Is the Susan Boyle song “I Dreamed a Dream” on the top of U.S. charts?
Taking the US charts by storm, Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed A Dream sold a little more than 700,000 copies last week to debut at number one. The album was initially expected to move 200,000-300,000 copies but it soon became evident that it was going to exceed that. But with the Thanksgiving weekend providing logistical distribution problems, even the most optimistic observers were saying that the album would sell 600,000 tops. In the end, it sold 700,779 copies, carving itself a 6.5% share of the overall market. Tracks from the album also sold nearly 100,000 copies via digital downloads, with I Dreamed A Dream shifting 39,142 copies to debut at number 33 on the download chart, followed by Wild Horses (number 64, 24,187 sales) and Amazing Grace (number 166, 9,646). I Dreamed A Dream enjoyed the biggest sales week of any album thus far in 2009, topping the 606,244 that previous leader Eminem’s Relapse sold on its debut week in May – and it far exceeds the 325,000 copies that Lady Gaga’s The F
She “Dreamed a Dream,” but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Susan Boyle, the YouTube sensation and Britain’s Got Talent hands-down favorite, took second-place in Saturday’s finale, falling short to a dance troupe called Diversity. Boyle’s runner-up placement came to the shock of many, including all three judges, who during her final performance hailed her as the best talent to grace the stage. Following Boyle’s swan song, Piers Morgan couldn’t hold back, saying, “I’m not supposed to favor anyone, I should be impartial, but you know what, forget it. That was the greatest performance I’ve seen in Britain’s Got Talent history. You should win this competition. I loved it!” Judge Amanda Holden agreed: “I have never heard such powerful, confident vocals.” She even went as far as calling out America’s favorite critic, Simon Cowell. “And can I just say, Simon had a tear in his eye and I’ve never seen that before.” And as far as Cowell was concerned, the entire competition paled in comparison to
