Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys Reigns As Queen Of The U.S. Album Chart....

Alicia Keys has stunned the album charts by claiming the number one spot after selling a staggering 742,000 copies of her new Cd As I Am in a week.The RandB star was expected to debut at number one, but even experts had no idea she'd crush her chart rivals.The figures give Keys the biggest album sales week by a female artist since Norah Jones' Feels Like Home smashed records with one million sales in 2004.Keys has also scored the highest opening sales week for a female artist in iTunes downloading history.Meanwhile, Josh Groban's festive album Noel shoots back up the new Billboard chart from six to two, while Celine Dion's Taking Chances debuts at three with a 214,000 sales week.Compilation Now 26 is new at four and Garth Brooks and the Eagles slide to five and six respectively.Reformed rock legends Led Zeppelin's two-disc retrospective, Mothership, debuts at seven, while last week's charttopper, JayZ's American Gangster, slips to eight.Meanwhile in related news Alicia Keys showed her support for Hollywood's striking writers on Tuesday (20Nov07) when she performed at a rally they staged on Hollywood Boulevard.

Thousands of protestors shut down the street as they took part in the Labor Solidarity March and rally outside the famous Graumann's Chinese Theater.

Pregnant former ER star Julianna Margulies, and British Oscar winner Paul Haggis were among the celebrities who joined the protest, which was capped off by a two-song performance by Keys.

Talks between executives and the writers are set to restart next week (begs26Nov07) in an effort to end the walk-out.

The writers went out on strike on 5 November (07) after failing to secure a royalties agreement concerning material on the Internet and other new media.

The strike has brought many TV shows and some movies to a standstill.

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