Taylor Swift’s new album, “Speak Now” has done what no other new release in the last five and a half years has managed to do – sell one million copies in its first week in stores. 1,047,000 copies to be exact. That’s the biggest first week sales total since 50 Cent released “The Massacre” in March of 2005.
“Speak Now” is also has the second biggest one week sales tally in the Neilsen/SoundScan era for a record released by a female solo artist. The only such album that sold more was Britney Spears’ “Opps!..I Did It Again” which sold 1,319,000 copies in its first week in May of 2000. Swifts new release is also boasts the second biggest opening week tally for a country album, just behind Carth Brooks’ “Double Live.”
Not bad for a twenty year old girl from Nashville who, according to her website, likes quilts and is excited to finally have her own kitchen. She says she, “learned to play guitar when I was twelve from this guy named Ronnie who came over to fix my parents’ computer” and hasn’t looked back since.
Swift is no stranger to record sales success. Her debut, self titled album, released when she was just sixteen, went multi-platinum. Her second album, “Fearless” toped the Billboard 200 for eleven consecutive weeks, the most time an album has spent at number one since 2000. It also earned Swift four Grammy awards.
