Posted on: December 9, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Nine-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys continues to make musical history as her fourth album As I Am debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums and R&B Albums charts with first week sales of 742,426 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Released November 13th on MBK Entertainment/J Records, As I Am, Alicia now holds the prestigious title as the biggest debut for a female R&B artist in SoundScan history, and the highest selling debut for a female artist since 2004. As I Am is also the second highest selling debut week of any artist over the past 2 years, behind Kanye West’s Graduation. This release marks Alicia’s fourth consecutive #1 debut and her biggest sales week to date (her previous chart-topping debut was 2003’s Diary of Alicia Keys which scanned 618,335).

In the digital world, Alicia’s As I Am is the highest selling digital album by a female artist in history, with 60,900 albums sold during the first week of release. Additionally, as the single “No One’ jumps to #1 on the Digital Songs chart, it maintains the #1 Mastertone position on the Billboard RingScan chart for two straight weeks and will be officially RIAA certified platinum by the end of week.

Alicia’s hit single “No One” moves into the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart this week with an all format audience of 174 million! The single continues to hold the #1 spot for 5 consecutive weeks on the Urban Mainstream chart, Top 3 at Rhythm radio for the past 3 weeks and breaks through to the Top 10 at Top 40 radio with the #9 slot this week. Keys’ new single “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” is expected to duplicate this rapid chart-topping success as it presently has 27 million in audience since impacting radio last week.

The “No One” video is the #1 most played video at MTV, BET, VH1, VH1 Soul and MTV Hits and is also #1 on BET’s 106 & Park, MTV’s TRL and VH1’s Top 20 countdowns. Keys’ new “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” video is currently #8 on BET’s 106 & Park and was just added to MTV.

Currently gracing the cover of Entertainment Weekly, Keys has had a total of nine major magazine covers and appeared on several TV programs, including her recent American Music Awards “bashment” performance of her hit single “No One,” along with reggae music’s elite Junior Reid, Chaka Demus & Pliers and Beenie Man.

Keys plans to embark on an international and domestic tour in 2008.

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