Selena Gomez, who just celebrated her 21st birthday on July 22, has another reason to party: She’s likely to earn her first No. 1 album next week.
Industry sources say her latest release, Stars Dance, should debut atop the Billboard 200 with perhaps 90,000 to 100,000 copies sold in the week ending Sunday, July 28. The set is her fourth studio album, and was released on Tuesday, July 23 via Hollywood Records.
The new Billboard 200 chart’s top 10 will be revealed on the morning of Wednesday, July 31.
If Stars Dance debuts with more than 78,000, it will mark Gomez’s largest sales week yet. Her last album, 2011’s “When the Sun Goes Down” (credited to Selena Gomez and the Scene), arrived with a career-high week of 78,000 — according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It debuted at No. 4, rising to No. 3 a week later. Since her 2009 debut, Kiss and Tell, Gomez has been steadily gaining in terms of chart rank and debut sales frames. “Kiss” started at No. 9 with just under 66,000. The following year, A Year Without Rain opened at No. 4 with a little over 66,000.
Gomez’s new album is powered by her biggest single yet, “Come & Get It.” It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on Pop Songs. Gomez has been making the promotion rounds during the album’s release week as well. She played “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on Tuesday and then hits both “Good Morning America” and “Live With Kelly and Michael” on Friday (26).
Other albums heading for sizable bows next week include Marc Anthony’s 3.0, Rich Gang’s self-titled album, We Came As Romans’ Tracing Back Roots and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ self-titled set.
