Norah and Grammys Spike Record Sales

Norah #2 has biggest first week of sales of any record in almost three years:

Norah Jones’ “Feels Like Home,” the follow-up to her multiplatinum, Grammy-winning debut album, has sold over 1 million copies in its first week, the highest sales debut for an album since 2001.

No act has posted more than 1 million in sales since ‘N Sync sold 1.9 million copies of “Celebrity” in the summer of 2001. “Feels Like Home” was released Feb. 10, and for the week ending Sunday, it sold 1,022,149 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“This is the kind of achievement that one can only expect from a truly original, extraordinary artist like Norah,” Bruce Lundvall, head of Blue Note Records, Jones’ label, said Wednesday.

“It’s not very often that an artist can span so many genres and enjoy such broad appeal. But that’s what happens when the music is this good.”

….The Jones record and the Grammys sent more people into record stores: Nielsen SoundScan reported it was the biggest selling week outside of a holiday season week since it began tracking sales in 1991. More than 17 million albums were sold last week, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Plenty of Grammy-winning artists enjoyed a spike in sales. OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” which won album of the year at the Feb. 8 ceremony, sold 275,000 compared with 111,000 a week earlier; Beyonce, who won the most trophies at five, sold 99,000 copies of “Dangerously in Love,” up from 49,000 a week earlier.

Luther Vandross’ “Dance With My Father,” the winner of four Grammys, including song of the year for the title track, sold 58,000, up from 20,000. [AP]

Our Mark Saleski liked Norah, and I agreed with Grammy that Outkast was album of the year.