Maybe you thought you imagined Susan Boyle‘s I Dreamed a Dream becoming a 701,000-selling blockbuster? Nope. She sold another 527,000 copies in week two, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a number that most artists would be thrilled to see as a debut, and even more impressive as a second-week comedown. Needless to say, it’s more than enough to put her atop the Billboard 200 again.
Boyle faced strong competition from Andrea Bocelli, whose My Christmas continued to pick up steam as holiday gift-buying deadlines approached. This week, his fifth, Bocelli sold a very nice 428,000 to hold onto his No. 2 spot.
After that, things went more or less back to normal. R. Kelly‘s Untitled was the only new release in this week’s Top 20. It moved 114,000 units for a No. 4 finish; that’s a fine result, but it’s less than a third of what his last one did in 2007.
Down at No. 8, Michael Jackson‘s This Is It notched another 75,000 in sales, climbing up three chart spots from last week — not bad for a soundtrack to a movie that arrived in theaters a full month ago.
Were you surprised by any of these results? How long do you think Susan Boyle will stay at No. 1? Sound off below.
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This is it has been in theater for more than a month. It came out October 28th…and the movie is no longer in theater. Yet the soundtrack is outselling media fabricated acts like Rihanna. Long live the King!!!
There’s no accounting for taste….
im waiting till january to order though…
she’s not me. she doesnt have my name. she’ll never have what i have. it wont be the same… lol name that tune
I refuse to admit to owning that album.
I still enjoy that album i dont care lol.. dont give up on her crispy
Madonna-She’s Not Me. Off of Hard Candy. And the album isn’t that bad.
She’s Not Me. Hard Candy
Sorry but Susan Boyle does nothing for me. When she appeared on AGT I had to walk out of the room. She sings beautifully, just not my cup of tea. But you have to admit the woman is talented.
This ain’t even her music! Write some original stuff then maybe I’ll take you seriously.
i agree- i dont even care if she writes it or not but an album of covers does nothing to impress me… not like she cares though- im sure her whole career is going to be built on covers… like a new age female michael bolton
She’s not a song writer, she’s a singer. If you can appreciate a sinple God given gift, you can appreciate this CD.
can you appreciate Michael Bolton? how about kenny g? Kenny G has a god given talent for playing the soprano saxophone in all its feminine glory
Nothing gives me shivers like a good shot of Kenny G’s profile.
Rob, give us a u-tube of you singing and make sure you get about 300 million views on that u-tube and then we will take you seriously!Deal?
Who cares? Artists have been covering other peoples work for centuries. Opera singers always perform other peoples work. Most pop singers sing other peoples work.
I like cover songs. I like to see what new artist interprets (sp?)the cover song to make it fit their style. I like most, some not so much. Liked Adam Lamberts on AI. Susan is just not for me. But in no way does that take away from her talent.
Do you people hear yourself? What all of you are saying has merit. Susan Boyle doesn’t lay claim to being a song writer…she is a remarkable singer with one of the purest voices since Streisand. She is humbled by all the attention being heaped on her because her voice is nothing new to her while it is something rather spectacular to us. Teen phenom Taylor Swift is not a very good singer at all. She has a voice and look that came together at the right time. She writes of songs of teen angst well and has reached a peak she will never see again. I dare say in five years, she will be relegated to a LeeAn Rimes status although Ms Rimes can really sing. Music lovers should be rejoicing right now with the diversity the charts show. When Susan Boyle can top the charts and Adam Lambert is up there with her and someone as raw and real as Eminem can still be a major force to be reckoned with there’s nothing wrong with music in U.S. right now.
That’s a very astute comment Randall, I agree 100%
There are MANY artists who are singers only and don’t write their own music. MANY. It would be nice to see her collaborate on writing something. But lets give the woman a break…She JUST broke into the business.
