This week news is not just about Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera. A new name has captured the spotlight of the media after two years of silence. English singer and songwriter Adele Adkins grabbed all the attention of fans and internauts when she stormed in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with her sophomore album “21” that received rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, New York Daily News and Spin magazine as well.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold in 352,000 copies in its first week, which is the biggest score recorded since November 29 last year, when Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” sold 496,000 copies and Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday” took the second position with 375,000 sold copies.
Adele, who took home the Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance awards, at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, has also hit another record. In terms of downloads, her album bows atop the Digital Albums chart with 217,000 downloads (62% of the set’s overall first week), making it the best week for a digital set since West’s “My Beautiful” moved 224,000 downloads in its premiere.
It’s quite remarkable regarding the fact that her debut album, “19″ reached No. 1 (it has spent a total of 71 weeks on the tally and has shifted 948,000 copies in the U.S.) and has been certified 3x platinum in the UK. Knowing her stunning voice and the success she had with “19″, fans and critics alike had still one concern: can she top “21″? Now she proved everyone she can.
After she memorably sung “Someone Like You” at the Brit Awards in middle February, the song and its two clips topped as having the most views on YouTube: up to 3.3 million views, while Rihanna gathered only 1.3 million views for her “Loud” tracks. Now, the retro-pop princess Adele’s “Someone Like You” bowed at No. 45 with 51,000. Besides, another single from her “21″ album - “Rolling In the Deep” - jumped 13-7 on the Digital Songs chart, moving 151,000 (up 26%) and selling 621,000 copies since its release in November last year. Its official video skipped 16 million views on YouTube and Vevo.

Furthermore, this album, which was a critical and commercial success being described by The New York Post as “a bathtub tears album”, sold 208,000 copies in its first week in the UK alone and debuted at number one on the UK Album Chart, being charted in the same position in nine other countries.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 5th, 2011 at 2:13 pm and is filed under News.