USA
Billboard Report (Excerpt)
Black Eyed Peas persist on Hot 100 with 'Imma Be'
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
by Keith Caulfield, L.A. & Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

The Black Eyed Peas hold at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week with "Imma Be." The track returns to the top of Digital Songs for a second frame after abdicating the lead spot to "We Are

The World 25: For Haiti" by Artists for Haiti for the past two weeks. Young Money moves into the Hot 100 runner-up slot with "BedRock," a new peak for the track. Returning to its prior peak is Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" which climbs 5-3. It held the same spot three weeks ago. Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" tumbles 2-4, while Lady Gaga dips 4-5 with "Bad Romance." Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" moves up a spot (7-6), as does Ludacris' "How Low" (8-7). Rihanna captures her 14th Hot 100 top 10 as "Rude Boy" catapults 23-8, taking dual Digital & Airplay Gainer honors for a second straight week. The last track to take those awards in successive weeks was Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" in late 2006 as it was making its way to No. 1. Rihanna has now posted the most Hot 100 top 10s by a female artist since the beginning of the last decade. She had been tied with Beyonce (13 top 10s) among women and is now even with Ludacris (14) for second among all artists. Only Jay-Z, with 15 top 10s since 2000, has scored more. The last two titles in this week's top 10 swap spots with Trey Songz's "Say Aah" moving 10-9 and Jason Derulo's "In My Head" dropping 9-10.
Sade's "Soldier of Love" sits tight for a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as it sells 127,000 (down 34%). In the runner-up slot, Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" holds down No. 2 position for a third week as well, shifting 118,000 (down 18%). Unlike last week, where the chart was so sleepy you had to scroll all the way down to No. 42 to find the highest debut, this week there are a pair of new entries in the top 15. First up is Johnny Cash's "American VI: Ain't No Grave," starting at No. 3 with 54,000. It's late legend's final installment in his American Recordings series with producer Rick Rubin. The last one, "American V: A Hundred Highways," debuted at No. 1 with 88,000 in July of 2006.
Just outside the top 10 is the tally's second-best debut, where Alkaline Trio's "This Addiction" bows at No. 11 with 26,000. It's the second top 20 album for the band -- and its highest charting set. The act's previous high-water mark came with "Agony and Irony" in 2008, which debuted and peaked at No. 13 off a 36,000 start. Ke$ha's "Animal" roars back into the top 10 this week, climbing seven rungs to No. 7 with 32,000 (up 7%), likely partially owed to a $7.99 sale tag it carried at Best Buy last week. Meanwhile, the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." slips one spot to No. 4 (50,000; down 23%), Lady Gaga's "The Fame" is also down one to No. 5 (48,000; down 23%) and Lil Wayne's "Rebirth" falls one position to No. 6 (37,000; down 36%). Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" descends two spot to No. 8 (30,000; down 41%), Taylor Swift's "Fearless" climbs one to No. 9 (28,000; down 13%) and Justin Bieber's "My World" returns to the top 10 for the first time since January, as it rises two slots to No. 10 (just under 26,000; down 20%). Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Feb. 28) totaled 5.99 million units, down 8% compared to the sum last week (6.53 million) and down 13% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (6.91 million).  COMPLETE CHARTS

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (Excerpt)
Critics' Choice award winner tops the album chart
Monday, March 8, 2010
by Alan Jones, London

Female solo artists are enjoying their best ever spell on the albums chart, supplying 10 of the last 16 number ones. That tally rises to 11 out of 17 this week, as Ellie Goulding storms to the summit with her

