Justin Bieber Has Year’s Top Debut With ‘Believe’, Trumps Wave Of Returning Veteran Acts

Robbie Daw | June 27, 2012 8:49 am

History repeats itself this week, as Justin Bieber bumps his mentor Usher off the peak position on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Well, okay — technically, two years ago in April, Bieber was tops first, with My World 2.0. After a one-week stay at #1, Usher’s Raymond v. Raymond knocked Justin’s debut LP down. But Bieber rebounded, and took over the top spot once more the following week.

At any rate, the 18-year-old “Boyfriend” crooner sees his third studio album Believe take out last week’s #1 — Usher’s Looking 4 Myself — and become not only his fourth chart-topper this week, but also the biggest debut of 2012, based on sales of 374,000 copies.

Previously, Madonna had the year’s biggest first-week sales, when MDNA moved 359,000 copies in late March. The largest sales frame overall in 2012 came the week following the Grammys, when Adele‘s much-lauded sophomore LP 21 sold a whopping 730,000.

Speaking of 21, if you can believe it, the multi-Platinum album (which is nearing 10 million copies sold in the US alone) drops out of the top five positions for only the second time since it debuted on the chart 70 weeks ago. Adele makes way for not only Bieber’s Believe, but three other debuts that round out the top four positions — all by artists whose careers started in the 1990s: country crooner Kenny Chesney‘s 15th album Welcome To The Fishbowl (193,000 copies) at #2, Fiona Apple‘s fourth LP The Idler Wheel… (72,000) at #3 and Smashing Pumpkins‘ first album in five years, Oceania (54,000), at #4.

The Top 10 Of Billboard’s Top 200 Chart

1. Justin Bieber, Believe *new* *1 week*
2. Kenny Chesney, Welcome To The Fishbowl *new*
3. Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel… *new*
4. Smashing Pumpkins, Oceania *new*
5. Various, Rock Of Ages soundtrack
6. Usher, Looking 4 Myself
7. Adele, 21
8. One Direction, Up All Night
9. Luke Bryan, Tailgates & Tanlines 
10. Rush, Clockwork Angels