Rihanna Double Dips at the Top of the Charts

Rihanna had a fantastic post-Thanksgiving week as she topped both the Billboard Albums and Singles Charts. Despite releasing a new album every five minutes, she has never reached the top of the Billboard 200 until this week with her seventh release, Unapologetic. The singer also tops the Hot 100 singles chart for a second week with “Diamonds” becoming the second artist to lead both charts this year after Adele. Speaking of Adele, her 21 passes 10 million in sales this week for Diamond certification which is pretty much unheard of these days. The last album to hit that mark was Usher’s Confessions from 2004 and it just hit the mark earlier this year. Congrats Adele!… Back on the Billboard 200, American Idol proved it can keep pumping out successful music stars as this year’s winner Phillip Phillips debuts at # 4 just ahead of the latest from Kid Rock. Also, premiering in the top ten are Led Zeppelin and Keyshia Cole while the original Idol Kelly Clarkson sells 75000 copies of her first Greatest Hits album to debut at # 11. For more on all these records, head to Billboard here and check out the new top eleven below.

Top Ten Albums on the Billboard 200:
1. Unapologetic- Rihanna (debut)
2. Red- Taylor Swift (last week~ 2)
3. Take Me Home- One Direction (lw~ 1)
4. The World from the Side of the Moon- Phillip Phillips (debut)
5. Rebel Soul- Kid Rock (debut)
6. Merry Christmas Baby- Rod Stewart (lw~ 6)
7. The Truth About Love- P!nk (lw~ 22)
8. Night Train- Jason Aldean (lw~ 13)
9. Celebration Day- Led Zeppelin (debut)
10. Woman to Woman- Keyshia Cole (debut)
11. Greatest Hits: Chapter 1: Kelly Clarkson (debut)

Switching over to the Hot 100, Rihanna holds off a surging Ke$ha whose “Die Young” could pose a real threat to the top next week… And giving him a matching top ten album and single, Phillip Phillip’s “Home” returns to the top-tier with a new peak at # 8. This song has become the best selling coronation single in Idol history as it nears the 3 million mark topping sales of David Cook‘s “Time of My Life” and Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This”. He’s also hit # 1 at AAA radio, # 2 on Hot Adult Top 40 and Top Ten on the Rock, AC and Pop charts now. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. We’ll see if he can keep up with his new single “Gone Gone Gone” due to hit radio soon. In the meantime, head to Billboard to see all your favorite genre charts and take a look at the new top ten below.

Top Ten Singles on the Hot 100:
1. “Diamonds”- Rihanna (lw~ 2)
2. “Die Young”- Ke$ha (lw~ 3)
3. “One More Night”- Maroon 5 (lw~ 2)
4. “Locked Out of Heaven”- Bruno Mars (lw~ 4)
5. “Gangnam Style”- Psy (lw~ 7)
6. “Some Nights”- fun. (lw~ 5)
7. “Ho Hey”- The Lumineers (lw~8)
8. “Home”- Phillip Phillips (lw~ 12)
9. “I Cry”- Flo Rida (lw~ 10)
10. “Let Me Love You (Until You Love Yourself)”- NeYo (lw~ 6)

And here’s the new single from Phillip Phillips “Gone Gone Gone”. He’s making like Mumford & Sons again people. At least it’s not a Dave Matthews Band retread…

Susan Boyle, Rihanna, and The Beatles make news on the Charts while an Idol tanks…

The holiday shopping season is upon us and the music biz is finally perking up with 8 new debuts in the top ten of the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. However, it was a holdover that grabbed #1 as Susan Boyle’s seasonal collection, The Gift, stayed on top and actually increased its sales to 335,000 copies in week two. She held off a shockingly strong performance from another TV bred star, ten-year old Jackie Evancho of America’s Got Talent, whose holiday opera debut landed in the runner-up spot besting Rihanna‘s Loud which actually gave the pop star her biggest first week sales to date. Rihanna also has the new # 1 single in the country this week with “Only Girl in the World” which hits the summit just two weeks after her other song “What’s My Name?’ began its run on top.
Back on the album chart, Josh Groban, Kid Rock, The Glee Christmas album, Rascal Flats, Keith Urban and Nelly all made it into the top ten with the only other stalwart being Taylor Swift who hung on at # 9. Watch for strong sales for most of those releases throughout the holiday season particularly Groban and Boyle… It wasn’t good news for the latest American Idol winner, Lee Dewyze, though whose first album Live It Up tanked landing at # 19 with a paltry 39,000 for the lowest first week sales of any Idol winner or runner-up in the show’s history. Perhaps the more deserving singer he beat Crystal Bowersox will have stronger  sales power with her debut in a few weeks. Stay tuned…

