Spirit (Leona Lewis Album) - Chart Performance

Chart Performance

On 19 November 2007 Spirit debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number one with first-week sales of 375,872 copies, making it the fastest selling debut album in the UK, beating Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006) by 12,000 copies, until the release of Susan Boyle's debut album I Dreamed a Dream in November 2009, which sold 410,000 copies in its first week. It was the fourth fastest selling album of all time, behind Be Here Now (Oasis, 1997), X&Y (Coldplay, 2005) and Life For Rent (Dido, 2003). The album remained at number one for seven weeks, and reached one million sales after 29 days, making it the fastest album to sell one million copies by a solo female in the UK. Spirit was the second biggest selling album of 2007 in the UK, behind Back to Black (Amy Winehouse, 2006). For the first seven weeks it sold over 100,000 copies, a record which was later equalled by JLS (JLS, 2009), and beaten by 21 (Adele, 2011), which sold over 100,000 copies for twelve weeks. On 23 November 2008, the album returned to number one for a week, following the release of the deluxe version of the album. In the UK Spirit was the fourth best-selling album of the 2000s, and is the twentieth best-selling album of all time. The album has been certified nine-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, with sales of 3,034,653 copies as of 24 July 2011.

Spirit entered the Irish Albums Chart at number one, making it the fastest selling debut album ever, beating the Arctic Monkeys by a margin of 6,000 sales. The album remained at the top of the chart for two weeks before being knocked off by Shayne Ward's Breathless. It was the biggest selling album in 2007, and the fourth best selling album in 2008. The standard version of the album has been certified seven-times platinum, and the deluxe version four-times platinum. In February 2008, the album debuted at number one on both the Australian ARIA Chart and the New Zealand RIANZ chart and went on to be certified platinum in both territories. In Germany the album spent one week at the top spot, and went on to be certified triple-gold for shipments of 300,000 copies. Spirit also topped the Austrian and Swiss charts, reaching certifications of platinum and double-platinum respectively. It was certified four-times platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for sales of more than four million copies in Europe.

In the US, Spirit went straight to number one on the Billboard Top 200, selling 208,607 copies in its first week, which made Lewis the first and only British solo artist to debut at number one with their first album, and the first British female to debut at number one with an album in over twenty years when Sade Adu topped the chart in February 1986 with Promise. As of 30 June 2008 the album has been certified platinum. The album also reached number one in Canada, and was certified platinum on 30 May 2008. According to the IFPI, Spirit was the sixth best selling album of 2008, and has gone on to sell over seven million copies worldwide.