Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream has already broken the U.K record for the largest first-week sales for a debut album.
I Dreamed a Dream, which is mostly a collection of covers, sold more than 410,000 copies in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company. This beats the two most recent record-holders for the fastest-selling debut album: Leona Lewis’s 2007 release, Spirit, which sold about 376,000 copies; and Arctic Monkeys’ 2006 record, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, which sold about 363,000.
Boyle’s first-week sales are the highest of any album this year, and the fourth-best of all time, behind Oasis’ Be Here Now, Coldplay’s X&Y and Take That’s The Circus. I Dreamed a Dream is also expected to top the US charts this week and break Eminem’s record for best first-week sales in America for 2009.
I’d like to hear the one original song on the album, “Who I Was Born to Be.” Boyle needs to earn some recognition for her own songs. Covers can be interesting, but I don’t admire singers who make a career out of them.
