Taylor Swift’s third studio album, Speak Now, debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Country Albums charts, selling an impressive 1,047,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Speak Now beat out 50 Cent’s 2005 album, The Massacre, for best first-week sales. Not since Lil’ Wayne released ThaCarter III in 2008 has an album sold more than one million copies within one week.
Swift beat out Shania Twain’s 2002 release, Up!, for biggest sales week of any female Country artist, and she ranks second overall for most Country albums sold in one week, behind Garth Brooks’ 1991 release, Double Live.
Only three other women have earned million-plus marks on albums in their first weeks. Swift joins the elite group made up of Norah Jones, Britney Spears and Whitney Houston.
Speak Now is already the No. 8 best -album of 2010, while Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now lands at No. 2 for the year. Eminem’s Recovery is currently the No. 1 best-selling album of 2010. Both the No. 1 and No. 2 best-selling albums have sold nearly three million copies each.
Source: TheBoot.com
