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 Singer Chrisette Michele landed atop the Billboard 200 for the first time this week, beating out a new album from Ciara and the "Hannah Montana: the Movie" soundtrack.
Michele's sophomore effort, titled Epiphany, debuts at no. 1, selling 83,000 copies. While its the singer's best sales week to date (her debut I Am began with 27,000 in 2007), the sales mark is the lowest number of units recorded for a no. 1 debuting album in Nielsen SoundScan's 18-year history, reported Billboard.
Previously, the low sales mark was held by Johnny Cash's American V: A Hundred Highways album in the summer of 2006, when it started with 88,000. Aside from that, the only one other album to debut at no. 1 with less than 100,000 is Notorious B.I.G.'s #1's in November of 2005 with 99,000.
In at no. 3 is Ciara's newest album, Fantasy Ride, giving the singer her third top three debut. In 2004, Goodies entered the list at No. 3 with 125,000, while 2006's The Evolution topped the charts at no. 1 with 338,000. Despite a successful single with "Love Sex Magic" (featuring Justin Timberlake), the album's performance is Ciara's lowest first-week sum ever.
Lady GaGa's The Fame moved up one slot to no. 6 with 41,000 copies, Rick Ross's Deeper Than Rap sold 35,000 copies to put it at no. 8, Beyonce's I Am ... Sasha Fierce sells 23,000 to put it at no. 18, and Keri Hilson's In A Perfect World... sold 22,000 to round out the top 20.
Aside from Ciara and Chrisette Michele's new releases, other debuts to rank on the Billboard 200 is Juelz Santana's Skull Gang, whose self-titled debut sold just 4,200 to put it at the no. 142 spot; and Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul who sold just 4,000 of Scale-A-Ton to put him at no. 157.
Next week will see Cam'ron's new project Crime Pays, as well as Paul Wall's Fast Life.
According to Billboard.com, overall album sales in this past chart week (ending May 10) totaled 6.51 million units, up 5.4% compared to the sum last week (6.17 million) and down 19.8% compared to the same sales week of 2008 (8.12 million).
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