Tuesday’s reports held, and Billboard has officially welcomed Taylor Swift into the million sales club. The singer-songwriter’s “Speak Now,” which lands in a dominant first position on the Billboard 200 chart, moved 1.047 million copies in its first week of release.
The total, which nearly doubles the opening week performance of predecessor “Fearless,” ranks the album as the fastest-moving record since 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” landed in 2005. The rapper’s album, fueled by hit single “Candy Shop” and holdover buzz from his successful “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” album, moved 1.141 million units in its first week.
Swift also represents the first artist since Lil Wayne to achieve more than a million sales in a single week. Weezy’s “Tha Carter III” opened to the tune of 1.006 million sales in 2008.
