With Huge First Day, Mariah On Track For No. 1 Debut

 

April 16, 2008, 6:30 PM ET

 

Mariah Carey looks certain to debut at No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200 with "E=MC2," based on massive first-day sales from the nine chains that report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building Chart.

 

Unweighted sales for the Island Def Jam album are at 154,000 units on the report released today (April 16). That's more than five times the total garnered by the current chart-topper, Leona Lewis' "Spirit" (Syco/J).

 

By comparison, Carrie Underwood's "Carnival Ride" (Arista Nashville) had first-day sales of 150,000 and wound up shifting 527,000 in its first week.

 

Billboard estimates that the merchants who report to the Building Chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Starbucks, Best Buy, Circuit City, iTunes, Border's, Target, Anderson Merchandisers, and Handleman Co. -- represent 80% of the U.S. retail market.

 

Carey's last release, 2005's "The Emancipation of Mimi," debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 404,000 copies.

 

 

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003790509

 

 

 

I wonder if her American Idol appearance last night will increase this figure.

 

 

I knew should debut at #1, but I didn't think sales would be that big. Good for her ^_^

 

I wonder what Madonna's first week sales will be ...

 

 

US sales are so low nowadays that she could sell 50.000 copies and still get to number 1....

wow that's a good number

US sales are so low nowadays that she could sell 50.000 copies and still get to number 1....

 

Which is why selling 154,000 in just one day is very impressive.