With help from the film's eight Oscar wins, the soundtrack to "Slumdog Millionaire" (Interscope) makes a leap 22-4 on a 109% increase to 44,000. On the Hot Digital Songs chart, best original song Oscar winner, "Jai Ho" from composer A.R. Rahman, enters at No. 7 with 130,000 (up 489%) and will make a swift climb up the Billboard Hot 100 once it is compiled later today (March 4).
Back on the 200, Nickelback's Roadrunner set "Dark Horse" slips 4-5 with 41,000 (-6%) as Beyonce's "I Am... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia) falls 5-6 with 35,000 (-13%). With 32,000 and a 1% increase, Lady GaGa's "The Fame" (Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/Interscope) earns a new chart peak, moving 10-7.
The Fray's self-titled Epic album descends 3-8 with 31,000 (-41%) and Jamie Foxx's "Intuition" (J) takes a 5% hit, also with 31,000, falling 6-9. Rounding out the top tier of chart is Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak" (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam), slipping 8-10 on a 21% decrease to 26,000.
Country singer Jake Owen's "Easy Does It" (RCA) bows at No. 13 with 23,000. His 2006 debut "Startin' With Me" peaked at No. 31. Other new albums on the chart this week include Chris Isaak's first studio album in seven years "Mr. Lucky" (Reprise, No. 29, 16,000), K'Naan's "Troubadour" (A&M/Octone, No. 32, 15,000), Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl" (Listen to the Lion, No. 33, 15,000) and "The 99 Most Essential Mozart Masterpieces," released at a discounted price on Amazon (X5, No. 34, 15,000).
Albums sold in this past chart week totaled 6.91 million units, down 6.8% compared to the same sum last week and down 13.1% compared to the same sales week last year. Sales from this year, at 63.82 million, are off 11.7% compared to same total at this time last year.
