It’s official. Simon Cowell’s boy band, One Direction will bow on the Billboard 200 tomorrow at #1, selling 176k copies of their debut album, Up All Night, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
If that news isn’t sweet enough, the lads made Billboard history as the first U.K group to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Previously, the highest bow for a U.K. group’s first album came on Feb. 22, 1997, when Spice Girls’ “Spice” started at No. 6. The album eventually climbed to No. 1 in its 14th week on the list, spending five nonconsecutive frames in the penthouse.
So, there you go. Congratulations Simon and co. This should bode well for the Groups category when X Factor comes back to FOX in the fall. Do you think Simon will mentor the groups this year? Maybe he’ll try to see if he can make lightning strike twice! One Direction were 3rd place finishers in the seventh series of X Factor UK. (Via Billboard)