Here’s this week’s top Ten albums:
1. Susan Boyle- The Gift (lw~ 1)
2. Jackie Evancho- O Holy Night (debut)
3. Rihanna- Loud (debut)
4. Josh Groban- Illuminations (debut)
5. Kid Rock- Born Free (debut)
6. Rascal Flatts- Nothing Like This (debut)
7. Keith Urban- Get Closer (debut)
8. Glee- The Christmas Album (debut)
9. Taylor Swift- Speak Now (lw~ 2)
10. Nelly- 5.0 (debut)

Back over on the singles chart, the Glee cast made more big news with “Forget You” featuring Gwyneth Paltrow which debuted at # 1 on the digital singles sales chart. That was the second # 1 in a row on the chart for the show which hit the top last week with “Teenage Dream”. The later single debuted at # 8 on the Hot 100 as well, but “Forget You” just misses the top ten debuting at # 11. The original version original version of that song “F*%k You (Forget You)” by Cee -Lo does grab a spot in the top ten though spurred on by the attention from the hit show to zoom up to # 9.

Here’s this week’s top ten songs:
1. “Only Girl in the World”- Rihanna (lw~ 2)
2. “Raise Your Glass”- Pink (lw~ 4)
3. “Like a G6”- Far East Movement (lw~ 1)
4. “We R Who We R”- Ke$ha (lw~ 6)
5. “Just a Dream”- Nelly (lw~ 5)
6. “Firework”- Katy Perry (lw~ 9)
7. “Just the Way You Are”- Bruno Mars (lw~ 3)
8. “What’s My Name?”- Rihanna w/Drake (lw~ 7)
9. “F#%k You (Forget You)”- Cee-Lo (lw~ 19)
10. “Bottoms Up”- Trey Songz (lw~ 10)

With Rihanna’s latest # 1, she now has a total of 9 chart toppers and that means she has more # 1′s than any other artist this decade. Pretty shocking, huh? Here’s a list of Rihanna’s # 1′s below.

Rihanna’s #1 songs (the most in the 2000′s by any artist):
“S.O.S.”
“Umbrella” with Jay Z
“Take A Bow”
“Disturbia”
“Live Your Life” with T.I.
“Rude Boy”
“Love the Way You Lie” with Eminem
“What’s My Name?” with Drake
“Only Girl in the World”

~and is it me or is it also shocking that “Don’t Stop the Music” didnt’ hit the top of the Hot 100? It peaked at # 3.

The lastl big chart news of the week belongs to The Beatles who finally made all their albums and singles available to iTunes. After just one week out, the supergroup sold over 450,000 albums worldwide and over 2 million singles. Looks like good music will always thrive. For more on all your chart needs, head to Billboard here.

And here’s your # 1 song in the country, Rihanna’s “Only Girl in the World”

Bieber Fever Runs Rampant on a Ridiculous American Music Awards

Last night in Hollywood, the American Music Awards came down with a seriously dreadful case of Bieber fever as the teen titan Justin Bieber grabbed a leading 4 awards on the fan voted awards show. He also performed on the telecast which was easily the worst AMA show in over a decade. Practically all the performances were bad, boring or ridiculous. You had autotune craziness from the Black Eyed Peas and Usher, lip synching atrocities from Ke$ha and sleep inducing appearances by Kid Rock and Taylor Swift (who at least rocked some nice new straight hair). Poor Katy Perry couldn’t hit a note if you paid her. At least she had some great fireworks to go along with her great song of the same name. You know it was a bad night when Rihanna‘s mediocre vocals were some of the best of the night… The only performers that acquitted themselves nicely were a pregnant Pink in strong voice on her fun number “Raise Your Glass”, Christina Aguilera with the best vocal of the night on her new single “Express” from Burlesque, and the pairing of boy band wonkerkinds New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys which was easily the highlight of the night. Several winners were no shows: Lady Gaga, Eminem and Carrie Underwood and thus, their awards werent’ shown on the telecast. Instead we had to sit thru Bieber and Usher on stage every five minutes. Thank goodness for dvrs and fast forward. That said, here is the full list of winners from the show and check out the only three noteworthy performances below.

The 2010 American Music Award Winners

Favorite Soul/R&B Album: Usher, Raymond v. Raymond
Favorite Pop Rock Band/Duo/Group: The Black Eyed Peas
Favorite Country Female Artist: Taylor Swift
Favorite Latin Music Artist: Shakira
Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist: Rihanna
Favorite Country Male Artist: Brad Paisley
Favorite Breakthrough Artist: Justin Bieber
Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist: Justin Bieber
Favorite Country Band/Duo/Group: Lady Antebellum
Favorite Alternative Rock Music Artist: Muse
Favorite Adult Contemporary Music Artist: Michael Bublé
Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist: Usher
Favorite Artist of the Year: Justin Bieber
Favorite Country Album: Carrie Underwood, Play On
Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist: Eminem
Favorite Pop/Rock Album: Justin Bieber, My World 2.0
Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist: Lady Gaga
Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist: MercyMe
Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album: Eminem, Recovery
Favorite Soundtrack Album: Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers

Pink “Raise Your Glass”

Christina Aguilera “Express”

NKOTB BSB Medley