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Friday, February 24, 2012

Katy Perry's 'Part Of Me' Makes History With #1 Debut

Song's #1 bow is just the 20th in the 53-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
By James Montgomery

Katy Perry
Photo: Jeff Bottari/ Getty Images

Katy Perry is back in a familiar place with her brand-new single: the top of the Billboard charts.

After performing "Part of Me" — the first single off the deluxe reissue of her Teenage Dream album — at the 54th Grammy Awards, Perry sat back and watched as the song debuted at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, making it just the 20th track in the chart's 53-year history to bow in the top slot.

According to Billboard, Perry joins a list of stars that includes Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears and Eminem (not to mention a host of former "American Idol" champions) who have all accomplished the feat — the last was Lady Gaga, whose "Born This Way" opened at #1 nearly one year ago. In the process, Perry has notched her seventh career Hot 100 #1.

"Part of Me" also rocketed to #1 on the Digital Songs chart, racking up more than 411,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's a career-best week for Perry, and is the highest opening number for any artist since Gaga sold more than 448,000 downloads of "Born This Way" last year.

Perry wasn't the only artist to benefit from the post-Grammy bounce; Adele, who, as you might have heard, did pretty well at the show, not only sold an astonishing (and record-setting) 730,000 copies of her 21 album last week, but becomes the first female artist in Hot 100 history to have three solo titles in the Top 10: "Set Fire to the Rain" at #2, "Rolling in the Deep" at #5 and "Someone Like You" at #7.

Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown, who both received, uh, mixed reviews for their Grammy-night performances, also found their way into the Top 10: Minaj's "Starships" is in at #9, followed by Brown's "Turn up the Music," which lands at #10.

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