YouTube sensation and former "Britain's Got Talent" contestant Susan Boyle's debut album "I Dreamed a Dream" opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 701,000 copies sold in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan -- the best sales week for an album in the U.S. this year.
2009's previous high-water mark came when Eminem's "Relapse" sold 608,000 in its opening week. In fact, Boyle's sales frame is the best the chart has seen since AC/DC's "Black Ice" bowed with 784,000 upon its release in October 2008.
The arrival of "I Dreamed a Dream" also marks the best opening week for a female artist's debut album since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.
Read more from Billboard.
