According to midweek sales numbers that were released yesterday, Britney is on course to debut at #3 this week on the official UK album chart.

Not bad, considering her last studio album, In The Zone, only debuted at #14.

We’ll see on Sunday what the official chart placing is.

Hits Daily Double has released its initial prediction for the US album chart this week.  This is what they had to say:

Britney Spears’ Blackout album will debut on next week’s HITS chart at #1, with an impressive total that could threaten 400k. As it is, the beleaguered grown-up teen diva looks on target to sell between 350-380k, which ain’t bad at all.

The album is also #1 on most of the international iTunes stores, including the UK and US stores.

As Britney Spears’ new album “Blackout” earns praise from critics, one of the producers on the album has come forward to say Britney deserves all the credit.

“Extra” spoke to Kara DioGuardi, who produced and wrote songs for Britney.

“When I worked with her she was pregnant with her second child. Her spirits were up,” DioGuardi says. “She came to the studio on time. She worked really hard. She would get into her zone and was unstoppable. I had a great experience with her. I felt very confident about what we would do together.”

DioGuardi co-wrote the single, “Ooh Ooh Baby,” with Britney and says, “I spent time with her and her first baby in the studio. I would look at the two of them, the way they looked at each other and the way she would hold the baby. It kind of struck me as interesting. At times it’ll be about a kid at times about a lover. She contributed to the lyric. She came up with some really cool parts.”

Since work on the record wrapped up, DioGuardi has not kept in touch with Britney but is still standing behind her.

“Everybody is rooting for Britney,” DioGuardi says. “There’s a lot of sympathy for her. Britney is Britney, she’s made a lot of people smile over the years. I’m hoping this record is as well received as the other ones. I have nothing but good things to say about her.”

Source: Extra

Britney was spotted at Virgin Megastore in Hollywood last night as fans lined up to get their hands on her eagerly anticipated new album “Blackout”.

Unfortunately, the paparazzi ruined things.  There were about 12 photographers there waiting for her so she decided not to get out of the car and leave straight away.

On her new CD, “Blackout,” Britney Spears acknowledges that 2007 hasn’t been a charmed year. “I’m Mrs. Bad Media Karma, another day another drama,” the 25-year-old pop princess croons to a thumping dance groove on the song “Piece of Me.”

“Another day, another debacle” might have been a more apropos lyric. In just a year’s time, Spears has become the ultimate case study for the “When Celebs Go Bad” file. She’s been an out-of-control party girl, landed in rehab, lost temporary custody of her two young sons, given a horrendous performance on live TV and gotten herself arrested.

But despite her litany of woes, “Blackout,” due out Tuesday, may be the one positive note in an otherwise dreadful year. So far, it’s earned her a Top 10 single (with “Gimme More”) and some of the best reviews she’s had in ages.

Could “Blackout” be the break Britney needs? Industry insiders, fans and some critics are saying “yes.”

“One of the problems for Britney right now is the public is more focused on her personal life than her music. This record is an opportunity to change that,” says Rolling Stone executive editor Joe Levy, who called the album “state of the art.”

“A lot of people are tired of hearing about the negative stuff going on in her personal life and they’ll gravitate to the new sound she’s putting out,” says Nate “Danja” Hills, who produced five songs on dance-focused “Blackout.”

“This is a rebirth. It’s a new musical chapter for her,” he says.

Spears’ musical past is already the stuff of legend. She was 16 when she put out her first album, “… Baby One More Time,” in 1999. Fueled by title track, which had the teen crooning the refrain “hit me baby one more time,” the album sold more than 14 million copies in the United States and made her an international superstar. She’s released three multiplatinum studio albums since then, had best-selling tours, several hit singles and starred in a movie (the less-than-successful 2002 flick “Crossroads”).

But Spears, who turns 26 in December, hasn’t released an album of original material since 2003’s “In the Zone.” Since then, she’s been relegated to the tabloid realm of celebrity, in danger of rivaling Michael Jackson in freak-show status.

Still, Junior Sanchez of Los Angeles, a 21-year-old college student, says the singer’s woes make him “feel more attached to her.”

“I can really tell she’s going through a lot of bad stuff right now,” he says. “Her real fans don’t care about her personal life. We care about her music and the way she performs.”

Though Sanchez was “really disappointed” with Spears’ appearance at MTV’s Video Music Awards, he eagerly sought leaks of her new album online and says he likes what he’s heard so far.

“It’s one of her best, I honestly think,” he says. “I’m ready to buy her records and I’m ready to buy tickets to her concert.”

Sanchez isn’t alone.

“Gimme” was the top-selling digital song on the week of its release, and Spears losing custody of her two toddlers a week later didn’t slow sales.

Fans remain loyal despite the drama, says Jerry Del Colliano, a music-industry professor at University of Southern California.

“Look at her single sales,” he says. “She couldn’t have been through a darker time. She embarrassed herself on television, she was ridiculed by bloggers and still she was No. 1.”

However, “Gimme” topped out at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and, after seven weeks, has dropped to No. 13.

Still, marketing consultant Ryan Schinman, president of Platinum Rye Entertainment, said: “I’d be shocked if this didn’t go platinum.”

“It certainly doesn’t help that she can’t promote this properly, but she doesn’t need that much promotion,” he adds. “You can’t get more out there than she’s been out there. (The album) is going to sell. People are curious because they know what a train wreck she’s been.”

It may help Spears that her club-friendly sound appeals to an older audience rather than the teens and tweens she originally courted, says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard’s senior analyst and director of charts: “If kids were still a huge part of her album base, the nefarious publicity would be more troublesome.”

“Blackout” features 12 thumping dance tracks crafted by top pop and hip-hop producers including Bloodshy & Avant (who produced Spears’ 2004 Grammy-winning hit, “Toxic”) and Danja, the beatmaster behind Spears’ single “Gimme More.”

Danja, a Timbaland protege who already scored hits with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, says he was “excited” to work with Spears and expects people to support the album, which has a “hard-hitting, dark and sexy vibe.”

Jive Records, Spears’ label since her debut, has remained mostly mum about the pop star. Jive officials declined to discuss why the album’s release date was changed (it was originally set for Nov. 13), how many more albums are in Spears’ contract, or the marketing challenges involved with promoting the troubled singer.

“As Britney’s label, it’s not our place to comment on her personal issues, but we do care about her and support her,” label spokesman Allan Mayer said in a recent statement. “Britney’s a grown woman who makes her own choices, and we respect that. But she faces challenges that most of us can’t really imagine.”

Source: Rolling Stone Magazine

Britney’s fifth studio album, “Blackout”, was released today in the United Kingdom. The disc was released in most continental European countries, including Ireland, at the end of last week.

Unfortunately, SonyBMG UK changed the tracklisting and the UK edition of the album doesn’t have any bonus tracks. Nevertheless, the bonus tracks are still set to appear on the Japanese version.

All the big music shops are stocking it, and it’s album of the week at Sainsbury’s.

The CD will be released tomorrow in the USA and some other parts of the world.

“Extra” spoke exclusively to Britney Spears’ former manager, Larry Rudolph, last night at the Maloof brothers’ house warming party.

Rudolph spoke about his high expectations for Spears’ new album, Blackout, declaring, “I think it’s going to do great! I have heard almost all of it!”

Rudolph tells “Extra” that his partnership with the pop princess is not over, indicating that the two of them plan to work together again very soon. Rudolph admits that the door is still open for another go at being Spears’ manager.

In fact, Rudolph is so close to the Spears clan that he talks to Britney’s parents almost daily and says he has nothing but love for the entire family.

Source: Extra