Apologies for the backhanded compliment, but I didn’t expect Chrisette Michele to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week. Not that I don’t appreciate her R&B singer-songwriter style, which can be lovely at times — I just didn’t realize things had changed so much since her first album opened all the way down at No. 29 two years ago. Actually, on second thought, maybe they haven’t changed all that much. Michele’s new chart-topper, Epiphany, sold just 83,000 copies, which is the lowest sales total for a No. 1 debut since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track 18 years ago. At least she outdid the 81,000 units moved by No. 3 finisher Ciara‘s Fantasy Ride, the album that I would have predicted to win this week.
Meanwhile, Ben Harper and Relentless7 came in at No. 9 with 34,000 copies sold of their White Lies for Dark Times. Metalcore bros The Devil Wears Prada, who have to deserve some sort of award for least creative band name ever, made it to No. 11 with 31,000 of their With Roots Above and Branches Below. And that was it for Top 20 debuts, crushing my half-serious dream that St. Vincent’s Actor, which hit stores the same week as all those other albums, might somehow squeak its way in there. Guess it was never meant to be…but I’ll take one more opportunity to politely suggest that you buy that album if you like indie rock, because it is awesome. Anyway: Any thoughts on this week’s albums chart?
More from EW’s Music Mix:
Ciara talks Fantasy Ride, responds to Beyonce rip-off gossip: "All I can do is laugh"
Bob Dylan tops the albums chart in a slow week
Rick Ross outperforms Asher Roth on the charts
No opinion on charts from me…but Chrissette had the better reviewed CD. Less than 100,000 aint raising H**ll though, that’s for sure.
Thought? Yep, here’s one: Chrisette Michele’s album was pimped on the Amazon MP3 Special Deals page. It was sold there at $2.99 for the past week, starting the Monday before it was available everywhere else. Shazam! (And if you’re not checking it out every day, you’re missing out on some great deals that iTunes just can’t touch: http://tinyurl.com/8ccse6 I’ve saved myself hundreds this year thanks to this!)
Ciara’s last album debuted at #1 selling 338000, and went platinum 5 weeks later.
Hmmm… I thought Ciara sold 70k in one day..how is she getting out beat by R&B hipacrit Chirrelle..or whatever the hell her name is..Ciara is a definete.. For that #1 spot this week…her last album sold 300,000 her first week and went platinum the following month..and her debut “Goodies” sold 3,000,000 copies in the U.S//// c’mon now…Ciara is expected to sell more then that this week…how would yall know anyway..Billboard doesn’t post up until tomorrow
Ciara fell off I mean damn I’m glad she didn’t get the top spot with those sales. Who wants the #1 spot with the lowest sales in the past 18 years? Po thang to both of them.
I feel bad for Ciara, i bought the album. I wish her success and hope things turn out good.
Lets do the math!!! Okay Cherelle came in at #1 but how much money did she make??? Not that much I would say…if her album was only selling out for 2$ on amason and 9$ in iTunes that would average out to 6$ times the number of copies sold (83,000)..that would make her roughly only $480,000 for her and her team..wow..that’s it?..While Ciara was selling her album between $13-$18..average that out to $16 times the number of sales (81,000) makes her and her team roughly around $1,300,000. WOW…so who really won out??,and Hannah Montana had promotion with album…so expect a couple more videos and a major tour for Ciara who’s bringing in major money!!! Unlike some ppl who just risk prices to come in at #1 for one good week….
Yall sitting up where defending Ciara’s wack, no inspiration having album???
Get outta here, just like Keri Hilson said she’s tired and weak….Don’t just put an album out to put an album, MAKE MUSIC!!!
Chrisette is still number 1, no matter where or how much her album cost AND she still has the better album….
Kick rocks on that one SON!
Peace!!!!!!
Chrisette Michele’s album is FANTASTIC and deserves the success. OK, 83,000 units isn’t exactly flying off the shelves, but it *will* build on positive word of mouth, because it is that strong.
Now I don’t dislike Ciara and though the numbers mentioned in this article don’t fully support my statement, I do think there’s enough audience for them both.
In regards to CT comment. This is someone who interacts with Jive. The album bombed big time for them. Record labels base the revenue on how much was spent on the artist and in Ciaras case, plenty was on promotion, producers and other artist she worked with on the album. The first record she did with t-pain which was a good record but for whatever reason the public didn’t respond well to it so they pulled it back and tried to say it wasn’t a single. Justin Timberlake, there is no artist bigger then him at this very moment(sold almost 9mil on his last album) and other artist cost plenty. Justin is at Jive so maybe she got a discount and t-pain A&R my man memphits is head of A&R so maybe another discount. Chrisette is a much lesser artist and not much money is spent by def jam. Return on investment is greater. Now more money has to be spent on Ciara to push this album. Jive is not known to push their artist. She’s in a box but nothing a great great song can’t fix. She has to be careful.
First of all, to the writer- Chrisette’s first cd was great and not the cookie-cutter r&b cd of every other female artist in existence- Beyonce, Cierra, Kelly Rowland, etc. Chrisette offered something beyond sex to an r&b track. Her new cd brings more although she did try to reach out to a more pop sounding cd thanks to Neo. Aside from that, I wonder if any of her critics ever actually listened to her cd. For the writer to say her style is lovely at times and then recommend an indie rock album suggests to me they should leave critique of r&b to r&b fans.
That’s a rather blanket statement, L. I like her cd and think she deserves a good career, but retro R&B does not equal original. Just because those other artists are more contemporary in production and writing does not make them all the same, and does not make Chrisettes work stand out any more just because she has more traditional influences, in fact one could argue it makes her even more derivative of the past.
well i love ciara and chrisette, but when it came to buying the cd, i bought ciara’s. honestly i am still shocked because i swear i had to go to 3(three) different walmarts to find and buy her cd because they were all sold out in the first two places i went to. oh well, this does nothing for me..i thought the album was her best to date. she is currently working on two new singles for the summer” work and like surgeon” …if this is actually true, she is going #1..
I think that Chrisette Michelle’s very positive reviews might have made people get her album more than Ciara. Ciara’s got good to mixed to bad reviews from what I read. But I liked her album, very fun dance heavy tracks! Would have wanted Chrisette to stick with the same team that did her debut but she went for Ne-Yo to produce some songs. Maybe he and his Compound Entertainment production team from Atlanta produced her whole album.
Robbie- it wasn’t a blanket statement. People are singing the same stuff written by the same writers. I would list the writers but I’m not in the mood. Chrisette’s first cd was about being a daddy’s girl, about maybe making love rather than actually doing it (unlike B and the rest of the singers). I mean, really Ciara is just rehashing Janet Jackson. For years Janet has thought people want to hear songs about sex. Well, her sales have proved- they don’t. Ciara was moving in that direction also. Just look at her videos. People aren’t paying for that! That is what I meant by cookie-cutters. They all singing about the same thing- sex, dancing, sex and maybe the occasional heartbreak. We want to know know about the artists, what’s going on in their lives that might mirror ours. That is what I mean about Chrisette- not the music, but what she actually had to say. Hey, she won a grammy, so someone was paying attention.