Carrie Rides Carnival Straight to No. 1

Carrie Underwood's new single might be "So Small," but her new album is big, big, big!

With the 41st Country Music Awards less than a week away, several country artists debuted new albums, but it was the season-four American Idol champ who ultimately ruled the rodeo, selling 527,000 copies of Carnival Ride, according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released today.

In addition to topping the charts, Underwood scored the best first-week sales of any female artist in 2007. Norah Jones' Not Too Late held the previous mark with 405,000 during its opening week back in February. Carnival Ride is the year's sixth-best bow overall, following albums by Kanye West, 50 Cent, Linkin Park, the High School Musical 2 cast and Rascal Flatts.

Carnival Ride also makes Underwood the first American Idol champ to top the charts since Ruben Studdard's Soulful debut four years ago. Follow-up albums by Kelly Clarkson and Studdard, the only other champs to top the chart, failed to repeat. Likewise, debut albums by Fantasia and Taylor Hicks never made it to the top, entering the charts at eight and two, respectively. In fact, Chris Daughtry, the fourth-place finisher from season five, is the only other former contestant to hit number one in recent years, though season-six champ Jordin Sparks will get her chance Nov. 20, when her self-titled debut drops.

Meanwhile, Underwood's debut disc, Some Hearts, remains in the Billboard 200. The 2005 album, which debuted at number two, entered its 102nd week at 60, up 21 spots, bringing its two-year tally to nearly 6 million.

It was a busy week with six top 10 debuts, enough to send last week's chart-topper, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Magic, down 11 spots to number 12.

Among the other new debuts, the odd coupling of Zeppelin rocker Robert Plant and bluegrass songbird Alison Krauss was good enough for a second-place debut as Raising Sand sold 112,000 copies for the week ended Sunday. Another country crooner, Gary Allan, sold 69,000 copies of Living Hard to follow at three.

Remarkably, this is the first time in Billboard 200 history that three country albums debuted in the top three spots.

A trio of rock releases made up the rest of the top 10 bows. System of a Down screamer Serj Tankian sold 66,000 copies of his solo album Elect the Dead for a number four finish. Sci-fi prog-rockers Coheed & Cambria followed at six, selling 62,000 copies of No World for Tomorrow. Seether, powered by the top 10 rock hit "Fake It," nabbed the nine spot, moving 62,000 copies of Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.

The week's top 10 holdovers were Josh Groban's Noël at five, Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus at seven, Rascal Flatts' Still Feels Good at eight and the High School Musical 2 soundtrack at 10. With the exception of Groban, each of these albums originally debuted at number one.

A pair of rockers just missed the top 10. Neil Young's Chrome Dreams II sold nearly 54,000 copies at 11. Colombian superstar Juanes, who's often called the Latin Bono for his exceptional humanitarian efforts, sold 47,000 of La Vida...Es un Ratico at 13.

Further down the chart, Hurricane Chris' 5150 Ratchet sold 26,000 copies at 24, while Say Anything's In Defense of the Genre debuted at 27, with 25,000.

Other noteworthy entries included Ryan Adams & the Cardinals' Follow the Lights EP at 40, Dwight Yoakam's Dwight Sings Buck at 42, Steven Curtis Chapman's This Moment at 47, Shooter Jennings' The Wolf at 52, Rob Zombie's Zombie Live at 57, Ween's La Cucaracha at 69 and Cobra Starship's Viva La Cobra! at 80.

Overall, there was a 5 percent uptick from last week's glacial sales, though the figures were still down 17 percent compared to the same week in 2006.

Here's a recap of the Top 10 albums:

1. Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood
2. Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
3. Living Hard, Gary Allan
4. Elect the Dead, Serj Tankian
5. Noël, Josh Groban
6. No World for Tomorrow, Coheed & Cambria
7. Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock
8. Still Feels Good, Rascal Flatts
9. Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, Seether
10. High School Musical 2 soundtrack, various