Susan Boyle’s sales under threat after Adam Lambert antics

Entertainment

Susan Boyle is well on track to claim the number one album spot in the UK this weekend but faces tougher competition in the US as Adam Lambert’s album sales outperform expectations.

Lambert raised a few eyebrows at Sunday’s American Music Awards after passionately kissing the male keyboardist during a racy performance. Good Morning America swiftly cancelled his TV slot but the American Idol finalist was quickly picked up by other media outlets.

His album For Your Entertainment is being estimated by industry sources to sell around 225,000 in its first week.

Boyle, on the other hand, who came to the attention of the world press after her first audition of Britain’s Got Talent, is estimated to sell around 550,000 in the US.

Her album I Dreamed a Dream was the largest global CD pre-order in the history of Amazon.com so if her pre-records sales are anything to go by, the Scot from Blackburn in West Lothian may be psyching herself up for a double whammy if she tops the UK and US number one album charts.

Boyle returned home to Scotland on Wednesday after a whirlwind trip to the US, where she performed a mini concert in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza.

Her stint on Britain’s Got Talent has clearly rallied up a huge fan base in the States with excited fans arriving in their droves to welcome the singer wherever she went with some of them even donning tartan outfits or holding up banners to pay homage to the singing sensation.

She will be celebrating her love of music in an TV special titled I Dreamed A Dream – The Susan Boyle Story, which will be broadcast on STV next month.

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1. 26 Nov 2009 12:10cbeebies said

I'm sure Susan won't mind the competition. Her album is great, it really tugs at the heart strings.

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2. 26 Nov 2009 16:21A munument to auto-tuning... said

Let me preface this comment by saying that I think SuBo's album is outstanding. For some reason, she really reminds me of Petula Clark, although they sound quite different.

That being said, the album is a monument to "auto-tuning" and a great mix. SuBo NEVER sounded as good live as she does on this album. She sounds good live, but a bit pitchy at times. On this album she is flawless.

However, this is normal. Has anyone here ever heard Lady Gaga live? Not good.

Of all the new artists out there, Adam Lambert (with the exception of his poor vocal performance on the AMA's), actually sounds as good or better live as he does on his album.

Anyway, good for SuBo - great album and good for Adam, also a great album. I've bought both.

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3. 26 Nov 2009 18:25Duparc said

SuBo's recording is so fantastically good that if this other guy is as good or better (which I would doubt) then well done for him! I will be looking forward to hearing his recording but, meantime, I am enjoying SuBo's!

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4. 27 Nov 2009 04:23Viki said

I must say I became of fan of Susan Boyle watching her on television and couldn't wait until her fist album came out so I could buy it. It is a lovely album and I am enjoying it very much.

What I am most surprised about though, is the Adam Lambert album. I was not a big American Idol watcher but a friend of mine was and insisted I listen to his album, which she promptly bought as soon as it was available. I was very pleasantly surprised. This young man has an exquisite voice. Top rate as a matter of fact. I have bought his album also and find myself listening to it more that Susans! I am quite shocked at this. Every one of his songs are different from the other. There is one song in particular called "Soaked" that is so beautiful and so perfectly sung by Mr Lambert that it literally gives me chills. I have to agree with the other poster that Adam Lambert has a far superior voice. His music overall is more modern but all the melodies are so catchy that it is very easy to listen to.

I highly recommend everyone buy both.

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5. 24 Jan 2010 17:05Carolynne said

I can't believe I missed this article at the time.

As if Adam Lambert gave that performance for attention. His exquisite voice is enough. If anything, from the "What on earth have I done?" look on his face,the realisation affected his vocals from that moment. To be fair, all but one of the performers who bothered to sing live on the AMAs were cursed with terrible sound so I don't know how much that contributed to the quality of their vocals, including and (given that he’s usually 99.9% note perfect) particularly Adam's.

However, please, nothing was going to deny Susan her sales. She had massive pre-orders, most notably from one on-line retailer. Adam had sufficient in-store orders to take him to almost platinum in one week but, unfortunately, after his AMA performance, 80% of them were not collected. The performance didn't boost his sales, it almost killed them. This is America we’re talking about. Adam's performance would have been par for the course and probably even a little tame at the Brits but Americans reacted as if he had stamped on newborns.

By the way, it was great to see both Susan and Adam on Oprah this week. They both sang beautifully, Susan came across as sweet but gutsy, if a little insecure, and Adam came across as an eloquent and thoroughly charming young man.

As for their albums, yes, they're both excellent for different reasons. Susan's is better produced than such hurriedly recorded albums tend to be and the quality of the sound as much down to the quality of her vocals as to the production and technical effort. Adam's is probably the best debut album I have heard from a talent show contestant, not least due to his exceptional voice with a stratospheric range and rare versatility, but also to the quality of songwriters and producers that were clamoring to work with him even before American Idol was finished.

I have to agree with Viki, both highly recommended and I wish them both the best in the future.

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