Taylor Swift's new album Speak Now has only been out for a few days, but the world is already hungrily consuming its deeply personal tracks. Many are predicting that Swift will have the biggest sales week of the year, perhaps even brushing up against the ever-elusive one million sold mark in her opening week.
While we won't know concrete sales figures until early next week, we do know that songs from Speak Now have been storming the latest edition of the Billboard Hot 100. While "Mine" is the official first single, it actually is only the second-highest charting tune for Swift on this week's chart. Her highest position is just a hair outside the elite top 10, as "Mean" (which hit the streets just a few days before the release of the album) sits at number 11. "Mine" is right behind it at number 13, and "Back to December" (the song about her relationship with "Twilight" werewolf Taylor Lautner) isn't all that far behind at number 30. Further down the list, Swift also has the title track from Speak Now lodged at number 86.
Elsewhere on the Hot 100, Willow Smith makes a somewhat underwhelming debut, as "Whip My Hair" enters the chart at number 78 (though expect that to climb way up the chart in the coming weeks thanks to the song's excellent video), just ahead of Kanye West's "Monster" (one of the "G.O.O.D. Friday" tracks that has picked up the most steam) and Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)" (her worldwide World Cup soundtrack hit that re-enters the chart thanks to the release of her new album Sale el Sol). But for the second week, the top spot belongs to the Far*East Movement and their unlikely hit "Like a G6," one of the stranger, more inexplicable chart-toppers of the year. Next week, Swift should be making a pretty solid bid for the top spot against Far*East, Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)" and Trey Songz' rampaging "Bottoms Up."