Thursday, December 30, 2010

Taylor Swift Stays Firm Atop Hot 200 With 'Speak Now'


Closing 2009 by scoring U.S. best-selling album with her "Fearless", Taylor Swift is now going to end this year atop Billboard Hot 200. Her latest effort "Speak Now" holds the first position, which she successfully snatched from Susan Boyle's "The Gift" last week, by adding 276,000 copies. It's her third non-consecutive week atop the chart.

As "Speak Now" is unmoved from its last week's position, "The Gift"
also remains steady at the second place with another 240,000 units. Jackie Evancho's "O Holy Night" stands still at the fourth as well, selling another 151,000. Michael Jackson's self-titled album, however, was forced to give up its third position, swapping places with "Glee" Christmas album. The posthumous set drops with 150,000, and the yuletide collection moves up with 160,000.

The highest chart debut this week is Jamie Foxx's "Best Night of My Life" which enters at No. 6 with 144,000. Keyshia Cole's "Calling All Hearts" is another album which breaks the Top 10 list. It bows at the ninth place on the U.S. albums chart with 128,000.

"Recovery" makes its return to the Top 10 at No. 7. The Eminem album pulls in 137,000, adding a total of around 3.3 million copies and becoming this year's U.S. best-selling album so far. Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" follows at No. 8 with 133,000, and Rihanna's "Loud" rounds up the Top 10 with 111,000.

Elsewhere, Bruno Mars scores the third biggest sales week for a digital song in history as his single "Grenade" rules Digital Songs chart with 559,000 downloads. In respective order, the first and second biggest digital sales week are Flo Rida's "Right Round" (636,000), and Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" (610,000).
  1. "Speak Now" - Taylor Swift (276,000)
  2. "The Gift" - Susan Boyle (240,000)
  3. "Glee: The music, The Christmas Album" - various artists (160,000)
  4. "O Holy Night" - Jackie Evancho (151,000)
  5. "Michael" - Michael Jackson (150,000)
  6. "Best Night of My Life - Jamie Foxx (144,000)
  7. "Recovery" - Eminem (137,000)
  8. "Pink Friday" - Nicki Minaj (133,000)
  9. "Calling All Hearts" - Keyshia Cole (128,000)
  10. "Loud" - "Rihanna" (111,000)