ONE-DAY SALES: THEY CALL
THE WINNER MARIAH

Mariah Carey is about to end the six-week reign of 50 Cent. The Island Def Jam diva is on her way to a first-week total north of 300k, with a shot at 350k—and yes, that’s more than we initially projected.

An upward adjustment is also in order for scary Epic band Mudvayne, which is looking like it could hit 150k, with 30-40% of that coming from the DualDisc version of the release. Is it in line for the #2 slot nationally, passing a declining Fitty? Could be.

That said, the Shady/Aftermath/Interscope monolith could restore himself to the throne in the weeks to come, depending on the quality of the competition. Garbage, another Interscope act, is rocking toward 75k.

Business was down 6.6%, or 689k units, from last week, and a jaw-dropping 22.9%, or nearly 3 million units, compared to the comparable week in ’04. The reason for the year-to-year disparity is that mid-April 2004 saw Usher in his second week (480k), Janet Jackson’s debut (380k) and week two of Now 15 (225k), along with the bows of Lil Flip (220k), Aerosmith (160k), Eric Clapton (125k) and Jkwan (125k). That was a pretty impressive week to go up against. Wish we had one of those right now.

Sales for the year so far are 155 million units, off 9.2% (15.7m units) from last year’s pace. Expect more unsettling information in this space one week from today.