Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Michael Buble's Christmas Retains #1 Billboard Spot

Adele's 21 and Justin Bieber's Under the Mistletoe snag #2 and #3 spots.
Photo: Reprise

Wondering what gifts will await you on Christmas morning? Don't be surprised if Ol' St. Nick stuffs your stocking with a copy of Michael Bublé's Yuletide LP. The throwback singer sold almost 448,000 copies of his Christmas album this past week while shoppers rushed stores to snag gifts for their loved ones. The sales number was more than enough to once again perch Bublé atop the Billboard albums chart like a partridge in a pear tree and bring him that much closer to a double-platinum plaque, according to SoundScan.


Michael Bublé looks poised to run the board for the next few weeks as hisChristmas album will hold on to the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a second week thanks to sales of 293,000. During a cycle when most of the top 20 saw steep double-digit sales dips, smooth crooner Bublé's ode to the holiday season was up 29 percent as it passed the 1 million mark, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.


Adele put in work as well, securing the #2 spot on the charts, as another 277,000 music lovers realized they should run out and buy her masterpiece 21, 43 weeks after its release. Justin Bieber's Under the Mistletoe(#3, 171,000), Lady Antebellum's Own the Night(#5, 81,000) and Drake's Take Care (#7, 77,000) all pushed past platinum this week, while the Black KeysEl Camino and Amy Winehouse's posthumous Lioness: Hidden Treasures remained in the top 10 in their second week of release. Nickelback's Here and Now(#6, 80,000), Andrea Bocelli's Concerto: One Night in Central Park (#8, 76,000) and "American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery's Clear as Day (#9, 66,000) rounded out the rest of the top 10.

Soul vocalist Anthony Hamilton saw his fifth studio album, Back to Love,miss the top 10 in its debut week, landing in the #12 position by selling almost 63,000 copies. Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa's Mac & Devin Go to High School movie soundtrack was the week's second notable debut, but one would have to imagine that the duo expected to land higher than #29. Still, once the accompanying film is actually released in 2012, the album could potentially move up.

It'll be interesting to see where veteran rappers Common and Young Jeezy will land next week with their respective albums, which were both released Tuesday.