Candygram! Sweet Success for Madonna
Gotta give it to up for Madonna, lady sure knows how to make an exit.
Hard Candy, the Material One's final Warners album before joining Live Nation, dominated the pop chart, moving 288,000 copies to debut at No. 1 for the week ended Sunday, per SoundScan.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is now just one No. 1 away from tying Barbra Streisand's all-time record of eight chart-toppers, the standard for female artists.
Take that, Mariah.
The new single "4 Minutes" also reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Madonna her 37th Top 10 hit and pushing her past Elvis for the most Top 10s of all time. The Justin Timberlake collaboration is her 53rd single to crack the Hot 100 (and her second duet, following 2003's "Me Against the Music" with Britney Spears, fresh off her split with Timberlake).
Album producers include Timbaland and Pharrell Williams, while Kanye West appears as a, um, Candy rapper.
Hard Candy concludes the singer's quarter-century career with Warner, which dates back to her 1983's self-titled debut. Last fall, Madonna signed a 10-year deal with concert promoter Live Nation, reportedly worth $120 million, that includes albums, tours, merchandise and promotion.
Madonna's megadebut knocked down the newly married Mariah Carey's E=MC2 and Leona Lewis' Spirit to Nos. 2 and 3, selling 95,000 and 84,000 copies, respectively. (Carey's album still has bragging rights for biggest debut of the year, selling 463,000 copies in its opening week last month.)
Six other new releases cracked the Top 10.
Lyfe Jennings' Lyfe Change sold 80,000 copies at No. 4. Def Leppard's Songs From the Sparkle Lounge moved 55,000 at No.5, one spot and 1,000 copies ahead of the Roots' Rising Down.
Portishead, fresh off a Coachella reunion, checked in at No. 7, selling 53,000 copies of Third. This is the group's first studio release since its 1997 eponymous sophomore disc, which landed Portishead its previous career-high-debut at No. 21.
Speaking of reunions, Mudcrutch, the early '70s precursor to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, finally recorded and released a debut album nearly four decades after forming. The self-titled effort, featuring Petty and his former bandmates, sold 38,000 to open at No. 8.
Tim McGraw lassoed in the week's seventh and final Top 10 bow with his limited-edition Greatest Hits collection. The two-disc Wal-Mart exclusive, which packages together his 2000 and 2006 retrospectives, sold 29,000 copies at No. 10.
Steve Winwood, who recently reunited with Eric Clapton for a trio of Blind Faith shows at Madison Square Garden, just missed, selling 26,000 copies of Nine Lives to debut at No. 12. The Brit rocker, who also logged in miles with Traffic, Go and the Spencer Davis Group, peaked at No. 126 with his last studio album, 2003's About Time.
The chart's other noteworthy newcomers included Carly Simon's This Kind of Love at 15, Augustana's Can't Love, Can't Hurt at 21, Lil' Mama's VYP: Voice of the Young People at 25, indie electro-rockers Mindless Self Indulgence at 27 with If, Maná's Arde el Cielo at 30 and Estelle's Shine at 38.
Overall, week-to-week sales were up 10 percent, but still down 10 percent compared to the same sales week in 2007.
- Hard Candy, Madonna
- E=MC2, Mariah Carey
- Spirit, Leona Lewis
- Lyfe Change, Lyfe Jennings
- Songs From the Sparkle Lounge, Def Leppard
- Rising Down, the Roots
- Third, Portishead
- Mudcrutch, Mudcrutch
- Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 27, various
- Greatest Hits, Tim McGraw
Leona Lewis Gets Leid
Leona Lewis Gets Leid
She’s on the fast track to becoming the next big thing in American Pop Music, and Leona Lewis did a little celebrating with her boyfriend in Hawaii this past weekend.
The “Bleeding Love” songstress and beau Lou Al-Chamaa were spotted on the tail end of their Hawaiian holiday yesterday, departing from the Kona Airport.
And now that she’s on the hit radar in the States, Lewis’ people have reportedly hired a personal trainer to get her a little more slim and trim.
Patricia Gay, the woman who recently helped Mariah Carey drop two dress sizes, has been enlisted to tone up Leona in preparation for her next music video.
An inside source told press, “Some of her team think she needs to be a bit sexier if she wants to have the longevity of female artists like Mariah, Janet Jackson or Madonna. They think that having Leona train with Patricia would be a treat for her because she adores Mariah. She will go to Patricia’s base in the Caribbean for some intensive sessions and then Patricia will visit her regularly to continue the project.”
Mariah Carey Celebrates Sixth No. 1 Album
Mariah Carey Celebrates Sixth No. 1 Album
Celebrating her own success, Mariah Carey made her way to a big CD release party in downtown New York City on Tuesday evening (April 22).
Dressed in a sexy black outfit with diamond encrusted hoop earrings, the Grammy-winning singer was running a bit late for her late night affair - but still made an effort to pose for photographs along the way.
And Mimi had good reason to be in high spirits, as she scored her sixth No. 1 album on the U.S. pop chart Wednesday, sending her straight into the record books.
