CIARA - CIARA SHOCKS EMINEM WITH US NUMBER ONE

CIARA has stunned the US album charts by beating EMINEM to number one, thanks to her best sales week ever. The R+B star's new album, CIARA: THE EVOLUTION, rocketed to the top of the Billboard 200 chart this morning (13DEC06) with 338,000 copies sold. That's almost 30,000 copies more than Eminem's new compilation EMINEM PRESENTS: THE RE-UP, which debuts at number two. GWEN STEFANI's new album, THE SWEET ESCAPE, gives the NO DOUBT singer her highest chart placing as a solo artist by debuting at three with 243,000. The soundtrack to Disney show HANNAH MONTANA drops from number two to four in its seventh week on the chart, while hits compilation NOW! THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 23 slips from four to five. Meanwhile, INCUBUS set a new undesired chart record by making the biggest drop from number one in the countdown's history. The rockers' LIGHT GRENADES debuted at the top last week (06DEC06), but the album plummets to number 37.