14 DAY TRIAL // In preparation for this year’s Grammy Awards, where she’s the second favorite with no less than 8 nominations in all the major categories, country darling Taylor Swift has just taken down Britney Spears and set a new record for more downloaded track in its first week by a female artist. Swift’s “Today Was a Fairytale” moved 325,000 copies, becoming the first track to do so in its first week of release after Spears’ “Womanizer,” The Hollywood Reporter informs.
Unfortunately, the one place where Taylor did not succeed yet in becoming number one is in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, were Ke$ha still reigns supreme and “Today Was a Fairytale” peaked at number two. Nevertheless, not all hope is lost and things could turn around to her advantage sometime next week, industry insiders are saying. The song is lifted off the soundtrack of the star-studded “Valentine’s Day,” in which Swift also stars opposite rumored (former) boyfriend Taylor Lautner.
“Taylor Swift breaks the record for best first-week download sales by a female artist as ‘Today Was a Fairytale’ shifts 325,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan as it set to debut at No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, both to be released tomorrow morning. Ke$ha’s ‘TiK ToK’ will remain atop the Hot 100 for a sixth straight week. ‘Fairytale,’ from the upcoming film ‘Valentine’s Day,’ in which Swift co-stars, gives her the best Hot 100 start of her career and equals her highest peak, established with ‘You Belong with Me’ this past August. Unlike ‘Fairytale’s’ quick ascent, ‘Belong’ took 16 weeks to reach the runner-up slot,” THR writes.
Of course, Taylor has been close to achieving this position before. “Swift claims her first No. 1 on Digital Songs, having previously peaked at No. 2 with a pair of tracks; ‘You’re Not Sorry’ (November 2008) and ‘Jump Then Fall’ (November 2009). The only higher sales frame posted by one of her titles occurred during Christmas week 2008 (Jan 10, 2009, chart date) when ‘Love Story’ moved 360,000 downloads. The prior mark for largest first-week download sales by a female artist belonged to Britney Spears, who moved 286,000 units of ‘Womanizer’ on the chart dated October, 25, 2008. The biggest opening week for a track among all artists was established by Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Boom Boom Pow’ (465,000) in April 2009,” the same publication further writes.
“Valentine’s Day,” also starring Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey and countless other huge names, will be released theatrically in the US on February 12, 2010. For more on Taylor Swift’s evolution in the music charts, as well as for her performance at the Grammys this year, keep an eye on this space.