According to Hits Daily Double, Madonna‘s MDNA will top the Billboard 200 chart this week at #1 with 357,943 copies sold.

EDIT: The official Billboard report is in–Madonna clocks in at #1 with 359,000 sold. From Billboard:

Madonna remains in second place among women with the most No. 1 albums. She now needs only one more No. 1 to tie Barbra Streisand, the leader among women with nine chart-toppers.

“MDNA” sold 359,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, and is Madonna’s fifth straight studio album to debut at No. 1. It follows 2008′s “Hard Candy,” which moved 280,000 in its first week. “MDNA’s” opener is her best sales week since 2000′s “Music” shifted 420,000 when it debuted at No. 1.

The opening week album sales surpasses that of Rihanna‘s Talk That Talk (198,000), Katy Perry‘s Teenage Dream (192,000), Beyonce‘s 4 (310,000), The Holy Spearit‘s Femme Fatale (276,000) and yes, even Adele’s 21 (352,000). The only one to outsell her opening week is, of course, Lady Gaga‘s Born This Way (1,108,000). (Lest we forget, the controversial $0.99 Amazon MP3 sale accounted for roughly 440,000 of those copies. Also, entire subways and buildings were covered in her face.* La, la, la…)

The sales also best the opening weeks of several of her most recent efforts, including 2008′s Hard Candy (280,000), 2003′s American Life (241,000) and slightly edges out 2005′s Confessions On A Dance Floor (350,000).

But wait! There was one major promotional move: Those who purchased tickets to the MDNA Tour via Ticketmaster also had the option to receive a copy of MDNA along with their purchase. Since those albums factor into the mix, sales from concert-goers factor into the final tally. (There aren’t any official figures around the Ticketmaster-specific albums, but 1 album per $150 ticket is a different story than 150 albums for $150. I digress.**)

That’s right, y’all: Madonna just outsold almost every single one of your favorites (and mine too) relying on a single Super Bowl performance back in February, a 20 minute Facebook chat and a Q&A on Twitter on the night of the album’s release.

*I’m being facetious. Calm the fuck down, Little Monsters.
**I’m still being facetious. Calm the fuck down, Little Monsters.

Madonna: Queen of Everything.

MDNA was released on March 26. (iTunes)

Last night was the 54th Annual Grammy Awards! Or was it the 2012 CMT Music Awards? I literally couldn’t tell, what with all the banjos, geetars and all that.

No, it was The Grammys! A time when the industry comes together to honor REAL music! A time to dress tastefully and bring a bishop as a date! A time when Jennifer Hudson sings half of a Whitney Houston song while Chris Brown gets two whole performances and a Grammy! Yes! Music finally wins!

Mercifully, Adele rightfully won in all six of her major categories: Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Vocal Performance, Short Form Music Video, Record Of The Year, and Song Of The Year, and Album Of The Year. (Okay, the music video win was a bit “Really though?”, but…you know, whatever.)

All in all, that shit was as cray as usual. Here are nine moments worth your time. There were more, but, like…I’m tired. You know?

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There’s no way around it: 2011 was an astoundingly good year in pop music.

Not since the 2007 reign of Kylie‘s X, Britney‘s Blackout, Rihanna‘s Good Girl Gone Bad and Girl’s Aloud‘s Tangled Up has there been such a strong showing in pop: We found love in the most hopeless of places, hung onto a moment and danced to the beat of our drums ’til the world ended (well, until next year anyway.)

As per usual, I’ve hemmed and hawed over a final ranking for my favorite records released over the past year. Although I wasn’t initially going to rank them numerically (YAY–everybody wins!), I ultimately realized that was just a cop-out.

Nonetheless, every album featured on this list deserves to be on included on everyone’s iPods and Spotify/iTunes libraries (or, dare I say it, in your CD players), because they’re all beautiful in their way.

Now, I present my Top 25 Albums of 2011. And if you’re not satisfied with the ranking? Please…don’t hold it against me.

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“Did you hear, Flopdele? “Moves Like Jagger” is #1 in America.”
“Wait, what? Seriously? Ew. Just a moment–someone hold my cigarette.”

Well, so much for that: After a shocking coup last week with her triumphant rise to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 aboard Maroon 5‘s “Moves Like Jagger,” Legendtina now finds herself simmering down to #2 like a pot full of Sabi‘s floppy vegetables.

After her performance of the song at the 2011 VMA’s, Adele rose from #19 to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Someone Like You”–a stunning sales jump (and testament to the undeniable influence of the Video Music Awards). This is now Adele’s second #1 from 21–the top selling album of the year thus far.

From Billboard:

Following an acclaimed performance of the song on the MTV Video Music Awards Aug. 28, Adele’s stark ballad “Someone Like You” bounds to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, vaulting 19-1 with dual Digital and Airplay Gainer honors.

“Like” leaps 11-1 on Digital Songs with 275,000 downloads sold (up 191%), according to Nielsen SoundScan. On Radio Songs, the track blasts 42-19 with 46 million all-format audience impressions (up 59%), according to Nielsen BDS.

When prompted for an official response to the news, Queen Floptina had only this to offer:

Yes, it’s true: The witchy Miss Florence Welch has returned!

After several months of touring ’round the world and many weeks spent recording with acclaimed British producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Kate Nash) at England’s famed Abbey Road Studios, the fiery-headed chanteuse is back with “What The Water Gave Me,” the whimsical lead single from her as-of-yet untitled sophomore effort, due out on November 7.

As she told Pitchfork in an interview posted today, their work on Lungs–especially “Cosmic Love” (my personal favorite)–inspired Welch to keep collaborating with Epworth: “The way that “Cosmic Love” turned out really made me want to do the whole next record with him. That song was written in like half an hour in a tiny bedroom studio and I always had this idea for a really big sound coming from all that clatter, and he managed to capture that on record in the best way.”

Just as with all great Florence productions, “What The Water Gave Me” weaves together echoed, otherworldly instrumentation and pleasant plucks of harp with Welch’s soulful sound; her voice quivering above crashing drums and noisy guitar licks as she throws her head back to deliver howl after almighty howl by the song’s massive finale. Add in an organ and the sobering chant of a choir and et voila: Florence is taking us to CHURCH!

As one of the most genuinely exciting new artists to have emerged in the past decade–as well as the driving force behind one of my top albums of 2009–it’s reassuring to see (and hear!) that Lady Welch is right on track with her follow-up: It’s spooky. It’s soulful. It’s flawless. Were you expecting anything less?

“What the Water Gave Me” was released on August 23. (iTunes)

It’s a weird, awful phenomenon when an artist dies.

There’s the initial news reports, the disbelief, the outcry and sorrow from fans, the pandering by non-fans crawling out from the woodwork, the detractors, the well-intentioned wise words, the mean-spirited off-color jokes and everything else in between.

But with Amy Winehouse, it was different–for me at least–because there was a personal connection underneath it all. And while I don’t mean to discredit or devalue the loss of any pop culture figure, Amy was an invaluable part of my life–someone to whom I could readily point to as responsible for shaping my taste in music today.

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Another year, another MTV Video Music Awards, which means it’s time for a whole ‘nother round of Kanye rage and death threats from Britney stans demanding to know whether or not she’ll be performing this year.

But before we get into that whole mess–it’s the nominees for the 2011 MTV VMAs!

Last night, MTV opened up the vote for the 2011 MTV Music Video Awards. And almost just as quickly, the tweets began to fill up my timeline with various outbursts and damning remarks: #MTVFail! #MTVFail! So what’s got everyone’s panties in an Ashley Tizzydale? Let’s see who made the cut…below the cut.

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