Move over Lady Gaga and Eminem, SuBo's a chart record-breaker

Published on Sunday 29 November 2009 22:44

SUSAN Boyle made chart history yesterday by soaring straight to No 1, with her album selling more than 410,000 copies – the best first week's sale for a debut release since records began.

Her cover of the Rolling Stones classic Wild Horses also entered the singles charts in ninth place.

The singer, from Blackburn, West Lothian, who found international fame after she appeared on Britain's Got Talent, said simply: "It's fantastic."

Her album, I Dreamed a Dream, outsold the rest of the top five combined and also appeared to be on course for success across the Atlantic and in several countries across the world.

Her spokeswoman said: "In America, Susan is already outselling Rihanna, Lady Gaga and 50 Cent with a projected first-week sales figures of around a million.

"In doing so, she is set to break Eminem's previous record for highest first-week US sales this year. Susan has broken retail records around the world, including becoming the biggest pre-ordered album in the history of Amazon."

Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, said: "People of all ages seem to be buying it, and it's clearly going to be one the must-have gift items this Christmas.

"Susan's accomplished performance on The X Factor (as a guest] has given the album a massive, timely boost. It now has the momentum to challenge for the Christmas No1."

Simon Cowell, the pop mogul who masterminded the 48-year-old's rise from obscurity to the world stage, said: "I'm incredibly proud of Susan as well as being delighted for her.

"The success could not have happened to a lovelier person. She did it her way and made a dream come true.

"In Britain's Got Talent, she opened her mouth and the world fell in love with her, which is why her album has been the fastest selling of any woman making her debut. She's amazing."

Martin Talbot, of the Official Charts Company, said: "Susan Boyle's achievement is quite phenomenal.

"After all of the excitement surrounding her appearance on Britain's Got Talent, everyone expected her to make a big impact when she released her first music – but to arrive with such a bang is exceptional."

Boyle's album smashed efforts from JLS, Black Eyed Peas and Queen, whose new releases were forced to settle for second, third and fourth spots respectively.

Last week's No1, Leona Lewis's Echo, was fifth in the album charts.

HIGH SPIRITS

UNTIL Susan Boyle burst on to the music scene, the fastest- selling debut album was Spirit by X Factor winner Leona Lewis, which sold 375,872 copies in 2007.

Lewis had beaten the record set the previous year by the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which sold 363,735 in a week.