Susan Boyle

Posts Tagged ‘I Dreamed a Dream’

Susan Boyle sold around 650,000 copies of her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream, last week in the US, bringing her total US sales so far to in the region of 2.5 million, and maintaining her number one position on the Billboard 200 for an amazing 4th successive week. Taylor Swift’s album has, to date, sold 2.7 million copies in the US. However, in the last week, Susan’s album sold approximately 650,000 copies, whereas Taylor Swift’s album sold 230,000 more copies.

Nevertheless, in the US, there are still two full sales weeks left and the highest selling album will not be known until January 3rd, 2010. With Susan Boyle is currently selling about three times as many copies of her album as Taylor Swift, will her sales surpass Taylor’s next week or the week after? I predict that they will.

In the meantime, I Dreamed A Dream is officially the second biggest selling album of the year in America, overtaking Eminem’s Relapse, according to Undercover.com.au.

The Susan Boyle TV special, I Dreamed a Dream – The Susan Boyle Story, was aired last night in the UK and US, and wasn’t it fabulous? One of the highlights was watching Susan being presented with a Triple Platinum Disc to celebrate over 1,000,000 sales of her “I Dreamed a Dream” album worldwide. See the video below:

Susan Boyle has sold 701,000 copies of her debut “I Dreamed a Dream” album during its first week of sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is the best sales week for a US album this year, with the previous best selling album being Eminem’s “Relapse”, which sold 608,000 in its opening week.

The sales for Susan’s album are the best seen since October 2008, when AC/DC sold 784,000 copies of “Black Ice” in a single week, according to Billboard.

The week of sales started Monday November 23rd when the album was released and finished at the close of sales on Sunday November 29th.

Another record for Susan – the sales of “I Dreamed a Dream” are the best ever for a female artist’s debut album since SoundScan started to track sales in 1991.

In other news, Susan Boyle gets the Pole Position on the Google Zeitgeist list, according to ITProPortal. The search term “Susan Boyle” was at the top of? the list of Google?s fastest rising news searches for 2009, along with, wait for it… “swine flu”.

Finally, a group Christmas Card has been set up for Susan Boyle on Groupcard.com. Click here if you want to add your name.

Susan Boyle is number one in the UK album charts, with the best selling debut album in the history of the UK chart.? According to BBC News, Susan has so far sold 410,000 copies of her album, I Dreamed a Dream.

Simon Cowell has said that he is “proud” of Susan and added what we already know – that success could not have happened to a nicer person.

Susan has said the news is “fantastic”.

Cowell said: “She did it her way and made a dream come true.

“I’m incredibly proud of her.

“The success could not have happened to a lovelier person. She did it her way and made a dream come true.

“In Britain’s Got Talent she opened her mouth and the world fell in love with her, which is why her album has been the fastest selling of any woman making her debut.

“She’s amazing.”

Martin Talbot, a spokesman of the Official Charts Company, said that Susan’s achievement is “phenomenal”.

Watch Simon Cowell talking about Susan:

Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream debut album is likely to outstrip the original sale predictions for the US. Currently, the album is on track to sell in the region of 675,00 copies (she has already sold more than 625,000 copies).

The fastest selling album of the year in the US previously was Eminem The Relapse which sold 608,000 copies in its first week on sale.

Susan’s album sale success has occurred despite some shops running out of the album and therefore being unable to meet the demand.

Combining the UK and the US, Susan’s album will have sold close to 1.2 million copies. It is also destined to enter the Canadian and Australian charts at number one.

Meanwhile, Susan is keeping her feet firmly on the ground. After her highly successful stint in the US, she has returned to her home in Blackburn, West Lothian, and has been pictured waving happily to fans from the doorstep of her (ex) council house.

A programme / documentary is to be made for both UK and American TV about Susan Boyle. The documentary will be an hour long, is entitled I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story, and will be shown by the TV Guide Network in the US and ITV in the UK. The documentary’s producer is Simon Cowell, whose company SyCo TV is behind the production.

Ryan O?Hara, the president of the TV Guide has said “Susan Boyle is one of those rare personalities who has captivated millions of fans around the world with her undeniable vocal talent and incredible life story.

