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The power of publicity = downloads = high Hot100 placing.

I'm actually thinking Beyonce has a good shot at #1, she's got two reasonably strong, radio friendly songs on the AA-side.

Leona might chart higher than all those, but I don't necessarily think it will be #1. She's not indestructable.

I wonder where Oasis will be next week, #35? I am sure someone will soon edit their Wikipedia page with US certification for this album at "2X platinum" or something just because it debuted in the top10 :rolleyes:

The single will easily be top5. It's a sleeper hit, low expectations, isn't even in the latest radio airplay chart but it's gaining momentum and will probably maintain its sales next week too.

It's ok, certainly not that instant and doesn't have a neat chorus. Seems like a very self-indulgent Gary Barlow song. They probably know they are going to #1 so maybe they have taken the foot off the gas.

Crazy to say "oh it'll be #1 for ages", is it ever that predictable?

And then in the future when we say how many copies it sold by the Sunday we'll be all awe-inspired, totally forgetting that they really only sold half that amount at a normal price. The record company and artist will make about tuppence from this limited edition Tesco deal, it's all marketing and publicity!

Top20 I think, Ne-Yo is not that amazing, he's not indestructible. With this and the generic song he produced for Leona, I think it may signal the end of his sound on the charts vis a vis chart success and popularity, I think he needs to reinvent his sound pretty sharpish!

Hopefully Kings of Leon, Will Young, Oasis and Keane will prevent Boyzone from getting top3. And in the coming weeks/months I think pretty much all the indie/rock albums will beat the pop ones, even if some are just Greatest Hits albums they will include some new material.

Pleased Will didn't go lower than #2 and that Sugababes over-took Boyzone.

He is talking rubbish when comparing her to Leona, Leona had the American market on a silver plate. Granted, she is a talented vocalist, but she has all the money and clout behind her from Clive Davis, only did a month of promotion (she did not work her guts out in America promoting herself for months or even years like this idiot journalist is implying) and was given American produced songs to sing. I bet many Americans who bought Spirit and/or downloaded Bleeding Love don't even know she is British, she could easily be another r&b US artist with a good song.

I don't see her selling more than 1million copies of the album in the US overall, the album hasn't got legs and Bleeding Love is by far the highlight. She's got enough money pumped into her from Clive Davis to not fall too drastically in the weeks to come and I am sure he will make sure she gets at least a Grammy nomination later this year with Bleeding Love. And I very much doubt it will be as much as 200k, I would say 170k is more reasonable. Mariah will definitely knock her off the top spot the week after. And Madonna will then reduce their sales later this month. Once Bleeding Love has faded I would say Spirit will be on about 400k. I would say a further 100k per single release will be generated in album sales. Touch My Body should be #1 again next week, I don't think Leona can do the double, Mariah is going up a gear with US promo so it will help both single and album.

It's a boring song and it's a joke that Cheryl gets a credit when she is doing feint backing vocals at best. It's very similar to when Alesha appeared in that video with N.E.R.D, and that made no impact with her career in the US.

My god, comments like this really make ones skin CRAWL. No promotion? Oprah and Leno IS the biggest promotion in the US one can get (fact). And she has been promoted heavily on the internet by Clive Davis' coiffers and the song played around as a sublinimal message throughout the media. It is natural that most of us are slightly cynical about the whole thing and would truly be thrilled for British acts like Duffy and Amy Winehouse to do well as they have produced their own music from their own roots and are having to really work hard to get success. Leona has been handed everything on a silver plate and her album isn't even that good, which many music critics have noted when reviewing the album last year.

While a Billboard Hot100 #1 single (or top3) is very nice, it has no guarantee for sustainable success in America. The album chart is a lot harder to crack too. If she does well in the album chart ie. spends many weeks in the higher echelons, then she could build on that. However, I don't think Sprit is a very strong album bar Bleeding Love and she doesn't quite have the same zing factor as Mariah, Whitney, Xtina etc. I am sure with the deal she has with Simon Cowell, she ain't going to be seeing much cash despite selling all these units of the single (and the album), she needs to get some control over her career or she could be a distant memory in 2 years.

Music artists have become more diverse, the charts aren't the main thing like it used to be. Artists have become 'celebrities' as well, doing a number of things, and when put together shows their true popularity, not solely based on where they are in the charts. An artist can sell out the 02 Arena for 17 nights, but not get in the top10 singles chart or sell masses of albums nowadays, just look at Prince and the Spice Girls. The charts don't mean the world anymore.