debut set Lights on sales of 36,854 copies. Goulding is the winner of the BBC’s Sound Of 2010 poll, and the Critics’ Choice award at The Brits. Her album includes her debut Top 40 hit Starry Eyed, which remains at number four on sales of 45,579 copies. With Lady GaGa’s The Fame easing 1-2 (35,073 sales), Alicia Keys’ The Element Of Freedom holding at number three (31,811 sales) and Florence + The Machine’s Lungs descending 4-5 (29,635 sales) female solo artists also have a lock on the top five broken only by the Glee Cast’s Glee: The Music – Season One – Volume 1, which dips 2-4 (30,843 sales). Having dethroned Susan Boyle and denied Sade top billing, Mumford & Son’s Sigh No More is number one in Australia for the third straight week – and the London folk/rock quartet’s album continues to prosper here too. Since debuting at number 11 last October, the album has spent 22 consecutive weeks on the chart. It rose as high as number seven some eight weeks ago, and returned to that position five weeks ago. It tests the water for the third time this week, moving 10-7 with sales of 20,546 lifting its career tally to 294,285. A week after topping the singles chart with In My Head, Jason DeRulo makes his album chart debut, with his eponymous first album entering at number eight (16,362 sales). John Barrowman also goes the self-titled route, with his latest album, a collection of covers from musical theatre presentations. It is a winning formula for Barrowman, debuting at number 11 (15,261 sales) to provide his highest chart placing to date. His 2007 album, Another Side, reached number 22, and 2008 follow-up Music, Music, Music reached number 35. Barrowman isn’t the only 42-year-old Glaswegian to chart with a 13-track album of familiar songs from stage and screen this week – Sharleen Spiteri does likewise, debuting at number 13 on 13,832 sales of her self-explanatory set The Movie Songbook. It is Texas member Spiteri’s second solo album, following 2008’s Melody, which reached number three and has thus far sold 209,894 copies. One of the more unusual albums to enter the chart this week is American singer/songwriter/harpist Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me. The 28-year-old Californian has developed quite a cult following here, selling 34,551 copies of debut set The Milk-Eyed Minder since its 2004 release, though it has never made the Top 200. 2006 follow-up, Ys, reached number 41, and has sold 45,762 copies. Following the return to the chart of the dearly departed Johnny Cash, Gracie Fields and Ali Farka Touré last week, two more artists singularly ill-equipped to promote their new albums return to old haunts this week. The new Dean Martin compilation That’s Amore debuts at number 27 (8,526 sales), while Matt Monro’s The Greatest enters at number 40 (5,929 sales). It is the 14th chart album for Martin, who died in 1995, and last charted in 2004 with Dino: The Essential Platinum Collection. Monro died in 1985, and has charted seven albums, most recently making the list in 2007 with the Valentine’s Day aimed From Matt With Love. Despite a good slate of releases, sales increased by just 0.07% week-on-week to 1,927,096, and are down 1.55% on same week 2009 sales of 1,957,433. It brings to an end a sequence of eight consecutive weeks in which sales have been above those a year prior.
With massive pre-release radio, TV and club support, Pass Out makes a perfect start, debuting at number one for 21-year-old Londoner Tinie Tempah – real name Patrick Okogwu. He becomes the first Parlophone recording act to open his career with a number one debut since 1999, when film director Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) debuted in pole position. Tempah is only the fifth Parlophone act to have a number one single in the 21st century, following Kylie Minogue, George Harrison, Coldplay and Gorillaz. Minogue has had three, all the rest one. With Tempah debuting at number one (92,002 sales), Relentless/Virgin act Naughty Boy presents Wiley feat. Emeli debuting at number eight with Never Be Your Woman (32,808 sales) and Positiva / Virgin’s Gramophonedzie arriving at number 12 with Why Don’t You (26,058 sales), EMI acts secure three debuts in the Top 15 for the first time in the 21st century. In other Top 10 news, Rihanna’s Rude Boy climbs 3-2, with sales increasing 19% to 62,476; Jason DeRulo’s In My Head fades 1-3 (55,846 sales); and Boyzone’s Gave It All Away enters at number nine (32,004 sales). It is the sixth week in a row that Rude Boy has climbed, and it is the sixth number two of Rihanna’s short career, following 2005 debut Pon De Replay, S.O.S., Unfaithful (both 2006), Live Your Life with T.I. (2008) and Russian Roulette (2009). Boyzone’s run of 17 straight Top 10 hits came to a halt when last single Better peaked at number 22 in December 2008. The band returns to the Top 10 this week, with Gave It All Away, their first single since the tragic death of Stephen Gateley, whose vocals are featured on the track alongside his bandmates. The song was written by Mika, and is faring much better than Mika’s own recent releases. We Are Golden – the first single from his second album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much – peaked at number four, but both subsequent singles, Rain and Blame It On The Girls, have peaked at number 72. Lack of exposure isn’t the problem either – Rain reached number 18 on the radio airplay chart, Blame It On The Girls one place lower. Parachute becomes the third Top 10 hit from Cheryl Cole’s debut solo album 3 Words this week, moving 11-10 on sales of 30,332 copies. Overall singles sales climb 1.18% week-on-week to 2,920,221 – 10.33% above same week 2009 sales of 2,646,774.  COMPLETE CHARTS