Crossing the Blues

Taylor Swift Makes Historical No. 1 Debut With More Than 1 Million Copies


Taylor Swift makes a grand entry on Billboard Hot 200. Her latest studio effort "Speak Now" firmly grabs the No. 1 position by selling 1,047,000 copies in its first week, scoring the biggest sales week for an album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" invaded the chart with 1,141,000 in March 2005.

In addition, the impressive sale debut has made Swift one of four solo female acts to ever sell more than a million albums in just a week. The other three record holders are Britney Spears' 2000 "Oops!...I Did It Again" (1,310,000), Whitney Houston's 1992 "The Bodyguard" soundtrack (1,061,000) and Norah Jones' 2004 "Feels Like Home" (1,022,000).

The 20-year-old singer might fall short of scoring the all-time record for the best first week by a female artist, but she holds the biggest sales week of any female country act in the Nielsen SoundScan era (which began in 1991). In addition, she grabs the second-largest sales week of any country album behind Garth Brooks who bowed 1,085,000 copies with his 1998 album "Double Live".

On top of breaking those records, Swift has taken the title of 2010's best chart debut, beating Eminem's "Recovery" which arrived at No. 1 with 741,000 units earlier this year. To snatch this year's biggest-selling album, she however has to be able to push aside the Slim Shady who is now leading the pack with around 2.9 million.

"I... Can't... Believe... This... You guys have absolutely lit up my world. Thank you," Swift tweeted just after the sales figure was revealed. Fellow singer Justin Bieber who once supported her in her "Fearless" dates also congratulated her, "Congrats to my friend and someone I admire and was there for me from day 1. U did it."

The other person who is proud of her achievement of course is her label boss in Big Machine Records. "It's always been a rarity," Borchetta told MTV. "How many artists in the SoundScan era have done a million? Shania [Twain] never did it. Garth [Brooks] did it once. I hate to say it, but if we can get there, it could be the last time."

Not only her label but also people from other record companies seem to have predicted this milestones as they cleverly avoid competition with Swift by emptying the October 25 - 26 release date calendar. Beside "Speak Now", the only new entry on the Top 10 of the U.S. albums chart is "Crazy Love Hollywood Edition" by Michael Buble. It lands at No. 10 with 26,000 copies sold.

The rest of the chart are mainly secured by holdovers. Sugarland sits at No. 2, Kings of Leon at No. 3, Lil Wayne at No. 4, Eminem at No. 5, Elton John at No. 6, latest "Glee" soundtrack at No. 7, Rod Stewart at. 8, and Darius Rucker at No. 9.

Top 10 of Billboard Hot 200:
  1. "Speak Now" - Taylor Swift (1,047,000)
  2. "The Incredible Machine" - Sugarland (86,000)
  3. "Come Around Sundown" - Kings of Leon (67,000)
  4. "I'm Not a Human Being" - Lil Wayne (43,000)
  5. "Recovery" - Eminem (38,000)
  6. "The Union" - Elton John and Leon Russell (37,000)
  7. "Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show" - various artists (31,000)
  8. "Fly Me to the Moon...The Great American Songbook Volume V" - Rod Stewart (30,000)
  9. "Charleston, SC 1966" - Darius Rucker (27,000)
  10. "Crazy Love Hollywood Edition" - Michael Buble (26,000)
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