NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ La Face/ Zomba Label Group) - The RIAA has certified R&B/Pop sensation Ciara's sophomore album, Ciara: The Evolution (La Face/Zomba Label Group), platinum in only five weeks. Ciara: The Evolution debuted at No 1 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 338,447, and is the follow-up to 2004's Goodies, which sold 3 million on the strength of its three megahit singles.

Ciara: The Evolution is well on its way to meeting Goodies' high mark with two hit singles already all over R&B and pop airwaves, the get-it-started club banger "Get Up" (originally released as the single for the Step Up soundtrack) and the sensual ballad, "Promise," produced by Polow Da Don. "Promise" is currently No 2 on the Urban Charts, No 4 on the Mediabase Rhythm Chart, No 6 on the Billboard Rhythm Chart. The urban hit is scheduled to impact pop radio next week. A special R. Kelly remix of "Promise" will also hit radio next week.

Hot on the heels of "Promise" will be the up-tempo female empowerment hit "Like A Boy," which envisions a world in which the tables are turned on callous boyfriends as women give them a taste of their own medicine. Entertainment Weekly calls the "stormy club anthem" a "Ciara song par excellence" and picks it as one to check out, as do outlets as diverse as Marie Claire, The Boston Globe, and Blender. A video for the single will be shot in mid-January and is scheduled to hit airwaves in early February.

Critics and fans alike have been raving about Ciara's "Evolution." USA Today says the new album "shows her versatility as a singer and songwriter" and labels the album "intelligently designed diversification." Ciara "displays significant growth" (People) and the new album "should one, two-step Ciara even closer to superstardom" (Billboard). Ciara "knocks out one potential hit after the other" (New York Newsday) on a "near perfect dance album" (Details).

Ciara: The Evolution is the follow-up to 2004's triple-platinum Goodies, which spawned three No 1 singles ("Goodies," and "1,2 Step," and "Oh") and earned Ciara four Grammy nominations (including Best New Artist), five ASCAP Awards for Songwriting, three Teen Choice Awards, two BET Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, Two Lady of Soul Awards, a Vibe award, and the Female Entertainer of the Year Award from the Soul Train Awards. Ciara has also proven to have the magic touch at radio, with Top Ten hits with all the songs she has been featured on -- "Like You" (Bow Wow), "So What" (Field Mob), and "Lose Control" (Missy Elliot), which won the two a Grammy.