Nicki Minaj Debuts At #1 With 253K Copies Sold

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By Gil Kaufman

Nicki Minaj has scored her first #1 debut with her sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which sold 253,000 copies in its first week on the charts, according to numbers courtesy of Nielsen SoundScan. The album sold slightly more than it was projected to, earlier in the week. 

Nicki's debut, Pink Friday, debuted at #2 in December 2010 on sales of 375,000.

In other chart news, Madonna will suffer the worst second-week drop? in chart history when MDNA slips 87 percent from its debut to #8 on sales of 44,000.

A number of other acts made it into the top 10, including country trioRascal Flatts, whose Changed came in at #3 (130,000), Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men, who made their American chart bow with My Head Is An Animal (#6, 55,000) and gospel great Marvin Sapp, in at #9 with I Win(44,000).

The rest of the top 10: Adele, 21 (#2, 153,000), Lionel Richie, Tuskegee(#4, 95,000), One Direction, Up All Night (#5, 92,000), "The Hunger Games" soundtrack (#7, 50,000) and Shinedown, Amaryllis (#10, 36,000).

Kelly Clarkson got a nice Easter bump, as sales of her Stronger shot up 117 percent to 33,000, lifting the album 14 spots to #12. Bluesy rockersAlabama Shakes had a nice week as well, landing their debut, Boys & Girls, at #16 on sales of 25,000, while reunited vocal trio Wilson Phillipsreturned to the charts at #29 with a tribute to the members' famous classic rock parents, Dedicated (16,000).

On the iTunes album chart, Nicki was queen, followed by Of Monsters and Men, Flatts, One Direction, Richie, Adele, Alabama Shakes, Gotye'sMaking Mirrors, "The Hunger Games" and Fun.'s Some Nights.

Fun. was tops on the iTunes singles tally with their breakthrough hit, "We Are Young," which came in before Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," One Direction's, "What Makes You Beautiful," Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" and Nicki's "Starships." The #6 slot belonged to Bieber discovery Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," followed by The Wanted with "Glad You Came," Flo Rida's "Wild Ones," Katy Perry's "Part of Me" and Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)."

Nicki's pole position could be safe next week as the only new faces in the crowd will be Monica, blues rock veteran Bonnie Raitt andFlorence and the Machine's Unplugged? album.

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