Lady Gaga's third studio album, "ARTPOP," debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday after three months of steady promotion behind singles "Applause" and "Do What U Want."
The album sold 258,000 copies in its first week of release, according to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. Fifty-seven percent of those sales were digital downloads, Billboard said. It is the 27-year-old pop singer's second No. 1 album on the weekly U.S. chart.
"Born This Way" debuted in the top spot in 2011, selling 1.1 million copies in its opening week, helped by a 99-cent promotion on online retailer Amazon. Lady Gaga, one of the world's most recognizable singers, was unable to match this year's top-selling debut, Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience," which sold 968,000 copies in its opening week in March.
Rapper Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP 2," last week's top album, was No. 2 with 210,000 copies in sales. Pop hits compilation "Now 48" entered the chart at No. 3 with 114,000 in sales, while "Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas," a holiday album by the cast of reality TV series "Duck Dynasty" dropped a spot to No. 4 with 66,000. Pop singer Katy Perry's "PRISM" fell a spot to No. 5 with 46,000 in sales. Other new albums in the top 10 this week were the Beatles' "On Air: Live at the BBC Volume 2" at No. 7 with 37,000 in sales and R&B singer-songwriter Jhene Aiko's debut, "Sail Out," an EP that sold 34,000 copies, good enough for eighth.
Eminem's song "The Monster," which features R&B singer Rihanna, was the top song on the digital songs chart with 243,000 downloads in the past week. Albums sales for the past week were 5.4 million, a 5 percent decline from the same week last year, Billboard said. Digital song sales were down 10% to 19.9 million downloads compared to the same week last year, according to the trade publication.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Eric Beech)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}