NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ By Tara Melega/ Epic Records) - Here comes the sun! Pocketful Of Sunshine, the new release from British songstress, Natasha Bedingfield, rocketed onto Billboard's Top 200 this week at No.3 making it the highest-charting album debut of the singer's career and ties Sade for highest-ever debut in history for a UK signed female artist (beating out past debuts by
Amy Winehouse and Dido.)
The album's explosive arrival is amplified by news that Pocketful of Sunshine has over 1 Million transactions thus far, with over 160k digital downloads of her smash first single, 'Love Like This' sold in the first week alone. In addition, the single has spent 9 weeks in the Top 20 on Billboard's Top 100 Chart.
'Love Like This' was recently quoted by New York Magazine as 'a song that is impossible to purge from your brain.' The track - which is certified GOLD - features R&B/reggae singer Sean Kingston. Since its release to radio back in October the track generated serious buzz and blasted its way up the charts to become a Top 10 single at Pop Radio as well as Natasha's third Top 10 track since the debut of Unwritten in 2005. The video for 'Love Like This' holds the No 1 spot at VH1, is in XXL rotation and is steadily climbing the charts at MTV.
Natasha is currently the No 1 artist at Rhapsody, holds a Top 5 album at iTunes, but that's not all. Today, Natasha can celebrate the fact that she has four tracks in the Top 100 songs overall at iTunes (Love Like This, Pocketful of Sunshine, Unwritten, and Soulmate) which is truly a magnificent accomplishment. Follow-up tracks like 'Pocketful Of Sunshine' - which was featured in the season finale of MTV's The Hills - are already garnering their own buzz - sales of the track have already placed it in the Top 20 at iTunes, securing the No 16 spot overall.
Natasha celebrated release week with performances and appearances on a slew of TV including, LIVE! With Regis & Kelly, The Today Show, MTV's TRL, The Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno and Ellen Degeneres. Natasha marks yet another milestone this week as hit track 'Unwritten' surpasses the 2 Million digital sales mark.
Upon hearing today's news, Natasha had this to say, 'I'm thrilled that my new record has had such a fantastic response on the first week. Writing songs is my favorite thing in the world so I'm grateful that my music is connecting with so many people, - I'm celebrating big time!'
Natasha conquered America last year with her No 1 single, 'Unwritten' which became the most played track at pop radio in 2006, and was the first No 1 pop single in the U.S. by a British Female Solo artist in 19 years. Look for Natasha to tour the U.S this spring.
