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4/23/08,
Mariah's On Fire: Diva Notches Sixth No. 1 Album
• Mariah Carey crowns the Billboard 200 for a sixth time as "E=MC2" starts atop the tally with 463,000 -- her biggest opening week. It's also the highest sales week of the year, surpassing the 375,000 start of Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static" in February. Finally, "E=MC2" marks the best opening week for any album since Mary J. Blige's "Growing Pains" started with 629,000.
• Carey is now tied with fellow divas Madonna and Janet Jackson for the second most No. 1 albums among female artists. Only queen bee Barbra Streisand, with eight, is ahead of the pack.
• "E=MC2" is the eighth debut at No. 1 in as many weeks on the fast-moving Billboard 200. It follows penthouse-bows from Jackson, Alan Jackson, Rick Ross, Danity Kane, Day26, George Strait and Leona Lewis.
• Carey's last album, "The Emancipation of Mimi," also landed at No. 1 in its premier week, moving 404,000. "Mimi" spent two weeks atop the chart, was the best-selling album in the United States in 2005 and has shifted 5.8 million units total... This is the first time Carey has scored back-to-back No. 1 albums since "Daydream" and "Butterfly" reached the top in 1995 and 1997.
• Collectively, Carey's albums have sold 50 million copies in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. She's the third-biggest-selling albums artist in the SoundScan era, trailing only Garth Brooks (67.8 million) and the Beatles (56.2 million).
Source:
Billboard
