MARY J. BLIGE'S BREAKTHROUGH CONTINUES AT #1
Geffen R&B diva Mary J. Blige returns to the #1 slot this week with The Breakthrough, which continues into platinum-plus territory chalking up sales of 117k this week, easily topping J Records multimedia star Jamie Foxx’s Unpredictable, which lands at #2 with slightly below 100k.
The best we can say is, there are 10 albums in the Top 10 this week. Barely.
Newly betrothed Eminem’s Shady/Aftermath/Interscope best-of, Curtain Call, remains at #3, with Arista/RMG country crossover princess Carrie Underwood holding strong at #4 with Some Hearts.
Notorious B.I.G.’s posthumous duets album on Bad Boy/Atlantic (#5), Island comeback queen Mariah Carey (#6), Nickelback’s Roadrunner/IDJ effort (#7), Chris Brown’s self-titled Jive/ZLG debut (#8), Johnny Cash’s Island compilation (#9) and The Black Eyed Peas’ multi-platinum Monkey Business (#10) round out the Top 10.
Coming on the heels of three Golden Globe awards for the Cash biopic, Walk the Line, including acting nods for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, will no doubt keep the momentum going for the Man in Black, whose I Walk the Line: The Legend of Johnny Cash busts into the Top 10 for the first time.
Other significant upward movements were registered by A&M/Interscope’s Pussycat Dolls (#18-13), Capitol Nashville’s Trace Adkins (#32-18), Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s Juelz Santana (#31-20), BNA’s Kenny Chesney (#37-23), Def Jam South/IDJ rapper Young Jeezy (#33-24), Derrty/Universal’s Nelly (#41-30), Interscope multi-Grammy nominee Gwen Stefani (#44-37) and DreamWorks’ punk-rockers All-American Rejects (#47-41).
VP/Atlantic’s dancehall star Sean Paul (#43), A&M/Interscope’s Keyshia Cole (#44) and Mercury Nashville’s Billy Currington (#50) all return to the chart.
Don’t look for any debuts on the chart next week, with Capitol’s Yellowcard the next big release next Tuesday (1/24). Syco Music/Columbia tenors Il Divo, Atlantic’s P.O.D., Sony’s Grammy Nominees 2006 and UTV’s NOW #1s will also come out the same day.
