SINGER Leona Lewis has broken the record for the fastest-selling debut album in Britain as Spirit went into the chart at number one on Sunday. Some 375,872 copies of Spirit sold in the first week since its release, beating the record set by British rock group Arctic Monkeys.Their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, sold 363,735 copies in its first week in January 2006.
"On it's first day of sales alone, Spirit sold over 130,000 copies, which was outselling the rest of the top 10 put together," said a spokesman for newcomer Lewis.
"On average it worked out that Leona was selling an amazing 200 albums per minute."
The 22-year-old, who won a television talent contest, remains atop the singles chart for the fourth week running with Bleeding Love, the competition winner's song.
Spirit saw off strong competition from the Spice Girls' Greatest Hits album, which debuted at number two in the album chart. Last week's number one, Back Home by Westlife, dropped to third place.
Mothership, a compilation album by veteran rockers Led Zeppelin, entered the list at number four, while power ballad queen Celine Dion's new album Taking Chances went in at number five.
In the singles chart, Take That remained in second place with Rule The World, while Timbaland's Apologize stayed at three.
2 Hearts by Kylie Minogue rose eight places to number four while Valerie by Mark Ronson and featuring troubled singer Amy Winehouse fell one spot to fifth.
