Taylor Swift Back at No. 1; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at No. 2

Taylor Swift, the 19-year-old country-pop sensation, is a hot little number - and that number is: one.

Taylor Swift and her album "Fearless" are back in the No. 1 position again after falling away (but not too far) from the loftiest sells perch, knocked out for two weeks by Bruce Springsteen's "Working on a Dream" and The Fray's eponymous sophomore effort. Taylor Swift is quickly becoming 2009's artist of the year, having only spent those two aforesaid weeks not on top. She has owned the Billboard 200 albums chart since the beginning of the year and "Fearless" has sold an astonishing 3 million copies thus far.

According to Billboard, she has spent more time at the No. 1 position (9 weeks, nonconsecutively) than any album since Carlos Santana spent 12 weeks at No. 1 with "Supernatural" in 1999-2000. Billboard, which ranks albums through Nielsen Soundscan, placed Taylor Swift 15,000 units ahead (92,000 units sold) of the second place album of the week, "Raising Sand." Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are back where they debuted back in 2007. "Raising Sand," which is a first-time collaboration between bluegrass star Alison Krauss and Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, has sold 1.2 million albums to date.

Billboard noted that albums associated with the Grammy Awards did very well. Swift was a co-host of the 51^st Grammy Awards. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the big winners, walking away with five Grammy Awards in all, including Album of the Year ("Raising Sand") and Record of the Year ("Please Read The Letter"). "Raising Sand" shot up the charts from No. 69 to No. 2. Coldplay were also big winners at the Grammy Awards, pulling in three awards, including Best Rock Album. Their album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" climbed back into the Top 10 to No 8 from No. 31.

India.Arie was the highest placing artist with a debut album, dropping in at No. 3 with "Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics."

As if regaining the No. 1 position for the best selling album in the country wasn't enough, Taylor Swift also was nominated last week for two Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMs). She is up for Top Female Vocalist and Video Of The Year ("Love Story").

On February 6, tickets for her May concert at the 20,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles (where the Grammy Awards ceremony was held and where the L.A. Lakers play their home games) sold out in 2 minutes, a Staples Center record.

No doubt about it, the girl is hot.

******

Sources:

Billboard.com
ACMcountry.com