December 3, 2009
In its opening week, “I Dreamed a Dream,” the debut album from singing phenom Susan Boyle, topped the Billboard 200 album chart with sales of 701,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, overtaking Eminem’s “Relapse” as the year’s best sales week for an album in the U.S.
As this year’s runner-up on Britain’s Got Talent, Susan Boyle showed that winning isn’t everything. Compared to each of the American Idol runners-up, Susan Boyle has the highest U.S. first-week sales, outselling Idol season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken whose debut album also opened at #1.
Debut Week Album Sales — Susan Boyle and American Idol Runner-Ups
| Artist | Album | # Sold | Chart Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Susan Boyle | I Dreamed A Dream | 701,000 | #1 |
| Clay Aiken | Measure of a Man | 613,000 | #1 |
| Bo Bice | The Real Thing | 227,000 | #4 |
| Adam Lambert | For Your Entertainment | 198,000 | #3 |
| David Archuleta | David Archuleta | 183,000 | #2 |
| Katherine McPhee | Katherine McPhee | 116,000 | #2 |
| Blake Lewis | Audio Daydream | 98,000 | #10 |
| Justin Guarini | Justin Guarini | 57,000 | #20 |
| Diana DeGarmo | Blue Skies | 47,000 | #52 |
| Source: Nielsen SoundScan | |||
Read the article at Billboard.com.
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