Odeum: 12.09

Dec 26, 2009

Dec 16, 2009

Dec 5, 2009

Ragbag Headliners

Adam Lambert's suggestive American Music Awards performance hasn't hurt sales of his first album.

With stiff competition from a slew of holiday compilations and Susan Boyle's first album, Lambert's debut is still managing to sell well online.

"For Your Entertainment," Lambert's first album after his run on "American Idol," where he came in second to winner Kris Allen, is the fifth most downloaded album on iTunes behind Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle, the "New Moon" soundtrack and John Mayer.

Lambert's 14-song album is also in the top 10 of Amazon.com music purchases as the ninth most purchased album.

On Sunday night Lambert shocked America with a performance that included simulated oral sex with a dancer and a gay kiss with his male keyboardist.

ABC, the network that aired the awards show, received more than 1500 complaints and canceled Lambert's follow-up performance on "Good Morning America."

The CBS "Early Show" picked up Lambert after the ABC cancellation. He was interviewed, performed two songs and took questions from the live audience.

Lambert told CBS he thinks much of the uproar over his AMA performance is because he is a gay man.

He admitted that he got a little carried away at the awards show, but said that none of his risqué dance moves were planned in advance. "I do see how people got offended, and that was not my intention. My intention was to interpret the lyrics of my song and have a good time with it," Lambert said. –CNN

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Susan Boyle's dreams continue to come true. The singing sensation who emerged from obscurity on "Britain's Got Talent" is topping the charts, selling the most albums of any artist in a single week this year with the largest ever sales debut for a female artist.

Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" album is on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart with 701,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"This is a big deal considering some of the superstar acts that came out this year that couldn't get to that number, said Billboard's director of charts Silvio Pietroluongo. The year's previous high-water sales mark came when Eminem's "Relapse" sold 608,000 in its opening week.

Boyle, a 48-year-old churchgoing celebrity who lives in a modest government-owned home in Scotland with her pet cat, captured the world's attention and hearts eight months ago when she performed on the British talent competition.

Now Boyle is competing against two "American Idols" for sales this holiday season. Idol runner-up Adam Lambert's debut "For Your Entertainment" is at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and "Idol" champ Kris Allen is at No. 11.

When it comes to album sales, Boyle is even fiercer than Rihanna, whose fourth album, "Rated R," is in the No. 4 slot on the charts with 181,000 albums sold during the first week.

Boyle's large album sales reflect larger changes happening in the music industry as younger audiences tend to buy single-song downloads, while more mature audiences, who make up Boyle's fan base, still purchase entire albums.

"Hit-driven artists tend to do well on the download side but aren't moving as many albums as they once did," Pietroluongo said. "If you have an artist who resonates with an older audience, you have an artist who can sell more albums." -CNN