Sade's 'Soldier' Marches to No. 1

Ten years away from the spotlight hasn’t hurt Sade’s career. The British soul singer and her band storm the charts with their first album in a decade.

Soldier of Love, Sade’s sixth studio album, had no trouble debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with a whopping 502,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also marks Sade’s first No. 1 debut and personal best sales week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

To add to the list of accomplishments, Soldier of Love holds the best sales week for an album by a group since AC/DC’s Black Ice in 2008 (784,000). The group’s previous album, 2000’s Lovers Rock, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3 with 370,000 sold in its opening week.

Music fans were definitely eager for Another Round from Jaheim. The R&B crooner scores the second-highest debut of the week with his fifth studio project, making its way in at No. 3 with 112,000. Jaheim’s last studio effort, The Makings of a Man, benefitted from a Christmas sales boost in 2007 with 176,000 units.

Last week’s biggest debut, Lil Wayne’s Rebirth, falls two spots to No. 4 with 89,000, a 49% drop off from its first week.