Adele Surpasses Whitney {Bodyguard}

Typically the Grammys boost the sales numbers of winning albums after the telecast. Considering Adele nabbed 6 awards for “21“, her sophomore effort will definitely receive a nice bump. Even though Billboard only tabulates weekly sales ending on Sunday, the effects of Adele’s big night won’t be felt til next week’s numbers. That being said, the hype surrounding her Grammy return already benefited the singer. This week, “21″ moved another 237,000 copies representing a whopping 95% increase over the previous week. Not too shabby.

With those kind of numbers, it should come as a surprise that Adele once again landed at the top of Billboard’s 200 Album chart. A few weeks ago, I wrote that the British songbird sunk the “Titanic” soundtrack and was aiming at “The Bodyguard’s” record. Well, this week Adele is only one week away from passing Whitney Houston’s record at most weeks at No. 1. Both artists topped the charts for 20 weeks each. With the Grammys inevitably giving Adele’s album a boost, she’ll break the record next week… or will she?

Though Houston didn’t win any Grammys at this year’s awards, her untimely tragic death will have a positive effect on her discography. The 48-year-old singer passed away on Saturday and immediately her singles and albums began selling like hotcakes. With only one day of sales included in this week’s tabulations, Houston saw her “Greatest Hits” compilation re-enter the Top 10 of Billboard’s 200 selling 64,000 units.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, there were more Whitney albums sold this past few days than all of 2011. Her records sold around 101,000 copies in total, which is 5,994% increase from the 2,000 sales number collected the week prior. Here’s how each some of her albums fared. Her debut “Whitney Houston” sold 8,000 units (up 3,901%), and record-breaking soundtrack LP of “The Bodyguard” pulled in 8,000 (up 5,213%). Her last album “I Look to You” garnered 5,000 copies (up 3,901%), 2nd eponymous effort “Whitney” sold 5,000 (up 2,274%), and “The Preacher’s Wife” soundtrack sold 4,000 (up 3,913%). Her singles have also seen massive boosts, most notably “I Will Always Love You” with 195,000 downloads. Other singles seeing bumps include “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, “Greatest Love of All”, “How Will I Know”, “I Have Nothing”, “Saving All My Love For You”, “One Moment In Time” and her rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”.

If “The Bodyguard” manages to move enough units, it’ll be interesting to see if it can claim the top spot next week. Realistically though, Whitney’s “Greatest Hits” has the best shot of hitting No. 1. Either way, I predict Adele’s “21” will eventually reach 21 weeks on top. How fitting would that be? With the Brit finally releasing “Rumor Has It” as an official single in the coming weeks, that album achievement is all but a forgone conclusion. Congrats to her.

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