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"Scotty McCreery&amp;#039;s first album Clear As Day has debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts.  The American Idol winner sold 196,739 copies of Clear As Day during its first week, making him the youngest male in history to top the all-genre chart with a debut album.  McCreery also broke the record for the highest first week sales for a country artist in 2011, as well as becoming the second highest first week sales for a debut album this year, behind R&amp;amp;B artist J Cole.  &amp;quot;My hopes were just to go out there and have fun and let people know that the album was out there. Everybody hopes for the number one, but you never really expect it,&amp;quot; the 18-year-old said of his success.  &amp;quot;To see it up there is pretty incredible. It&amp;#039;s a very good birthday present! I can&amp;#039;t think of anything to top it!&amp;quot;      Interscope Geffen A&amp;amp;M chairman Jimmy Iovine added: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s rare that someone with a truly honest voice has a first album that debuts at number one. It&amp;#039;s an exciting thing to be a part of.&amp;quot; McCreery&amp;#039;s success was also a boost for American Idol creator and executive producer Simon Fuller, who said: &amp;quot;What a fantastic few days this has been for Scotty. He turned 18 on Sunday and now he has the number one-selling album in America, an incredible achievement for someone so young.  &amp;quot;Scotty is a true talent; he will stand the test of time and I am honored to be helping guide his career.&amp;quot; McCreery recently said that he is happy with Clear As Day as it remained true to who he is as an artist.  He has insisted that he wants to be a &amp;quot;normal kid&amp;quot; when he returns to school. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/american-idol/news/a345312/american-idol-scotty-mccreerys-clear-as-day-debuts-at-no-1/>