The *REAL* Official Gwen Stefani Thread

[moombasista]

OMG Chris those are so cute!

Billboard

Ciara's "Ciara: The Evolution" leads three new titles onto the top three spots on The Billboard 200, bowing at No. 1 with 338,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The LaFace set achieves the R&B starlet's best charting position and sales week ever. Ciara's debut effort, 2004's "Goodies," entered at No. 3 with 125,000 and has sold 2.63 million to date.

The Shady/Aftermath/Interscope compilation "Eminem Presents: The Re-Up" lands at No. 2 with 309,000. Featuring a host of new Eminem tracks plus appearances from 50 Cent and members of the Shady Records roster, the album comes a year after Eminem's "Curtain Call: The Hits" opened at No. 1 with 441,000.

Gwen Stefani one-ups the peak position of her smash 2004 Interscope solo debut "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" with "The Sweet Escape," which debuts at No. 3 with 243,000. Its predecessor opened at No. 7 but eventually climbed to No. 5 thanks to the success of singles like "Hollaback Girl."

The soundtrack to Disney's "Hannah Montana" falls 2-4 in its seventh week on the chart despite a 47% increase in sales to 243,000. The Sony BMG Strategic Marketing Group/EMI/Universal/Zomba hits compilation "NOW 23" slips 4-5 with 185,000 (+20%).

Il Divo's "Siempre" (SYCO/Columbia) experiences a 128% sales boom, re-entering the top 10 with a 16-6 surge. Fueled in part by a Dec. 6 appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the group's "Ancora" also rockets forward 161-87, a 174% increase, while "The Christmas Collection" moves 3-1 on the Top Pop Catalog chart with a nearly 200% boost in sales.


Chris Daughtry's 19 Recordings/RCA debut "Daughtry" falls 3-7 with 155,000, a flat sales change, while the new Beatles collection "Love" (Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol) drops 5-8 with 152,000 (+3%). Sarah McLachlan's Arista holiday album "Wintersong" dips 7-9 with 137,000 and an 18% sales increase. Carrie Underwood, who won two Billboard Music Awards last week, inches up 13-10 with "Some Hearts" (Arista Nashville) on a 50% sales boost to 126,000.

Most of the performers from the event see increases for their albums that are larger than the 27.8% uptick of the overall market. Fergie's "The Dutchess" is up 62% at No. 19 while Nickelback (No. 21, up 42%), the Fray (No. 33, up 52%) and Mary J. Blige (No. 134, up 95%) also see gains. Even winners that accepted their trophies on the show but didn't perform also saw some spikes, including the soundtrack of "High School Musical" (No. 27, up 33%), Nelly Furtado (No. 49, up 64%), Chris Brown (No. 98, up 39%), Three Days Grace (No. 106, up 44%) and Kenny Chesney (Nos. 118 and 121, both up more than 30%).

Last week's chart-topper, Incubus' "Light Grenades," sets an undesirable record on The Billboard by dropping to No. 37, the biggest position drop ever from No. 1. Previously, Marilyn Manson's 2003 album "The Golden Age of Grotesque" held the record after sliding to No. 21 in its second week.

The Music World Music/Sony Urban Music/Columbia/ Sony Music Soundtrax soundtrack to "Dreamgirls," the single-disc "highlights" version," bows at No. 20 with 92,000. The longer two-disc version enters at No. 132. Other big debuts this week include Lil Scrappy's "Bred 2 Die -- Born 2 Live" (BME) at No. 24 with 82,000 units and R&B veteran Brian McKnight's "Ten" (Warner Bros.) at No. 32 with 63,000.

Besides Daughtry's, the only other album in the top 25 to experience a sales decrease was Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come" (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam), which slides 6-15 in its third week on a 27% sales decline to 101,000.

Overall, album sales are up 27.8% from last week's count and are down 1.9% compared to the same week a year ago at 18.86 million units. Sales for 2006 are down 5% compared to 2005 at 519.4 million units.

Originally Posted by Mad_Cactuar

Am I the only one who thinks that this album is another masterpiece? It's so awesome.

I think the album is awesome! It's modern, trashy, sexy and loud!

Its got attitude and the lyrics are good too.

Oh and yummy is so ****in' hot! I makes me wanna dance like a ho

[IYFreak]

I think this album is awesome too.

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

I think the album will sell well with the help of the upcoming singles.

[Mad_Cactuar]

Yep, when Yummy gets released, I think it will be in the Top 10 for quite a while. I love the lyrics.

Horrid though that it sold the same amount with Hannah montana.

[explodingbird]

Hmm... on the subject of singles... I'd like to hear the others be:

Fluorescent
4 in the Morning
Wonderful Life (Yeah, right. Won't happen)

A fifth single? I guess... err...