“For the first time ever, fans will have an opportunity to see Susan Boyle shine on stage in her own spotlight, witness amazing musical performances in a concert setting, as well as gain insight into the challenges she overcame as she rose to an international phenomenon.”

The programme will feature Susan singing, plus interviews with her friends, celebrities who admire her and Simon Cowell, the creator of “Britain’s Got Talent”.

The programme will track Susan’s journey from church volunteer from Blackburn in Scotland, to the super celebrity which she has now reached.

I Dreamed A Dream – The Susan Boyle Story will premiere Sunday, December 13 on ITV1 in the UK and TV Guide in the US.

In other news, Susan Boyle’s debut album, “I Dreamed a Dream”,? is likely to become the fastest-selling album of 2009, after it smashed its first day sales targets. In particular, there have been a large number of purchases made in Scotland, where Susan fans have been keen to support their fellow Scot -? HMV have had to double their stock of the album in the last few days to meet the Scottish demand.

Margaret Alexander, 52, from Edinburgh, told The Scotsman that she never normally went into High Street music stores. “But you’ve got to back your own, haven’t you?” she said.

The Rolling Stones have also reissued their version of “Wild Horses” after Susan’s version was shown on the X Factor in the UK.

Susan Boyle wowed the adoring crowd on NBC’s Today show this morning, performing tracks from her record breaking “I Dreamed a Dream” album.

Dressed in a smart black coat and signature red scarf – which many of her fans wore to greet her at the airport the previous day – she sang “I Dreamed a Dream”, “Wild Horses” (the rendition of which host Meredith Vieira said was “absolutely beautiful”) and “Cry Me a River.”

Susan looked happy and confident, and was in good voice.

And here are the videos for all the people who didn’t get to see Susan on the Today Show.

It has been widely reported that Susan Boyle’s debut album, I Dreamed a Dream, is the most pre-ordered album of all time, despite the fact that Amazon.com restricted the number of copies that you could pre-order to just three.

A spokesman for Amazon.co.uk told The Telegraph: “Just eight months ago, no one was aware of the talents of Susan Boyle. Now, she has generated more Amazon pre-order CD sales globally than any other artist.”

However, I would like to draw your attention to another young artist, Hollie Steel, who’s debut single “Where are you Christmas?” has just become available for pre-order, the release date being December 7th.

Hollie Steel was in the final on Britain’s Got Talent alongside Susan Boyle, and charmed the nation with her amazing voice. Compared to a young Julie Andrews / Audrey Hepburn, Hollie is a well grounded young lady from a lovely, supportive family whom I have met.? If you would like to hear a preview of some tracks from Hollie’s forthcoming album, you can do so on her Official MySpace Page.

Hollie’s family have paid themselves to put the album together, and Hollie needs 6,000 pre-orders in order for the single to be stocked in the HMV stores here in the UK on release.

Support this lovely girl and? pre-order Hollie’s single (it costs ?1.99, delivery is free in the UK. Shipping to Europe is ?2.50 and the Rest Of The World ?4.50.)

Here is a recent video of Hollie performing in Hong Kong:

I Dreamed A Dream ? The Susan Boyle Story will be screened on UK television (ITV) in December. The show will be biographical and will feature interviews with Susan, her friends, celebrity fans and some performances from Susan, including the tracks Wild Horses, Cry me a River and I Dreamed a Dream.

Susan Boyle was beaten daily as a child at school, according to a shocking interview that appears in today’s Daily Mirror.

Susan told the Mirror that she was hit with a belt by the teachers and taunted by the other children.

She said: ?You?re looking at someone who?would get the belt every day. ?Will you Shut up, Susan!? ? whack!?

Susan spoke about her childhood in her first interview since she finished recording her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream.

The album comes out next week and is already the biggest selling pre-ordered album of all time.

Susan was asked if she understood why people felt such a connection with her. She replied: ?I don?t know, really. It?s an unusual story.

?I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner.

?I?m just I?m a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know?

?That was what I felt was happening to me.

?There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it?s all very different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better.?