CHART BUZZ: Adele, Marsha Ambrosius, Lupe Fiasco, Enrique Iglesias

Posted March 10, 2011 by J Matthew Cobb in News

Adele maintains No. 1 seat while Marsha Ambrosius’ debut LP comes in at No. 2, Lupe Fiasco expected to take the No. 1 spot next week and Enrique Iglesias is proving to be the man of the hour on the Pop charts

Look out, folks. The Brits are coming.

For the second week in a row, Adele retains the top spot on the Billboard 200. Last week, her sophomore album 21 sold over 350,00 copies in the US. This week, the UK singer with the soulful golden voice repeats last week’s success – selling 168,000 copies. So far, Adele’s 21 stands mightily as the best-selling disc of 2011.

Marsha Ambrosius also struck gold with her J Records debut, her first full-length since departing from the English neo-soul duo Floetry. The new album, Late Nights & Early Mornings, claimed the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200, selling 96,000 units. This album marks a promising start for Ambrosius’ solo career as it outsold both albums and peaked higher than any of the Floetry albums.

UK folk band Mumford & Sons is still riding on Grammy fever with their LP Sigh No More holding tightly to the No. 3 spot (54,000 copies).

Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers is expected to make some noise next week when it plans to debut at No. 1. Analysts are predicting Fiasco’s third disc to sell somewhere between 190,000 and 220,000 copies, but will be competing with new, strong debuts from R.E.M. (Collapse Into Now), Sara Evans (Stronger) and Avril Lavigne (Goodbye Lullaby). If it does land at No. 1, it will be the rapper’s first. His 2006 debut, Food & Liquor, debuted at No. 8.

Latin singer Enrique Iglesias is dominating the Pop charts with his Ludacris-DJ Frank E collaboration, “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You).” The song reached No. 1. Katy Perry and Kanye West’s “E.T.” is climbing higher heights, now reaching #19.

In other chart news, Bruno Mars is working “The Lazy Song” (#40, Pop Songs), Lady Gaga is dominating the Digital Songs’ survey for the fourth week with “Born This Way,” Cage the Elephant’s “Shake Me Down” is reigning at No. 1 on the Alternative Songs’ chart and Nicki Minaj continues her No. 1 winning streak at Rap Songs.

CHART BUZZ is a bi-monthly series tracing the latest airplay, radio impressions and unit sales numbers goverened by Billboard and measured by Nielsen Soundscan. For more chart information and additional chart data, go to www.billboard.com or www.billboard.biz. Visit our abbrievated Billboard and iTunes charts at: www.hifimagazine.net/blog/charts