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Susan Boyle Blocks Alicia Keys From No. 1 On Billboard 200

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by Keith Caulfield, L.A.  |   December 23, 2009 10:55 EST
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Alicia Keys

There's just no stopping Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream."

 

The album continues to lock up the top slot on the Billboard 200 chart for a fourth week in a row, selling 661,000 copies (up 14%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. "I Dreamed a Dream" has now sold a total of 2,465,000 copies and is the second-best selling album of 2009. Only Taylor Swift's "Fearless" -- with 2,933,000 sold -- is standing in its way. And with two weeks left in the 2009 tracking year, anything is possible.

 

Alicia Keys has to play runner-up to Boyle, as her fourth studio album "The Element of Freedom" debuts at No. 2 with 417,000. Keys' last effort, "As I Am," was released during Thanksgiving week of 2007 and started with 742,000 at No. 1.

 

"The Element of Freedom's" bow at No. 2 breaks a remarkable streak of No. 1 debuts for Keys. All four of her previous albums -- three studio sets plus an "Unplugged" release -- started at No. 1. However,  Keys still has a chance of eventually reaching No. 1 next month, when (and if) the Boyle hysteria dies down.

 

The second-biggest new arrival to the Billboard 200 is Robin Thicke's "Sex Therapy: The Session," which begins at No. 9 with 123,000. It's the singer's third top 10 set in a row, following "The Evolution of Robin Thicke" (No. 5 in 2007) and "Something Else" (No. 3 in 2008). The latter album opened with a sales frame of 137,000 copies in October of that year.

 

There are only two more album debuts on this week's chart -- all the way down at Nos. 172 and 198, where the new James Cameron film "Avatar" (10,000 copies) and Phil Vassar's "Traveling Circus" (9,000 copies) start, respectively.

 

After five weeks stuck at No. 2, Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas" slides to No. 3 with 390,000 (down just 3%). The seasonal set has blown through 1.9 million copies and is now Bocelli's third-best seller after "Romanza" (released in 1997; 4.2 million sold) and "Sogno" (1999; 2.5 million).

 

Taylor Swift is at No. 4 for a second week with "Fearless," shifting 239,000 (up 42%), while Carrie Underwood's "Play On" (153,000; up 44%) and Lady Gaga's "The Fame" (141,000; up 37%) both hold steady at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively.

 

At No. 7 and up two spots, with another 140,000 copies sold, Michael Bublé's "Crazy Love" surpasses 1 million in total sales. One rung below Bublé is Justin Bieber, with his "My World" EP holding at No. 8 with 127,000 (up 31%).

 

The second volume of the "Glee" TV soundtrack falls from No. 3 to No. 10 with 111,000 in its second week (down 36%). Meanwhile, the first "Glee" set -- down from No. 11 to No. 14 -- sells 95,000 this week (up 11%), pushing its total sales past the half-million mark, to 521,000.

 

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Dec. 20) totaled 15.14 million units, up 26% compared to the sum last week (12.00 million) and down 12% compared to the same sales week of 2008 (17.16 million). Year to date album sales stand at 357.5 million, down 13% compared to the same total at this point last year (411.4 million).

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