SADE’S LOVE IS IN THE AIR
The British-Nigerian chanteuse returns with her new Epic release, Soldier of Love, the first since 2000’s Lovers Rock, and it’s as if she’s never been away.
The folks at Team Epic are still counting sales, now up to an impressive 481k for the week, good for a chart-topping #1 bow, which is a lot of boxes of chocolates.
Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Lady Antebellum Need You Now more than ever, the group also benefiting from romance, landing at #2, with 210k, up 4% from the previous week. Look for their appearance on Oprah this Friday (2/19) to catapult sales next Tuesday.
Atlantic’s Jaheim is the chart’s next biggest debut, with Another Round bowing at #3, racking up a nifty 115k for the R&B crooner, while MCA Nashville country-rocker Josh Turner’s Haywire enters at #5, selling more than 80k, with Cash Money/Universal Motown rapper-turned-rocker Lil Wayne’s Rebirth sandwiched in between at #4. The only other Top 10 newcomer is veteran Grammy-winning Christian artist tobyMac, whose Forefront Records release, Tonight, arrives at #7, with 66k.
Interscope’s Black Eyed Peas (#8), Columbia’s Susan Boyle (#9, +15%) and Big Machine’s Taylor Swift (#10) round out the chart leaders.
Other new Top 50 entries include RCA/RMG’s Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (#15), Sire Finnish metal bangers HIM (#20), Watertower Music’s Valentine’s Day soundtrack (#21) and Virgin/EMI’s Massive Attack (#47).
Outside of Sade, there was no bigger beneficiary of hearts and flowers than Michael Buble, whose Reprise album, Crazy Love, soars #22-11, up a whopping 92%, while the digital-only Special Delivery EP bows at #24.
Other upward 25% or more gains are registered by New West’s Crazy Heart soundtrack (#48-34, +61%), Capitol/EMI’s Now That What’s I Call Love (#40-31, +43%), Hollywood’s Selena Gomez & the Scene (#41-33, +42%), Rhino’s Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakquel soundtrack (#26-18, +37%), Geffen’s Mary J. Blige (#17-13, +31%), Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Darius Rucker (#49-48, +30%) and Island/IDJ’s Justin Bieber (#20-17, +25%).
