Leona Lands at #1 on U.S. Charts!

What a week it's been for U.K. singing sensation Leona Lewis here in America. She makes her first late night T.V. appearance on Jay Leno on Monday, and now three days later, her single, "Bleeding Love" has found it's way to #1 on no less than three of Billboard's charts! With nearly 220,000 digital sales last week, "Bleeding Love" outpaced the #2 song by more than 76,000 downloads to capture the #1 position on this week's Hot Digital Songs Chart. Her 82% increase in sales over the previous week along with her continued HUGE airplay gains also fueled jumps from #8 to #1 on both the Pop 100 and Hot 100 charts!

Speaking of the radio story for "Bleeding Love," there's even MORE good news to report!!! The first call-out scores (where radio station listeners are polled) for the song are now in from RateTheMusic.com and "Bleeding Love" debuted at NUMBER 1 on the chart!!! For a brand new song by a brand new artist to debut at #1 on this chart is a pretty rare accomplishment, and it truly speaks volumes for just how well-liked "Bleeding Love" is here in the U.S.

Here's the complete top 10 list this week:

ratethemusic.com by Mediabase
W/E March 20, 2008
12+ Rank By Sorted Column
Title, Artist, Pop (Fam), Fam%, Burn% (Fam)

1 Bleeding Love Leona Lewis 3.97 78 12
2 No Air Jordin Sparks w/ Chris Brown 3.96 92 20
3 Apologize Timbaland f/ OneRepublic 3.89 98 50
4 See You Again Miley Cyrus 3.86 93 26
5 Don't Stop The Music Rihanna 3.83 98 36
6 Love Song Sara Bareilles 3.83 97 34
7 Stop & Stare OneRepublic 3.82 90 25
8 With You Chris Brown 3.80 95 33
9 Feels Like Tonight Daughtry 3.73 89 23
10 Never Too Late Three Days Grace 3.72 85 24

So, what's next on the table for Leona Lewis and "Bleeding Love" here in America??? Well, one goal is probably to get to #1 on the pop airplay charts at some point. "Bleeding Love" has ascended all the way up to #12 on the Mediabase Pop chart. When you sort the chart by estimated audience instead of spins, she ranks #10! Look for "Bleeding Love" to reach #10 on the official chart (ranked by spins) over the weekend. The ascent up the pop airplay charts for new artists is usually long and hard, though a couple of other new and notable female artists (Colbie Caillat and Sara Bareilles) have had #2 hits on the chart over the past several months with their debut releases. Perhaps Leona will be able to break through and get to #1 there in another month or two.

On April 8th, Leona's album Spirit will be released. With the astounding success of "Bleeding Love" here in the U.S., and with no real competition that week, there's little doubt that Spirit will debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. The only question is how many copies will it sell in it's first week and beyond? Don't be surprised if the album sells out very quickly at many retailers! As Oprah Winfrey said so eloquently after Leona's appearance last week there "A Star Is Born!" Indeed!

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