By Chiagoziem Onyekwena
Nigerian-born soul veteran Sade’s comeback album Soldier of Love remains on top the Billboard charts for the third straight week. According to Nielsen Sound Scan, Sade’s first album in ten years has amassed a sales total of 820,200 since its release on February 12 and is on course to attain platinum status before the end of March. High-flying country group Lady Antellebum’s Need You Now album stormed the charts at No. 2 moving 118,000 units last week alone.
The highest debutant of the week was the post-humus album from Johnny Cash titled American VI: Ain’t No Grave; it snagged the No.3 spot with sales of 54,000. Hip-hop super group Black Eyed Peas moved 50,000 copies of their double platinum The END album. The album has spent 36 weeks on the charts and has consistently churned out hit singles.
Else where on the charts, soon-to-be- incarcerated emcee Lil Wayne watched his experimental rock album drop to No. 6 with sales of 37,000 copies, bringing his total 361, 400 to date. Grammy-winning R&B sensation Alicia Key’s platinum selling The Element of Freedom came in at No. 13 with 24, 300, while Def Jam’s princess Rihanna’s Rated R album received a little four-spot boost to No. 14 with 23,900. With 14 weeks under her belt, the singer’s latest effort rests at 687,700 sold copies. Also worthy of mention, 50 Cent’s slow-selling Before I Self Destruct album crawled over the 400k mark this week, moving 8,400 units and landing at No. 63.
That’s all for this week guys, stay tuned to NET to see how new releases next week, most notably DJ Khaled’s Victory, impact the Billboard Charts.
