 2009 13:45:11 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Dec 30, 2009 13:41:37 GMT -5 @2m said:

not yet

Will she next week?

I'll refer you to this post:

Dec 30, 2009 11:54:35 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Here are the roughly updated totals based on BB's rounded figures of 510k for Susan and 224k for Taylor this week.

1 TAYLOR SWIFT - FEARLESS 3,158,000
2 SUSAN BOYLE - I DREAMED A DREAM 2,974,000

At this point it looks like anyone claiming Susan would easily be #1 for the year will most likely be wrong. Even if both albums have an extremely modest 50% drop next week (I would guess closer to 70% for both), you'd have:

Taylor 3,158,000 + 112,000 = 3,270,000
Susan 2,974,000 + 255,000 = 3,229,000

[Deleted]

Until we get more information, we don't know that both will drop the same amount

We should just wait


Taylor Swift being #1 next week is not a lock

[👑 Eloquent ™]

Dec 30, 2009 13:50:48 GMT -5 @2m said:

Taylor Swift being #1 next week is not a lock

...and Susan isn't a lock either. Point being, some claimed Susan passing Taylor for the year's best-selling album would be inevitable or a certainty, when it actuality it doesn't appear to be "on lock" as some expected.

[Rodze]

2m likes to argue over petty things, acts like he's always right and doesn't know how to use the edit button, but he was one of (if not the only one) the few people that believed Susan could even challenge Taylor for best selling album of the year. Even if she ends up at no. 2, I'd say he's more right than everyone else in this case.

Let's give credit where its due.

SuBo's album sales are an exact replication of her first performance that got millions of veiws: most people were laughing saying she wouldn't sell that much, then she goes and blows everyone out of the water.

[badrobot]

Dec 30, 2009 13:50:48 GMT -5 @2m said:

Until we get more information, we don't know that both will drop the same amount

We should just wait


Taylor Swift being #1 next week is not a lock

It's not a lock, but you've been saying for weeks that Susan will end up #1. I've been saying all along it'll be close but the odds favor Taylor.

If Susan only fell 50%, and Taylor fell 70%, then Susan would squeak by with a margin of 4,000 copies.

But I don't think there's any reason to believe that Susan will have such a dramatically better hold than Taylor.

Note that the #1s the week after Christmas have had the following totals (both 07 and 06 were debuts at #1):

2008: 89k
2007: 122k
2006: 119k

SuBo's had an amazing run but I don't know if she could buck that trend of low numbers by that large of a margin.

[badrobot]

Dec 30, 2009 14:02:27 GMT -5 Rodze said:

2m likes to argue over petty things, acts like he's always right and doesn't know how to use the edit button, but he was one of (if not the only one) the few people that believed Susan could even challenge Taylor for best selling album of the year. Even if she ends up at no. 2, I'd say he's more right than everyone else in this case.

Let's give credit where its due.

So someone who said Susan would be #1, even if she ends up #2, is "more right" than someone said Taylor would be #1 if she ends up being #1?

That's some interesting logic.

[👑 Eloquent ™]

Dec 30, 2009 14:02:27 GMT -5 Rodze said:

2m likes to argue over petty things, acts like he's always right and doesn't know how to use the edit button, but he was one of (if not the only one) the few people that believed Susan could even challenge Taylor for best selling album of the year. Even if she ends up at no. 2, I'd say he's more right than everyone else in this case.

Let's give credit where its due.

Anyone who had the ability to view Billboard articles and sales charts over the past few weeks would know Susan was challenging Taylor for the best-selling album of the year. However, I don't recall most claiming Susan claiming the top position was a certainty.

[Rodze]

Dec 30, 2009 14:04:03 GMT -5 badrobot said:

So someone who said Susan would be #1, even if she ends up #2, is "more right" than someone said Taylor would be #1 if she ends up being #1?

That's some interesting logic.

The crazy predictions are always the most interesting.

Just like the people saying last year/start of this year Lady Gaga would sell 3 million copies were seen as delusional st.ans. Well, look at her now.

[👑 Eloquent ™]

Dec 30, 2009 14:10:09 GMT -5 Rodze said:

Dec 30, 2009 14:04:03 GMT -5 badrobot said:

So someone who said Susan would be #1, even if she ends up #2, is "more right" than someone said Taylor would be #1 if she ends up being #1?

That's some interesting logic.

The crazy predictions are always the most interesting.

If those predictions are actually realized.....

Also, last time I checked, GaGa was just over two million, not three.