Taylor Swift's 'Never Ever Getting Back Together' passes 1 million

Taylor Swift’s ‘Never Ever Getting Back Together’ passes 1 million

By Todd Martens

Sept. 5, 2012 12 AM PT

Taylor Swift’s pop-rock makeover with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” has become a runaway late-summer hit. The single, in just three weeks of availability for purchase, has sold more than 1 million downloads.

With another 253,000 downloads purchased over the last week, the single has sold almost 1.2 million digital copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Swift’s latest is the top-selling digital single in the States this week, easily holding court over Maroon 5’s “One More Night,” the latter of which sold 193,000 copies and also just cracked the million download threshold. By comparison, Adam Levine’s band took 11 weeks to hit the mark.

Swift, who wears her country background as an accessory in the kiss-off hit, was nominated Wednesday morning for entertainer of the year for the 46^th CMA Awards, to be held Nov. 1. The young star has already won the honor twice and will compete this year with Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is the first single from her fourth album, “Red,” due Oct. 22.

In a slow sales week, Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is the dominating story. No album this week sold more than 100,000 copies, and leading the chart is TobyMac’s “Eye On It,” which is No. 1 with just 69,000 copies sold.

TobyMac’s chart-topper is something of a landmark, however. “Eye On It” is the first Christian album since 1997 to lead the Billboard album chart, reports the trade publication that publishes the tally. The last Christian title to lead the chart was LeAnn Rimes’ “You Light Up My Life -- Inspirational Songs.”

Last week’s chart-topper, R&B; singer Trey Songz, slips to No. 3. His “Chapter V” sold 41,000 copies this week and has sold 177,000 in its two weeks of release.

The top 10 welcomes two other newcomers this week. Hip-hop act Slaughterhouse lands at No. 2 with “Welcome to: Our House,” a title that sold 52,000 copies, and alt-rock-era star Alanis Morissette bows at No. 5 with her latest, “Havoc and Bright Lights,” an album that sold 33,000 copies.

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