Music

The 'Chasing Pavements' singer secures the first position with her sophomore set, while Justin Bieber sits at No. 2 and 5 with 'Never Say Never - The Remixes' and 'My World 2.0'.

• Mar 3, 2011

AceShowbiz - Adele debuts atop Billboard Hot 200 with her second studio album "21", marking her first chart topper in the U.S. albums chart. The Brit climbed to No. 10 on the weekly rundown with her first effort "19" back in 2009 after her Grammy wins. Now, she soars to the top spot with 352,000 copies.

It's her best sales week and highest charting album. On top of that, it becomes the biggest frame for any album since November 28, 2010 when Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" occupied No. 1 and 2 with 496,000 and 375,000 respectively.

"Oh, it's magical being here. I didn't think I'd ever release a record here," Adele said in an interview with MTV. "It's a big deal in England. There's a massive thing, like, 'Did you crack America?!?' The biggest acts in England, no one has any idea who they are here." She is currently ruling both U.K. Singles and Albums chart. She reigns the former with emotional ballad "Someone Like You".

"For people to [buy my albums in the U.S.] is amazing," she continued. "And America is so big, and there are so many ... there's, like, five other artists that do what I do, better than I do, and in England, there's like two of you. So it's so much harder to get your foot in the door, so when you do get your foot in the door here and want people to see you, it's like, 'What?'."

Adele's reign forces last week's champ Justin Bieber to leave the penthouse of the chart. The Canadian singer is now sitting at No. 2 with "Never Say Never - The Remixes" which adds another 102,000 units. As his remix album falls, his other CD "My World 2.0" rises to No. 5 with 42,000 copies. He becomes the first artist to have two albums at the Top 5 at the same time since he achieved the same feat last year. In March 2010, "My World 2.0" debuted at No. 1, and his debut album "My World" sat at No. 5.

The rest of the chart are filled with such holdovers as Mumford & Sons, "Now 37: That's What I Call Music" compilation, Bruno Mars, Eminem, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Lady Antebellum. This makes Adele the only new entry of this week.

1. "21" - Adele (352,000)
2. "Never Say Never - The Remixes" - Justin Bieber (102,000)
3. "Sigh No More" - Mumford & Sons (71,000)
4. "Now 37: That's What I Call Music" - various artists (58,000)
5. "My World 2.0" - Justin Bieber (42,000)
6. "Doo - Wops & Hooligans" - Bruno Mars (37,000)
7. "Recovery" - Eminem (34,000)
8. "Loud" - Rihanna (33,000)
9. "Pink Friday" - Nicki Minaj (32,000)
10. "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum (28,000)