Kesha’s “Animal” tops the pop charts

Pop phenom singer/songwriter Ke$ha catapults to the top of the Billboard Top 200 chart with her debut album “Animal” (RCA Records / Kemosabe Entertainment). “Animal”, which was released on January 5th, is #1 album in the US, selling 151,942 copies. It is also #1 on the Digital Albums Chart, setting the record for the best ever digital album sales for a new artist and is the 3rd biggest digital album debut by a female, coming in right after Taylor Swift and Britney Spears. This also marks the biggest first week for an artist’s debut album released in January in SoundScan history. Ke$ha is also the first artist since Leona Lewis’ debut in 2008 to have a #1 debut album AND a #1 debut single.

This week marks Ke$ha’s 4th week in the #1 spot on the SoundScan Digital Songs Chart and it was joined at the top by her second single “Blah Blah Blah” making its debut at #2. Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK” is #1 on the Hot 100 and has held that position for 3 consecutive weeks thus far and “Blah Blah Blah” is a hotshot debut at #7. Ke$ha has the distinction of having the two biggest selling tracks this week and is only the 4th artist in history to achieve such a feat (in the company of The Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce and Mariah Carey) and the first new artist to do so. Ke$ha also has 3 songs in the Top 15 of the Digital Songs Chart. Ke$ha’s tracks have sold over 693K in 1 week.

Ke$ha, who is the #1 artist on MySpace, is dominating the iTunes Top 10 Singles Chart. “Blah Blah Blah” currently usurped her single “TiK ToK” to claim the #1 spot (with no radio play!) while “TiK ToK” holds strong at #2 and “Your Love Is My Drug” has peaked at #8 during it’s first week.

Ke$ha recently set the record for the biggest track sales week by any female artist in history (and #2 overall) when her debut single “TiK ToK” received 610,069 downloads. Additionally, Ke$ha, who co-wrote “TiK ToK” along with the rest of her Dr. Luke produced debut album Animal, also has the unique distinction of being featured on the only two tracks to ever sell over 500k singles in one week, “TiK ToK”, as well as Flo Rida’s ‘Right Round” the current record holder for biggest track sales week.

Ke$ha performed “TiK ToK” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Lopez Tonight last week and has performances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and Wendy Williams this week.

Conan O’Brien called her “the first breakout star of 2010”, Rolling Stone said that Animal was “Ridiculously catchy…” The New York Times called her a “double threat” and “…a pioneer” and People Magazine said “This high octane debut could keep any basement party pumping like Studio 54.”

Since being released to radio in early October, “TiK ToK” is the No. 1 greatest airplay gainer at Top 40 and Rhythm radio and has an audience of over 100 million. The track has sold more than 2.6 million copies since its release.

Internationally, “Animal” makes its debut at #1 in Canada and sits in the iTunes Top 10 in 5 countries, not including the US. “TiK ToK” has hit #1 on iTunes 7 countries (outside the US) and Ke$ha was #1 on the Australian singles chart for 8 consecutive weeks and on the New Zealand charts for 5 consecutive weeks. “TiK ToK” is currently in the iTunes Top 10 in 19 countries including the UK, Germany, France, Australia and Italy among others. Ke$ha also holds the record for the biggest track sales week by any artist in Canadian SoundScan history. With 10 weeks in the Top 10 on the UK single chart already under her belt, Ke$ha has cemented her position as the first global breakout star of 2010.