American Idol 'Season 5 Encores'

American Idol 'Season 5 Encores'

The Best-Selling 'American Idol' Finalists Album Yet!

Fifth Season Compilation has Series' Best First Week

'Encores' Enters the Billboard 200 Chart at No. 3; Popular Series has Produced More Top 10 Albums Than Any Movie or TV Show

LOS ANGELES, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The fifth season of "American Idol" racked up the series' highest ratings and now the album "American Idol Season 5: Encores" has scored the highest first-week sales in the history of the franchise. The 19 Recording/RCA release sold 153,902 copies in its first week of sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That is almost double the first-week sales of the fourth season compilation, and beats the first-week sales of the previous best-selling album in the series, the first season collection, which sold 146,145 copies in its first week.

The impressive sales figure fuels a debut at No. 3 on The Billboard 200. All five "American Idol" season compilations have peaked in the top 10, making the popular Fox-TV series the most successful soundtrack franchise of any motion picture or television program. The previous record-holder was the "Star Wars" series, which produced four top 10 albums out of six soundtracks released.

"Encores" features songs from the top 12 finalists of the latest season of "American Idol." Two of the tracks make spectacular debuts on The Billboard Hot 100, the first time that songs from a season compilation have charted for an individual finalist. Chris Daughtry enters the Hot 100 at No. 43 with his update of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." Taylor Hicks, crowned this year's American Idol, opens at No. 69 with his version of the Doobie Brothers' "Taking It to the Streets."

More than 81,000 individual digital downloads from the album were sold during the first week. Daughtry's song debuts at No. 16 on Hot Digital Tracks and Hicks' recording enters that chart at No. 38. The next three best-selling tracks were Elliott Yamin's "Moody's Mood for Love," Katharine McPhee's "Think" and Ace Young's "Father Figure."

The "American Idol Season 5: Encores" CD also makes impressive top 10 debuts on three other Billboard charts, bowing at No. 2 on Top Soundtracks, No. 4 on Top Digital Albums and No. 6 on Top Internet Albums.

Source: RCA Records

CONTACT: Roger Widynowski of RCA Records, +1-310-449-2638,
rogerw@sonybmg.com

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