Madonna reigns supreme?

LONDON, UK (AP) - Madonna and Westlife are set to go head-to-head in a titanic bid for Number One in the album charts later this year.

Both will return to the pop fray when they unleash albums on November 12, with the Queen of Pop's new best of scheduled for the same day as Westlife's third long-player.

Music industry sources are already claiming that Madonna will power ahead of the Irish pop superstars with her as-yet-untitled compilation, which still lacks tracklisting and artwork, to take the Christmas top spot.

HMV head of music Jonathan Rees commented: "Madonna is clearly there for number one. It's for everyone else to try to knock her off but it'll be a tall order," he said.
"Going for second place is the likes of the Gabrielle best of, Robbie Williams, Westlife and Michael Jackson possibly depending how the public takes to him."

The first-week battle between Madonna and Westlife will come just over a year after the BMG-signed boy band thrashed Virgin's Spice Girls in 2000's key "super Monday" play-off, selling nearly 235,000 in their first week to the Spice's 73,000.