How exciting for SuBo and her cat. Mr. Whiskers will be draped in diamonds and wool frocks for Christmas!
yay more susan boyle coasters for Crispy…
We’ve moved on to using them as Christmas tree ornaments. So sparkly.
and chunky!
Just imagine if Susan Boyle dropped a cd of her own music. WOW! Rihanna who? Adam who? Lady who?
ha ha ha ha ha
It would suck because she doesn’t know how to write music. When will people see that there is more to a song than just vocals? This album lacks creativity.
Blue Silver you are funny. She can do a album of her own songs. Sure won’t make me like her more. It’s more like Susan who? ADAM LAMBERT ROCKS!
Good for Susan she is truely a Phenom to follow up a 700k debut with 500k more fantastic is this day and age. Oh and EW ..where is your fab next big phenom you’ve been hyping for months…oh ya he had a 75% fall and sold 50k his second week maybe the glamberts should have rushed out this week and purchased extra copies like they did last week to inflate his perceived popularity. Adam has good voice …when used right..and is good a manipulting his image …prob is what he does with his voice and image is something most folks just aren’t intrested in. Don’t think I’ve ever witnessed and artist who so quickly crashed and burned on so many levels as he has and all by his own actions.
I think we should focus on the drop. She’s obviously losing steam and her popularity is floundering.
you’ll be eating your words come February when Whataya Want From Me is a top 10 hit.
Old people still buy albums.
The youth download songs.
Don’t get pissed because Susan Boyle has the personality of a mentally challenged grade school student and people would rather talk about a gay man and his dance moves than her.
people lie. numbers don’t. Susan Boyle has sold more than a million copies of her CD in 2 weeks while Adam has sold about 230,000 even w/ all the hype and controversy in those same 2 weeks. deal with those facts.
“Old people still buy albums.
The youth download songs”
how does this explain the success of Eminem, Kelly Clarkson, BEP, all who sold many CDs this year? they have young fans.
Who’s getting pissed that Susan Boyle is outselling Adam Lambert 2-1…I’m guessing dj.
dj, I hate to say that Whataya Want from Me making the Top 10 will be the highlight of Adam’s career when we look back 5 years from now.
Hey fancypants, how about 250,000 plus? Wow why are you even talking about AL here? Who the freak cares if Susan Boyle is outselling him? He will be around for a while, her not so much. I couldn’t image seeing her in concert. I bet next year AL’s sells pick up when he goes on concert, HIM I would see, I bet a lot of young people would agree. Susan Boyle is nice to listen to, that is if you don’t have to watch her sing it.
OK. Adam Lambert made a huge mistake and I’m sure, although he’s not willing to admit it quiet yet, he probably wishes he could tale back the AMA performance. That was his opportunity to show an audience of his peers what a remarkable talent his voice is and sadly he opted to go the shock route. The other morning on The View he performed the way he did on “Idol.” Lambert needs to relax and let people be drawn into his talent. Is he a singer who happens to be gay or is he a gay who happens to sing? He just needs a little direction. He has the potential to be one of the strongest singers of our time.
Why bring Adam Lambert into a Susan Boyle article? Can’t you haters just LET IT GO?
I think there’s some overestimation of the importance of artists writing their own music to the general music buying public going on here.
How many high-porfile artists actually write their own music?
Zilch….
Alicia Keys does.
also, Michael Jackson wrote about 90% of his songs. Every song but one (Man in the Mirror) was written by MJ on “Bad”. is there an artist that has ever been more high-profile than MJ? or Prince (who also writes all his own music)??
Well it’s pretty close to Rihanna, who, Adam, who, Gaga, who right now. But not to worry. Songwriters are going to fall all over themselves submitting original songs for her approval. Wait for CD #2.
people, this is her first album, which was probably a big risk for the record label. there was no guarantee of sales, so they didn’t hire people to write a bunch of original songs. this was the safest way to see if anyone wanted to hear her music. after this, you can bet david foster is busy working on some bombastic, shiny new tunes for her (or at the very least he’s dusting off josh groban’s rejected songs).
