Norah Jones debuts at No. 1, sells 1.02 million

A lot of artists saw a post-Grammy bounce in sales, but the biggest boost went to Norah Jones, who’s still enjoying a bounce from last year’s Grammys. The 2003 awards show kicked sales of her debut, ”Come Away With Me,” into overdrive (it’s sold 8 million copies to date), and it created such anticipation for her follow-up CD that when ”Feels Like Home” was released last week, it sold 1.02 million copies out of the box, according to SoundScan. That’s the best first week any album has enjoyed in nearly three years (since ‘N Sync’s ”Celebrity” debuted with sales of 1.88 million in 2001) and the second best week ever for a female performer (the champ is Britney Spears, who sold 1.32 million copies of ”Oops… I Did It Again” when that CD debuted in 2000).

Also enjoying a strong debut this week was rapper Kanye West, whose ”The College Dropout” moved 440,000 units for a second-place finish. The two newcomers pushed Kenny Chesney’s ”When the Sun Goes Down” from its chart-topping position last week to No. 3 this week, as the album sold another 350,000 discs. Grammy Album of the Year ”Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” saw OutKast jump two spots on the chart to No. 4 and enjoy a whopping 147 percent sales boost to 275,000 copies. Josh Groban’s ”Closer” also saw a sales jump, up 34 percent to 241,000, but his album slid one slot to No. 5.

Similarly, Harry Connick’s ”Only You” rose in sales but slipped one notch to No. 6. Best New Artist winners Evanescence held at No. 7 with ”Fallen” but saw sales nearly double. Twista’s ”Kamikaze” dropped five spots to No. 8. Incubus’ ”A Crow Left of the Murder” fell seven places to No. 9. And the ”2004 Grammy Nominees” compilation nearly doubled sales and rose three spots to No. 10.