MILEY CYRUS - CYRUS BEATS CLARKSON TO THE TOP

CYRUS BEATS CLARKSON TO THE TOP

MILEY CYRUS has won the battle of the pop girls in America after taking her new album to the top of the charts - just ahead of KELLY CLARKSON's latest release. Cyrus, the daughter of Achy Breaky Heart singer Billy Ray Cyrus, claimed the new number one on Wednesday (04Jul07) after selling 326,000 copies of her new double album Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus - 35,000 more than Clarkson's My December. But it's still good news for Clarkson, whose new album has been mired in controversy, beginning with rumours that record label officials at RCA didn't like the material and considered shelving the release. My December's 291,000 sales beats the first-week total of the former American Idol star's smash-hit Breakaway album, which debuted at number three with 250,000 in 2004. Elsewhere in the new chart, Ryan Adams scores his highest position ever on The Billboard 200, debuting Easy Tiger at number seven, while the Beastie Boys' instrumental album The Mix-Up enters the chart at 15.