YOUNG CHRIS BROWN IS A TRUE STAR AT #1
“It’s exciting to have a fresh new artist who appeals to the same customers that typically buy Usher,” says Wherehouse/TransWorld’s Violet Brown. “He has an explosive single; he’s young, great looking and he puts on a great live show. Chris Brown is the guy right now—and with his talent, I think he’ll be around for a long time. Chris Brown is a STAR!”
Brown beat out the perfect stocking stuffer that our forecasters predicted would be #1—UTV’s Now That’s What I Call Music 20—which still managed to come in at #2, with 153k. Speaking of true stars, American Idol Carrie Underwood (Arista/RMG) jumped four spots to #3, with 146k. And she’s purdier than both Brown and cowboy-hat-wearin’ wunderkind Kenny Chesney (BNA), who dropped two spots to #4, with 133k.
At the halfway mark is this week’s only other Top 10 debut: Epic’s lovely Shakira, who comes in #5, with 129k copies of her new English-speaking CD. Dudette has an Oral Fixation, don’cha know? (As in English...get your minds out of the gutter, guys.) And the ladies continue to rule this week, with Reprise’s Enya also rising, jumping two spots to #6, with 108k...followed by yet another diva—Mariah Carey (Island/IDJ), who moved 106k units of her Emancipation of Mimi re-released deluxe package.
As we predicted last week, Roadrunner’s rockin’ Nickelback returned to the Top 10, hitting #8, with 104k. Rounding out the bottom of the Top 10 are American/Columbia’s System of a Down at #9, with 99k, and Warner Bros.’ Madonna—also purdier than Chris Brown (or System of a Down, for that matter)—at #10, with 97k.
Other notable debuts include Epic’s new, if not improved, INXS at #15, with 77k, and a live one from RCA/RMG’s Dave Matthews Band at #28, with 47k. Considering that the other Top 50 debuts are Christmas albums from Lava/Atl’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra (344, with 38k); Arista/RMG’s Kenny G (#48, with 34k) and the various artists collected on UTV’s Now That’s What I Call Christmas (#50, with 33k), one would almost think there’s only 19 days left until the big event. So ho, ho, ho...and as Kanye West might say if he was here: President Bush don’t care about white Christmases.
Watch for debuts next week from Eminem, Korn, Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Lindsay Lohan, Ja Rule and Ashanti.
