NEW YORK, NY (By Cara Donatto/ Atlantic Records) - "DANITY KANE," the self-titled debut album from Bad Boy Records' sensational new female quintet, has made a spectacular No 1 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 album chart. Driven by a rapidly spreading wildfire of fan demand, the album exploded to the top spot, upsetting releases by established multi-platinum artists OutKast and
Christina Aguilera, and selling over 234,000 units in its first week.
The music industry's newest Cinderella story, "DANITY KANE" is an out-of-the-box phenomenon at retail, selling nearly 90,000 units in its first day alone. The album quickly sold out at most stores across the country, prompting a massive effort by both the label and retail community to restock shelves overnight to meet demand. The album has shipped over half a million copies, with retail orders now topping the 625,000 mark. Meanwhile, on the digital front, "DANITY KANE" instantly became the No 1 album on iTunes, with an average fan ranking of 4-and-a-half stars (out of 5).
The stars of Diddy's hit MTV series "Making the Band 3," Danity Kane has defied industry convention, with six-figure sales being generated almost exclusively from huge street buzz and exponential word-of-mouth - an unprecedented achievement for a new artist with little radio airplay.
Bad Boy CEO Sean "Diddy" Combs said: "This is an historic moment for Bad Boy Records and Danity Kane. These are five hugely talented women, and they worked amazingly hard to make their dream come true. I want to thank all our friends at MTV for their great support in helping us make the band. Danity Kane is the real deal. I knew it from the beginning, the fans knew it from the beginning, and now the whole industry knows it. The people have spoken."
"Danity Kane hitting number one represents another amazing chapter in our relationship with Diddy and Bad Boy," said Christina Norman, President, MTV. "As millions of MTV viewers witnessed first hand on 'Making the Band,' these ladies earned their success through hard work, determination and raw talent."
"When Diddy and I joined together to find an international supergroup, we knew it had to be a group that would stand out above the rest and set the standard for others to follow," said Danity Kane's manager Johnny Wright. "The talented ladies of Danity Kane are just that. I'm blessed to have found them and look forward to helping to guide them to be the best in the business."
"The formula works like this: Diddy, Bad Boy Records, talented and beautiful artists, and the marketing strategy," said Steve Lerner, Circuit City's Senior National Buyer/Music. "It's the culmination of many factors, and Danity Kane actually brings back the excitement of what the music business is all about - Artist Development!"
"Danity Kane is an amazing artist development story," noted Virgin Megastore Sr. Product Manager Jerry Suarez. "For us we were pleasantly surprised, just another indication that if you put a good record together people will buy it. Bad Boy did a great job creating excitement for this release, but that doesn't always sell records. You need to put together a solid release, and they delivered. Bad Boy is doing a great job of being a strong, diversified label."
"Danity 'Co-Kane'... people are fiendin' for it!" commented Violet Brown, Director of Urban Music for Trans World Entertainment. "It is great to have a new title of this magnitude!"
The video for Danity Kane's first single, "Show Stopper," is in Big 10 (heavy) rotation on MTV and is the No 1 most-streamed video on MTV.com, where Danity Kane also has the No 1 most-visited artist page. The group's MySpace page has racked up nearly 14 million audio plays, with 11 million plays in just the last week alone. The group now has over 325,000 friends on their site and is the No 2 ranked MySpace artist, just behind fellow Bad Boy artist Yung Joc.
The Jim Jonsin-produced "Show Stopper" debuted at No 5 last week on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart. Danity Kane is the No 4 most searched artist on Yahoo! Music, where "Show Stopper" has jumped from No 56 to No 11 in one week. At AOL Music, "Show Stopper" is the No 4-ranked song, while its companion video debuts this week at No 11. On YouTube, the "Show Stopper" clip has been streamed over one million times.
In addition, "Show Stopper" was Warner Music Group's No 1 ringtone the week of 8/14, with sales over 90,000. As of this week, Danity Kane ringtones are being featured at every major mobile carrier.
Danity Kane is the latest in a string of No 1 successes from Bad Boy Records. Most recently, Yung Joc's debut album, "NEW JOC CITY" (Block Entertainment/ Bad Boy South), debuted at No 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. At the same time, the label has hit the top of the charts with current smash singles from both Yung Joc ("It's Goin' Down") and new discovery Cassie ("Me & U"). "DANITY KANE" is Bad Boy's seventh No 1 album on the Billboard 200, following The Notorious B.I.G.'s "LIFE AFTER DEATH" and "BORN AGAIN," Puff Daddy's "NO WAY OUT," Mase's "HARLEM WORLD," the "WE INVENTED THE REMIX" album, and the "BAD BOYS II" soundtrack.
Executive Produced by Sean "Diddy" Combs, "DANITY KANE" sees the five-girl outfit - Dawn, Aubrey, D. Woods, Shannon, and Aundrea - teaming up with some of today's most successful and talented producers. Among the studio superstars bringing their skills to the album are such hip-hop and R&B icons as Timbaland, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Mario Winans, Jim Jonsin, Bryan-Michael Cox, Rami, and Ryan Leslie. The album's Co-Executive Producer is Bad Boy Executive Vice President Harve Pierre.
Dawn, Aubrey, D. Woods, Shannon, and Aundrea were the cream of the crop among hundreds of women competing for a spot in Diddy's new super group during the taping of the smash MTV reality show, "Making the Band 3." Though each of the five members of Danity Kane come from different backgrounds, all have a number of things in common that bond them as a full-fledged group - extraordinary talent, looks, personality, business savvy, an ability to perform under intense pressure, and a lifelong dream of making music.
For more information, please visit www.danitykane.com.
