When Ne-Yo delivered his short yet charming turn during the Universal Music & Video Distribution presentation last August at the NARM convention, his star power was apparent. Consumers agreed, as proved by the rookie’s bow at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the biggest sales week of 2006.

In a huge chart week, the singer also hits No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums while second single “So Sick” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Pop 100 and Hot Digital Songs.

The first-week take of 301,000 copies for “In My Own Words” is the biggest week tracked by Nielsen SoundScan since Mary J. Blige’s “The Breakthrough” arrived during Christmas week 2005 with an opener of 727,000 copies.

Island Def Jam pulled out all the stops for this one. “So Sick,” a huge radio hit, was withheld from the digital market until the album hit stores, and the label invoked UMVD’s rebate program for developing acts to bring the set’s sale tag to as low as $7.98 at price-driven chains Target, Best Buy and Circuit City.

“We know we’re living in and dealing with different times, so we’re just trying different things,” Def Jam president Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter says. “But, I believe at the end of the day, it was the music that sold this album.

“I was hoping it would do this well, but didn’t think it would connect like this,” Carter says.

SHADOW BOXING

Despite Ne-Yo’s fast start and handsome bows by indie-distributed rock band Hawthorne Heights (No. 3, 114,000 copies) and a religious album by country star Alan Jackson, album sales fall 9.4 percent shy of the same week last year.

That is the frame when 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” bowed with 1.1 million, the only million-plus week by any album in 2005.

Reuters/Billboard