I also agree that this emphasis on covers is ridiculous. Tell that to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday. Any of you kids heard of these people? Or did your life begin with Justin Bieber?
who is Justin Bieber?
I would tell you, but I don’t want to admit that I know. Besides, I think you’d be better served to google image him. Seeing is believing. He’s got the hair like Chad from Million Dollar Listing. Crap, um, I don’t watch that either.
LOL Ambient Lite! Awesome comment. Seriously, Chad’s hair gets on my nerves, I just want to cut it for him.
Susan sings only what she wants to sing. If she can’t feel it, it doesn’t make the cut. Remember that tunesmiths. Look up Audra Mae who wrote Who I was Born to Be for her. Follow her technique.
Covers? Who cares? She has a gorgeous voice and doesn’t need any antics to try and sell her CD. Songwriter’s will be lining up to write ongs for her now. Her second (and third, and fourth) CD will be smashing!
I have just submitted to her people an original song I have composed entitled “Me and Mr. Whiskers.”
I’d rather get one of those old aol trial CD’s in my stocking than her album.
So it’s okay for you to go on all message boards and make jokes about Susan Boyle, but if someone talks about your precious Lamebert, you flip. Nice double standard, hypocrite.
700,000 to 500,000 is a drop off of about 29%. 200,000 to 50,000 is a 75% drop off. HAHA I think it’s hilarious SuBo is beating Lamebert, the most overexposed AI contestant ever.
Are you addressing me? I couldn’t care less about Adam Lambert. I think he’s interesting, but his music just isn’t my style.
I like your venom though. I think you should offer to serve as security detail for Susan Boyle.
LOL @ Abient Lite. Gotta appreciate your honesty. @Katwoman, how about it? Think about being Subo’s security detail? You would so be it! LOL
In the case of Susan Boyle, it’s the singer, not the song. She could sing an album filled with songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, When You Wish Upon a Star, and Oh Susanna, and she would still be selling the same number of CDs. She has broad appeal precisely because she makes very familiar stuff sound fantastic. The sound of her voice transports every listener to the same harmonic nirvana that listeners get from Enya’s music. Expect her to be around for another few decades as long as Baby Boomers and Boomer kids are still buying music.
Ms. Boyle will likely sell the dickens out of “I Dreamed a Dream.” It is quite frankly a beautiful recording. I am a deejay who likes some of all music and every once in a while, someone like Ms. Boyle comes along and shakes it up a bit. In world where singers aren’t so much successful for their voices but for their videos, here comes Ms. Boyle to completely upset the apple cart. She’s doing the unheard of, selling music with her voice alone. Why can’t people see that there’s some grass on the other side and if they just give it a chance they might not find it so unappealing. Music is music…don’t limit yourself…it’s all good in it’s own way. I love Lady Gaga’s music but hate her video personna. She’s a great performer who is very insecure about her looks…that why she hides behind her outrageous videos. And by doing so she’s cutting her expiration date in half. Cases in point Cindy Lauper and Boy George…their gimmicks got old and while Gaga is talented, people relate her to her gimmicks and at some point they’re going to get old too.
I recently invited Susan’s companion, Mr. Pebbles, to join me on a Sunday drive. We set Wild Horses on repeat and hit the gas. I found Mr. Pebbles to be a facinating conversationalist as he regaled me with his tales of adventure and romance with Ms. Boyle. He told me Ms. Boyle is actually quite mad and easily influenced by those around her. They’d been working on a duet album, Mr. Pebbles and Ms. Boyle singing together in perfect harmony, covers of the Stray Cats, Pet Shop Boys, and a unique video compliation with Keyboard Cat.
Unfortunately, that will never see the light of day because I drove off a cliff. Mr. Pebbles was working the pedals and didn’t have a chance.
I’m happy to report, however, that Ms. Boyle did spend every bit of her earnings on preserving Mr. Pebbles’ DNA, so she will not be lonely for long.