Debut Artists Are Making Their Marks on the Chart

Ashanti, the 21-year-old R&B; singer who surprised the pop world last week when her debut album entered the sales chart at No. 1, continues to dominate the marketplace. But the New Yorker has to share the industry buzz this week with singer Josh Groban, whose debut album soared dramatically, from No. 121 to No. 12.

Ashanti’s self-titled album sold 246,000 copies last week, enough for a 20,000 lead over Celine Dion’s “A New Day Has Come.”

Thanks to her hit single “Foolish” and guest roles on hits by Ja Rule and Fat Joe, Ashanti built enough fan interest to sell nearly 503,000 copies of her album in its first week in stores.

That’s the second-highest first-week total this year, behind the 527,000 registered two weeks ago by Dion, who has just passed the 1-million sales mark.

Groban is a 20-year-old Los Angeles singer whose style is a throwback to an era of polished pop vocalists. His self-titled album, produced by Grammy-winning veteran David Foster, has been on the chart since late December, but until this week the highest it had reached was No. 41, and it seemed to be slowly dropping.

This week’s jump was attributed by Groban’s record label, Warner Bros., to a profile of the artist on the television program “20/20” last Friday.

The album sold 56,000 copies last week (up from 10,000 the previous week), giving him a total of 431,000.

The highest entry among new releases this week is the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Gutterflowers,” which sold 101,000 copies to finish fourth on the chart.

Two veteran artists--Neil Young and Bonnie Raitt--returned to the chart with new releases. Young’s “Are You Passionate?” finished No. 10, while Raitt’s “Silver Lining” was No. 13.

The other positions in the top 10 this week are claimed, in order, by Vol. 9 of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation, Tweet, the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, “The Scorpion King” soundtrack, Shakira and Pink.

The best-selling single remains ‘N Sync’s pairing with Nelly on “Girlfriend.”