Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ Projected To Sell Roughly 850K Copies In First Week

Robbie Daw | May 25, 2011 11:03 am

Adele’s 21 spends a ninth non-consecutive week at #1 on Billboard‘s Top 200 album chart after selling another 137,000 copies. And with only two new releases debuting in the Top 10 — Seether’s Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray (#2) and Il Volvo’s self-titled first offering (#10) — it’s rather like the calm before the storm that is Lady Gaga’s Born This Way comes rumbling into next week’s chart. It’s all but certain that Born This Way will dethrone 21 next week, as Billboard cites Universal Music Group’s official sales projection for the album being in the 800,000 to 850,000 range. (Hits Daily Double, meanwhile, is saying the record could move as many as 900,000 copies). Chalk that high number up to such marketing techniques as Amazon’s MP3 store reducing the digital LP to 99 cents, and retailers like Starbucks stocking up on the pop CD.

However, one detail in Billboard‘s report that is likely to raise a few eyebrows is that the publication notes some Universal sales execs initially backed away from high expectations for Lady Gaga’s album when they found the first two singles, “Born This Way” and “Judas,” to be “musically disappointing.”

Truthfully, we can see that with “Judas,” which in retrospect plays like somewhat of a “Bad Romance” retread. And to date, the song become Gaga’s lowest-charting single (#10) on the Hot 100 to date.

But was it the similarities between “Born This Way” and Madonna’s “Express Yourself” that had some at Gaga’s own label turning up their nose at the track?

Billboard goes on to mention that execs at competing labels feel that, after all the relentless promotion leading up to the release of Born This Way, Lady Gaga has become over-exposed, and is ripe for a backlash.

What do you say, Little Monsters?  Do you think Gaga has become way too visible in the media this year for her own good? And are you surprised to hear that employees at her own label found her singles to be disappointing?

The Top 10 of Billboard’s Top 200 chart:

1. Adele, 21 *9 weeks* 2. Seether, Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray *new* 3.Various, NOW 38 4. Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party 5. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More 6. Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two 7. The Lonely Island, Turtleneck & Chain 8. Justin Bieber, Never Say Never: The Remixes 9. Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues 10. Il Volvo, Il Volvo *new*