As tipped here yesterday, Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” makes a near-record-breaking jump on the Hot 100 this week to overtake Leona Lewis’ four-week No. 1, “Bleeding Love.” “Take a Bow” soars 53-1 thanks to digital sales of 267,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“Bleeding Love” slips to No. 2 this week, with Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” featuring Static Major down 2-3. The next six songs on the chart are all down one position from last week: Jordin Sparks’ “No Air” featuring Chris Brown (3-4), Usher’s “Love in this Club” featuring Young Jeezy (4-5), Ray J & Yung Berg’s “Sexy Can I” (5-6), Madonna’s “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake (6-7), Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body” (7-8) and Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocket Full of Sunshine” (8-9).

Danity Kane’s “Damaged” inches up 11-10 to round out the top tier, its first top 10 hit since 2006. The week’s top debut belongs to Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” which is available as an immediate download with pre-orders of the band’s forthcoming Capitol album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.”

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Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” keeps the lead on the Billboard Hot 100 as the track holds tight at No. 1 for a fifth non-consecutive week. This week’s biggest airplay gainer, Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” featuring Static Major, follows suit, gripping No. 2 for second week. Jordin Sparks’ “No Air” featuring Chris Brown stays at No. 3 for a third.

Usher’s “Love in This Club” featuring Young Jeezy climbs a notch 5-4 as Ray J & Yung Berg’s “Sexy Can I” ascends 6-5. Madonna, who is this week’s The Billboard 200 chart-topper, sees single “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake slip 4-6 as Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body” keeps the No. 7 spot warm for a second week.

Natasha Bedingfield scores her second Hot 100 top 10 ink as “Pocketful of Sunshine” zooms up 19-8. The British singer performed the track on last week’s “American Idol,” causing a 110% jump in digital sales to make the track this week’s biggest digital sales gainer.

Meanwhile, Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song” falls 8-9 as Jesse McCartney’s “Leavin’” scores a new peak moving 14-10, his first top 10 as an artist. However, you can see McCartney’s name in association with Lewis’ “Bleeding Love,” as a co-writer of that single.

Madonna’s next single “Give It 2 Me,” produced by the diva and the Neptunes, is this week’s hot shot debut, entering at No. 57. Busta Rhymes’ and Linkin Park’s rap/rock hybrid “We Made It” starts at No. 65; the track is the first single off the rapper’s forthcoming “I’m Blessed,” due June 17.

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With help from “American Idol,” Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” is back in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Moving 2-1, the track replaces Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” featuring Static Major, which flip-flops with “Bleeding Love” after only one week on top. Lewis performed the song, this week’s biggest digital sales gainer, last week during the elimination round on “Idol.”

Meanwhile, “Lollipop” does find it’s way to the top of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs as it moves 3-1, becoming the chart’s first rap single to reach No. 1 since Ludacris’ “Money Maker” climbed to the top in October 2006.

Back on the big chart, Jordin Sparks’ “No Air” featuring Chris Brown holds at No. 3 while Madonna’s “4 Minutes” featuring Justin Timberlake rebounds 6-4, aided by this week’s release of the album on which it appears, “Hard Candy.” Usher’s “Love in This Club” featuring Young Jeezy falls 4-5 as “Sexy Can I” by Ray J & Yung Berg experiences an up-tick 7-6.

Mariah Carey, this week’s Billboard 200 topper, sees her “Touch My Body” descend 5-7 while Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song” keeps the No. 8 spot warm. Chris Brown’s “Forever” is this week’s Hot Shot Debut, bowing at No. 9. That achievement equals Yael Naim’s “New Soul” for highest debut of 2008. Yet another Brown track, “With You,” rounds out the top tier on the Hot 100, moving 9-10.

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Leona Lewis has scored a rare double in the U.S. by claiming the top spot on both the album and singles charts. The Brit’s Bleeding Love was ousted from the number one position by Mariah Carey’s record-breaking track Touch My Body - but now Lewis has toppled Carey, just a day after becoming the first British female solo artist to debut at number one on the Billboard album chart.

By scoring the double, Lewis becomes the first Brit to top both charts in the same week since Phil Collins in 1990. The Carey/Lewis chart war is expected to continue next week, when the U.S. diva is expected to take over at the top of the album chart with her new release E=MC2.

Challenging Lewis for the top spot on the singles chart is rapper Lil Wayne, whose Lollipop hit jumps up from four to two; and No Air, Jordin Sparks’ duet with Chris Brown, which rises four spots to three. Former chart-toppers from Usher and Carey complete the top five. The Hot 100’s top debut is Daughtry’s What About Now, which the group performed on last week’s American Idol charity show Idol Gives Back. The song enters the new countdown at 18.

Source: WENN

U.K. import Leona Lewis makes a huge splash at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, becoming the first British solo artist to debut at #1 in the U.S., according to this morning’s Nielsen SoundScan charts.

The singer, discovered on “The X Factor,” Simon Cowell’s British talent show, leads the list with opening-week sales of 205,000 copies. That gives Lewis’ “Spirit” a commanding lead over last week’s chart champ, George Strait’s “Troubadour,” which holds the runner-up spot with 59,000 sold.

