LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ RCA Records) - Katharine McPhee finished second on American Idol, and now she's No 2 on the album charts, also.
Her anticipated self-titled debut on RCA Records/19 Recordings exploded on the Billboard 200 this week, selling more than 115k in its first week, placing behind only Norah Jones. The album's first single, "Over It," is already storming radio and promises to be a worthy follow-up to her No 2 hit, the double-A sided "Over the Rainbow" / "My Destiny," the second-best selling single of last year.
McPhee's album is the highest-charted bow for a debut artist this year, and the fourth largest overall in 2007. It is also the best chart debut for a solo female artist since July 2006.
Katharine McPhee was recorded largely in Virginia Beach with Grammy- nominated producer Nate "Danja" Hills, who is up for two awards this year for his work on Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds. "Over It" was written by Billy Steinberg, Josh Alexander and Ruth-Anne Cunningham. McPhee collaborated with some of the top producer/writers in the business on the album, including Babyface ("Everywhere I Go"), Kara DioGuardi ("Home"), Walter Afanasieff ("Ordinary World") and The Underdogs ("Do What You Do").
"Over It" is already climbing the Top 40 chart at MediaBase and BDS, with early adds at tastemaker stations such as Z100 in New York and WXKS in Boston.
The video for the song was shot last weekend and will be released later this month.
The album release follows a hectic month of promotion, which included performances of "Over It" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, The Rachael Ray Show, Fox Morning Show, Live with Regis & Kelly, MTV's TRL and The Early Show. McPhee also appeared as herself on the hit ABC TV series Ugly Betty and a cameo with Lonelygirl15, on the popular Internet video blog. She's scheduled to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (2/7) and Ellen on (2/16) and will be interviewed on CNN's Larry King Live tomorrow evening (2/8). Other McPhee sightings include Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, The Insider, Extra, MTV New. CNN, FOX News and E! News, etc.
On the print side, McPhee has been featured in such publications as People, Rolling Stone, Blender, OK!, TV Guide Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, US Weekly, Cosmo Girl, Cosmopolitan, Shape & Teen People covers and is slated to grace the April cover of SELF Magazine
