With 54.02% reporting in, Madonna has herself another number one album (her 8th). “MDNA” is her first album of new music since 2008 (“Hard Candy” – 280K in its 1st week) and here she proves that a flopped first single doesn’t spell certain doom. For that matter, neither does a second struggling single if you have a name as big as Madonna. She is predicted to sell between 300-350K.
Sitting in second place is another solo act from the 80s, Lionel Richie. When I first saw that Lionel was releasing a Country album, I thought he was getting desperate. But, then I found out it was duets of his previous hits with Country stars and realized he was uber-smart. Duets seem to be a sure-fire winner and making the covers “fresh” by changing the genre has proven to be very successful. Lionel first got his start as part of the Commodores way back in 1968. The dude is 62 right now, so it’s kind of fun that two acts over 53 are topping the chart this week. Lionel hasn’t had a debut week this high since 1986. Predictions last week were that he would sell between 120-150K, but with 140K in sales already, he may be able to beat that. Lionel sold more than 20K on one hour on the Home Shopping Network alone. He has also been acting as a Voice mentor for the last 4 weeks.
Then, there is Queen Adele. She likes to stay in the top 3 and her album “21” just keeps selling and selling and selling. Shinedown is at 4, 1D is staying relatively steady at 5 for their 3rd week. Katy Perry sees a surge to 6th (why?). The Soundtrack to the Hunger Games is at 7th. Now 41 is 8th, Whitney’s “Greatest Hits” are 9th (she is also at 34th and 39th) and Luke Bryan closes out the top 10.
Riding high with an Idol performance and ACM win, Scotty is the top Idol at 13th. Kelly is next at 16th and also appears on Jason Aldean’s album at 14th (and also won an ACM). Casey James is at 41 for his second week. Chris Richardson appears on Tyga’s album at 43. Voice Judge, Blake Shelton is at 24 while his co-judge Adam’s group’s album clings to the top 50.
CHART DATE: 04/02/2012
LAST UPDATE: 04/02/2012 12:08:51
NOW IN: 54.02%
LW TW artist / album label power index
— 1 MADONNA MDNA 147,686
— 2 LIONEL RICHIE TUSKEGEE 139,522
2 3 ADELE 21 74,058
— 4 SHINEDOWN AMARYLLIS 40,477
4 5 ONE DIRECTION UP ALL NIGHT 21,072
— 6 KATY PERRY TEENAGE DREAM 19,696
1 7 HUNGER GAMES: SONGS FROM DISTRIC SOUNDTRACK 18,350
9 8 NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 41 VARIOUS ARTISTS 16,956
8 9 WHITNEY HOUSTON WHITNEY – THE GREATEST HITS 15,393
16 10 LUKE BRYAN TAILGATES & TANLINES 15,068
…
— 13 SCOTTY MCCREERY MERC CLEAR AS DAY 9,262
23 14 JASON ALDEAN MY KINDA PARTY 9,144
…
18 16 KELLY CLARKSON STRONGER 8,644
…
— 24 BLAKE SHELTON RED RIVER BLUE 6,102
…
36 28 BODYGUARD SOUNDTRACK 5,348
…
40 34 WHITNEY HOUSTON I LOOK TO YOU 4,477
…
— 39 WHITNEY HOUSTON WHITNEY HOUSTON 4,142
…
24 41 CASEY JAMES CASEY JAMES 3,940
…
20 43 TYGA CARELESS WORLD 3,862
…
— 50 MAROON 5 HANDS ALL OVER 2,937
