Boyle's Album on Track to Be Year's Top Seller

Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream was the top-selling album in the country for the fourth week in a row last week, and its total of 2.4 million copies makes it the second-best-selling album of the year. The leader is Taylor Swift’s Fearless—and Fearless has had all year to rack up sales. Boyle sold 661,000 copies, a 14% bump from the previous week, despite a strong debut by Alicia Keys’ new The Element of Freedom, (417,000).

Swift’s 13-month-old CD also got a Christmas bump, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sales last week of 239,000 copies, up 41% over the previous week, put her on track to top total sales of 3 million by next week. If Boyle beats Swift, hers will be the first debut album to take first place since 2001, when Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory was the biggest seller. And whoever wins, it will be the first time women have scored the two top spots since 1996, when Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Celine Dion’s Falling Into You dominated the charts. (More Susan Boyle stories.)