Last year, Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black” set a record for the highest bow by a British female’s solo debut when it entered at No. 7, although that set had not been Winehouse’s first British release.

Lewis becomes the first Brit solo act to lead The Billboard 200 since Rod Stewart’s “Still The Same… Great Rock Classics Of Our Time” led the page in the Oct. 28, 2006 issue. Moreover, she becomes the first British female soloist to do so since Sade’s “Promise” reached No. 1 in February 1986, a couple of months before Lewis’ first birthday.

The release of “Spirit” stirs an 11% rise for Lewis’ lead single, “Bleeding Love,” which returns to No. 1 on Hot Digital Songs with 223,000 sold for the week (2-1). The song has sold 1.1 million copies since U.S. downloads became available in late December, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source: Billboard.com

Clive Davis has another winner and he has Simon Cowell to thank.

Leona Lewis, who catapulted to fame in her native U.K. after winning that country’s televised X Factor talent competition launched by Idol Cowell, will debut at #1 on next week’s HITS Album Sales chart with her debut Spirit, edging near 200k, though the final total will probably closer to 190k.

That’s based on one-day sales reports from our crack team of retail reporters around the country who are still standing.

Lewis’ album has already spawned the hit single, “Bleeding Love,� as Team RCA, led by Davis and EVP Richard Palmese, bring the song all the way home.

WB Nashville’s James Otto is the next highest bow, with 50-60k, while Christian-surf rockers P.O.D.’s new INO/Columbia album, When Angels and Serpents Dance, could high step its way to 40k give or take, depending on the religious bookstore factor.

Nine Inch Nails’ Null Corp./RED instrumental album, already available via the band’s website, will hit the streets in physical form with about 25-30k in sales.

The new album from Hollywood Records YouTube breakout Marie Digby will Unfold with just shy of 20k in sales, the same amount expected for Island/IDJ rockers Ashes Divide’s Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, the band formed by A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel with veteran drummer Josh Freese.

Next week, it’s all about Island/IDJ’s Mariah Carey album, E=MC2, which hits retail on the heels of two appearances on American Idol and one next Monday (4/14) on Oprah as well as the smash hit single, “Touch My Body.�

The market was up 4% vs last week, down 24% vs. same week last year, which was Easter, and now down 12% year-to-date.

Source: Hits Daily Double

OMG. This is like the best news ever! If ‘Spirit’ charts at #1 on Billboard, that makes Leona the first British female EVER to debut at #1 with their debut album. Looks like Leona is going to break another record! So if you haven’t done so already, make sure you go out and buy the album!

LeonaLewisMusic.co.uk

News just in! While Spirit has gone Platinum in Switzerland and Gold in Austria, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, ‘Bleeding Love’ is still reigning supreme at number one in the European airplay and singles charts.

The single also remains in the top five in Belgium, Czech, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa and was the highest mover in the US airplay chart last week. Woo hoo!

Leona Lewis has become the first British female solo artist to top the US pop charts in more than 20 years, it was confirmed today.

Lewis took the Billboard Hot 100 crown with her single Bleeding Love, as predicted in The Times, after selling 219,000 downloads. Sales soared 82 per cent after an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.

The X Factor winner, from London, now faces a battle with Madonna to hold on to the top spot.

Kim Wilde was the last UK female chart-topper with You Keep Me Hangin’ On in 1987.

Lewis, 22, who Billboard compared to a young Whitney Houston in its biography, has already topped the charts in 10 countries with Bleeding Love, which was Britain’s biggest selling single in 2007.

Her debut album Spirit, due for US release on April 8, has sold over two million copies so far, according to a statement from Lewis’s record label SyCo Music, promoter and television star Simon Cowell’s division of Sony BMG.

Cowell, who has masterminded Lewis’s career since she won The X Factor in 2006 said: “I am incredibly proud of Leona, what she has achieved in the past year is simply amazing. I am very very happy for herâ€�.

Winfrey declared: “A star is born� after hearing Lewis sing live. Only two other UK female artists in history have ever topped The Billboard Hot 100 chart with their debut releases - the first was Petula Clark in 1965 with Downtown and the last was Sheena Easton 27 years ago in 1981 with Morning Train (Nine To Five).

Source: Times

Congratulations Leona!! I knew you would do us Brits proud!

Leona Lewis is one step closer to becoming the first Brit since Amy Winehouse to break the states: her U.S. debut single, “Bleeding Love,” has entered the top 40 of the Billboard charts, zooming up 20 places to No. 21. She’s just five spots below her idol, Mariah Carey, who lands at No. 16 with “Touch My Body.”

Source: BBC

LeonaLewisMusic.co.uk

Yesterday we reported how Leona is celebrating a hat-trick of success; hitting the number one spots on Australia’s national album, single and airplay chart. Now we can reveal that she has repeated this amazing feat in both Germany and Switzerland.She’s also enjoying a double whammy in Austria, where she has the country’s number one single and album. In addition to this, Spirit has gone in at number three in Denmark and number four in Sweden.

Congratulations Leona!