Gaga Hits Another Milestone
She is on a roll!! Lady Gaga has broken another record - held by the one and only Britney Spears!Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" enters the Hot 100 at #1. It's the 1,000th #1 single since Billboard introduced the Hot 100 in August 1958. "Born This Way" sold 448,000 copies, which breaks Britney Spears' record, set just last month, for the biggest first-week digital sales tally for a hit by a female solo artist. Spears set the record when "Hold It Against Me" started with sales of 411K.
Gaga's tally is the third fattest first-week total in digital history. The only songs that have sold more copies in their first weeks are Flo Rida's "Right Round," which moved 636K in its first week in February 2009, and the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow," which sold 465K in its first week in April 2009.
Impressively, "Born This Way" racked up these sales in just three days of release. Gaga performed the song on the Grammys on Sunday, which was the last day of the tracking week. The song was originally slated for release that day, but was moved up two days. Gaga's Born This Way album is due May 23.
"Born This Way" is Gaga's third single to top the Hot 100, but it's her first to debut in the top spot. Her breakthrough hit, "Just Dance" (featuring Colby O'Donis), took 22 weeks to reach #1. Her follow-up, "Poker Face," took 15 weeks. (You may be surprised that "Bad Romance" never quite reached the top spot. It logged seven weeks at #2.)
"Born This Way" owes an obvious debt to a pair of Madonna hits: 1989's "Express Yourself" and 1990's "Vogue." Previous Gaga hits have also echoed Madonna. "Alejandro" had the Latin ballad vibe of 1987's "La Isla Bonita." Madonna should take it as a compliment. Madonna was a complete original. Nobody ever accused her of copping someone else's sound or sensibility.
I have more good news for Gaga this week: "Just Dance" becomes only the second song to top the 6 million mark in paid downloads. It follows the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling."
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