According to Reuters, “E=MC2 sold 462,971 copies during the week ended April 20, the best debut sales week of her career and the strongest week by any artist so far this year.”
As a result, the 38-year-old diva “is now tied with Madonna and Janet Jackson for the second most No. 1 albums among female artists. Barbra Streisand, with eight, leads the pack.”
Natalie Imbruglia Biography
Natalie Jane Imbruglia (born February 4, 1975) is an Australian singer, songwriter, model and actress. The second of the four daughters of an Italian father and an Australian mother, Imbruglia grew up on the Central Coast, north of Sydney. Like Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, she also played a role in the soap Neighbours before venturing into a singing career. She is known in most parts of the world for her smash-hit, Torn. She is married to Daniel Johns of Silverchair fame. To date she has released three albums, nine singles, and ten music videos.
Imbruglia studied ballet as a child, hoping to make a career out of it. Later, she started auditioning for Australian TV commercials and appeared in spots for Coke and the popular Australian snack Twisties. By age 16, she left high school to start a career in acting. Eventually, she obtained the chance to play a regular role on the Australian soap opera, Neighbours, which launched the careers of many other successful Australian female artists such as Kylie Minogue and Holly Valance. However, by the end of her second year, she left the show to move to London, immersing herself in the city’s club scene.
There, she decided to try her hand at songwriting, something which she had never attempted. Her effort paid off and she was signed to BMG Publishing. She came up with a demo of the song “Torn” which greatly impressed RCA Records and got her a record contract.
Imbruglia became a spokesperson for L’Oreal after the release of White Lilies Island. Even till today, she remains as a model for many cosmetic products by L’Oreal, particularly mascaras and skincare products. Her advertisements have appeared frequently in newspapers, magazines and television all over the world, ranging from places like Italy to Malaysia and the UK.
She made her debut as an actress in the British comedy, Johnny English. Starring alongside Rowan Atkinson, she played a supporting role as Lorna Campbell. The movie also featured another musical talent, Bond, in a cameo appearance. Internationally, the movie did well despite negative reviews from critics.
Torn
Her first internationally released single, was an Ednaswap cover, Torn. It reached number two in the British charts upon debut and broke the record for the most airplay in the UK. It was also released on the airwaves in the US, but not in buyable CD-format. There, it impressed radio audiences and stayed at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay for eleven weeks. Because it wasn’t sold in physical CD single form, it didn’t get on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, which did not count airplay-only singles at the time.
Left of the Middle
Her debut album Left of the Middle followed soon after. The single released after Torn in was Wishing I Was There, but the song did not fare well. However, it did chart in the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Big Mistake followed and it was more successful than Wishing I Was There, but it couldn’t reach the heights of Torn. The final single from Left of the Middle was Smoke, and the reception was much more divided compared to the other singles. It was a hit in the UK and made the top 5, while in Australia it just missed the top 40. Eventually, the album became a million-seller after charting well in many countries and entering the Top 10 in the US and UK. In 1999, she collaborated with Welsh singer Tom Jones and appeared on an INXS cover from his album Reload.
White Lilies Island
Imbruglia’s next album, White Lilies Island, arrived in 2001. Named after one of her summer homes, the writing process took almost three years to complete. The album’s first single, That Day, was very different stylistically from her previous singles, and it did not reach the UK Top 10. The song, which some found reminiscent of Lisa Loeb’s style, did not do well in her home country either. In the US, Wrong Impression was released as the first single and it enjoyed small success, charting in the Hot 100 Singles chart and the Adult Contemporary chart. The track was also released in the UK as a second single, and it did slightly better than That Day. Beauty On The Fire, the final single, experienced minimal success and barely entered charts worldwide. In Australia it did not even make the top 50. Beauty On The Fire, however, was one of the more critically-acclaimed tracks from White Lilies Island and is considered by fans to be her most underrated single. The album still managed to sell around a million copies but failed to repeat the widespread success of Left of the Middle. She got married in 2003 to her long-time boyfriend, Daniel Johns, the lead singer of Silverchair.
Counting Down The Days
In April 2005, Imbruglia released her third studio album Counting Down The Days in the UK with Shiver as its first single. Shiver was a huge success, and it became her longest running single in the UK since Torn. It topped UK airplay charts for several weeks, reaching eighth place in the UK charts. Still, the song’s acclaim and reception paid off and Counting Down The Days became her first album to reach the top spot on the album charts. The second single, the title track Counting Down The Days, was released on July 25th but it did not have as much success in the singles chart as Shiver. It managed to reignite interest in its parent album though, and also received a lot of airplay in the UK. Due to the single, the album managed to re-enter the top 40 in the official UK charts. Imbruglia also did a small European tour in late October and November to promote the album. It looks unlikely that a third single will be released from the album as she will soon be working on a small independent film in Australia. (The track Perfectly from the album received airplay in the UK following Counting Down the Days, but it was never released as a single.)