Susan Boyle's winning streak has yet to be broken, as the unlikely Scottish singing sensation takes the #1 spot on the Billboard charts for the fourth consecutive week, Variety reports. Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream sold 661,000 copies (a 14% week-to-week gain) this past week (ending December 20), according to a tally from Nielsen SoundScan. Boyle's American sales have now exceeded 2.4 million within a month.
Alicia Key's The Element of Freedom, featuring the hit Empire State of Mind, took the number 2 spot this week, selling 417,000 units. Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas album holds the Number 3 spot selling 390,000 units, while Taylor Swift's Fearless is still charting at number 4, surpassing 5 million units sold total (239,000 this week). Country singer Carrie Underwood's "Play On" holds the number 5 spot, selling 153,000 units.
They are followed by Lady Gaga's The Fame (141,000 units sold), Michael Buble's Crazy Love (selling 140,000 units), Justin Bieber's My World (selling 127,000 units), Robin Thicke's Sex Therapy: The Experience (123,000-units sold), and GLEE: The Music Volume 2 (selling 111,000 units).
Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream, debuted at number 1 on the charts, remained at number 1 in it's second and third weeks and has also received RIAA-Triple Platinum Certification for shipping over three million units to retailers nationwide. ‘I Dreamed A Dream' continues to break records by becoming the biggest selling album released in 2009. Also as previously reported, "I Dreamed A Dream: The Susan Boyle Story," which premiered exclusively on TV Guide Network on Sunday, December 13 became its #1 rated television special in history. The television special, which delivered a 1.0 coverage rating (788,500 HH) for the 8:00 p.m. telecast, also over-delivered with the network's key demos. It achieved a triple digit increase (404 percent) with persons 25-54 over the prior year, and the combined 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. telecasts reached 4.1 million households and 4.8 million viewers (p18+).
YouTube additionally announced last week that Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream performance from
Britain's Got Talent is their most watched video of 2009.
After an audition for "Britain's Got Talent," in which Susan immediately impressed the judges, the audience and then anyone with access to YouTube's expectations by singing her way through a version of "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables. A tornado of rumination and amazement grew around Susan Boyle feverishly, with over 300 Million YouTube hits and nearly two million Facebook friends to prove it.
'I Dreamed A Dream' was recorded during the summer of 2009. Susan first entered a recording studio in July in Edinburgh, picking songs that resonated with her. The final results shocked both her and veteran producer Steve Mac with its beauty and musical impact. "It was important that I could feel everything I was singing," she says. The 12 track collection features Susan Boyle performing signature songs such as "I Dreamed A Dream", "Cry Me A River," as well as her haunting
rendition of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," Madonna's "You'll See," The Monkees' "Daydream Believer," and "Who I Was Born To Be," an original recording written especially for Susan.
