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Sat May 26 01:27:27 SAST 2012

Lana Del Rey has last laugh with top Billboard debut

Reuters | 09 February, 2012 07:51
Publicity photo of singer Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey's 'Born To Die' didn't debut at the top spot of the Billboard charts, but it was the highest debut at no 2, with 76 000 copies sold.
Image by: HANDOUT / REUTERS

After weeks of hype and ridicule, singer Lana Del Rey had the last laugh by scoring the week's highest debut on the Billboard 200 album chart with her new record 'Born To Die'.

New York native Del Rey, who had the Internet abuzz especially after a shaky performance on US sketch show Saturday Night Live last month, sold 76 000 copies of her debut album in its first week.

She was second only to British singer Adele, who continued her reign for the 19th week at No. 1 with 21.

Following on the heels of Del Rey was veteran folk singer Leonard Cohen, who sold 41 000 copies of his 12th studio album, Old Ideas, a collection of songs recalling some of Cohen's earlier and best-known works such as Hallelujah.

Despite Del Rey and Cohen's high new entries, they could not shift Adele from her top spot. She sold 121 000 copies of 21 in the past week ahead of her official comeback from throat surgery at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

The only other new entry in the top ten albums was gospel singer Fred Hammond, who entered the chart at No. 8 with God, Love & Romance, while party rockers LMFAO re-entered the chart with Sorry for Party Rocking at No. 9 and Rihanna's Talk That Talk jumped up the chart to round out the top ten.

Next week's chart battle will see if veteran rockers Van Halen can knock Adele off the top spot with their new album, A Different Kind of Truth.

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