...I'll... hit you guys back on that one.

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

Originally Posted by Mad_Cactuar

Horrid though that it sold the same amount with Hannah montana.

It must be real bad since she sold the same amount as a singer I have never heard of. I think this album will sell well though. something like LAMB which sold over 3 million there and stayed on the American charts for so long.

I'm hoping she releases some multiple A sides, since I doubt she would release "wonderful life" and "Fluorescent" as single a sides.

[Mad_Cactuar]

Hannah Montana is a Disney artist who has a TV show, and that album is the soundtrack of the TV show, so yeah it's pretty bad. Children, preteen, family music. Crappy. Something like High School Musical, but baadddd.

If Cool had a chance, I'm sure Wonderful Life could be a single. Perhaps the meaning and lyrics might be a setback. Don't Get It Twisted is pretty awesome too. But Yummy MUST be a single

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

Looks like I wont be checking out Hannah.

I thought they have confirmed Yummy as the second single??

[explodingbird]

Nah. It's too much of a Milkshake rip-off, and Gwen and Pharrell both sound insanely bored in it. Seriously, in the verses, there's enough monotone from both sides to overwhelm the world and kill any other existing vocal inflections or tones. That and enough left over to make a whole new Cassie album!

So it'll become a single.

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

I absolutlely love when she says "It's time to make you sweat" just turns me on for some reason

[Mad_Cactuar]

It barely even sounds like Milkshake. Very minimalistic and pure genius. The lyrics speak for itself. I love her conversation with Pharell in the second (third?) verse.

I thought it was confirmed as the second single too, but Gwen recently said it's going to be the title track. Yummy will probably be the third single.

Monotone is the new melody. 1 LOVE, Until that day, Breakin' Up, Yummy, etc. etc.

[explodingbird]

Don't forget Me & U and... well, yeah, everything that girl recorded.

Ehh, Yummy seems lazy to me. And it does carry similarities to Milkshake to my ears - especially the beginning. I think Pharrell just fell asleep at the wheel and decided to go for what worked for him in the past (without resorting to Hollaback Girl).

[Mad_Cactuar]

Hollaback was quite dreadful, IMO. I thought it was going to fail miserably in the US charts while Rich Girl would be #1 eventhough I didn't like both of them. Seems to be the other way round though.

Does Gwen ever make B-sides?

[Weslicious]

She hasn't had a B-side so far. No Doubt had enough to make a B-side album though so I doubt she's against the idea.

Yummy and the beginning of Fluorescent are soooooooo Peaches-esque.
Is 'Don't Get It Twisted' about her finding out she was pregnant? The lyrics sound that way but I cannot be sure.

I dunno about Fluorescent being a single. It's one of those that sounds most like it was one of the LAMB leftovers. It's got the 80's feel and she mentions superlovers, so why would she release a leftover?

Early Winter must have a video at least. I love that song.

[moombasista]

future singles IMO:

the sweet escape
yummy
4 in the morning
orange county girl

I agree about the whole Akon thing.

I think he's only listed 'cause he produced the track and did "woooohooooo" so much LOL

You know what I found weird? The whole SNL performance thing. I was sure that her and Akon would've done the sweet escape.

It was weird that she only performed once and then Akon performed his song, I wanna love you, the second time.

Maybe they had drama backstage?

Hot 100

01 Irreplaceable - Beyonce
02 I Wanna Love You - Akon feat. Snoop Dogg
03 Fergalicious - Fergie
04 Smack That - Akon feat. Eminem
05 My Love - Justin Timberlake feat. T.I.
06 Say It Right - Nelly Furtado
07 Wind It Up - Gwen Stefani
08 We Fly High - Jim Jones
09 How To Save A Life - They Fray
10 Shortie Like Mine - Bow Wow feat. Chris Brown

[Kobayashiwoof]

Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
Interscope - 354.000

YAY 6th in world charts, im sure that Yummy will make this album selll HEAPS!

[..:Hot:Like:Wow:..]

The sweet escape is not doing that well in Australia or the UK

debuted at:

Australia: 15 (strangely enough, it was enough to make it go gold already)
UK: 26

but in good news to me while looking at the ARIA charts hehe, Ultimate kylie got back up to number 8 after two years and has been certified 4x platinum. There's always a silver lining.

[Kobayashiwoof]

im not so surprised of it not doing well, i have only seen the CM on TV twice none of my friends like wind it up as well, and they think downloading for free is cooler than buying cds <_<

[Mad_Cactuar]

^ Well, the single has hardly been released in those places. The album was released a week before the single in the UK. Which is quite silly. And I think Wind It Up was released very recently in Australia.

06 Say It Right - Nelly Furtado

WTF AWESOME.

[thinkingoutloud89]

did someone bought the harajuku lovers live DVD?