Selling a whopping 482,000 copies of ‘I Am … Sasha Fierce’ in its first week of release lands Beyonce Knowles to the top spot on the ‘Billboard’ charts.
The new Music World/Columbia set, split between material credited to Beyonce and her alter-ego Sasha Fierce, has been bolstered by the break-out hits ‘If I Were a Boy’ and ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).’
‘I Am’ is the former Destiny’s Child front-woman third straight Number One debut; her 2003 solo debut, ‘Dangerously in Love,’ opened with 317,000, while 2006’s ‘B-Day’ moved 541,000.
As expected, a string of strategically planned appearances (which included top rated TV shows such as ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘The American Music Awards’ and ‘Ellen’) helped catapult the project to become an out-the-box success.
Knowles wrapped a live performance of ‘TODAY’ this morning, closing her set with a soulful rendition of Etta James’ classic ‘At Last.’ She plays the R&B trailblazer in the film, ‘Cadillac Records,’ which opens Dec. 5.
