ONE-DAY SALES:
CELINE, NOW, NEWCOMER IN TOP-OF-CHART TUSSLE

It’s okay, you can say it: You really like the Canadian chick who sang that boat song.

Now hold on a minute—how dare you call Celine Dion a “Canadian chick”?!? She’s Celine Dion, dammit!

Okay, deep breath. We’re going to let that slide…for now. But only because we have more pressing matters to attend to: Like the fact that Murder Inc./IDJ debut artist Ashanti is selling hella strong out of the box and looks like a serious contender for #1 on next week’s HITS Top 50 Albums chart.

Yes indeed, according to early reports from national accounts (we love saying that), the new Crossover goddess, whose single “Foolish” is everywhere right now, is on track to sell 350k or better, thanks in part to aggressive pricing (the album’s selling for as low as $8.99 at Target) made possible by UMVD’s unusual $2 rebate program.

Those kind of numbers mean that the young artist stands a good chance of knocking Canada’s finest out of the top chart slot after only one week. Retail prognosticators are prognosticating that Celine’s album may drop as much as 40-50% from its 553k debut, while Now 9 will likely settle anywhere from 30-40% in its third week on the chart.

Elsewhere in the land of major Crossover debuts, Elektra’s Tweet is also pulling strong numbers, with Southern Hummingbird looking like it’ll log a solid 150k by week’s end.

So buckle up and brace for yet another upset at the top of the chart. And for God’s sake, have a little respect for our Canadian neighbors to the north.

Have a nice day, eh?