Girls ease ahead

The Popstars girls are out in front early lead in the fight for the Christmas number one, music industry figures showed today.

Girls Aloud are roughly 8,000 copies ahead of their male rivals after the band had their first day on sale.
And it looks like Popstars: The Rivals acts will be filling the top two places in the charts this weekend with boy band One True Voice set to take number two and the Cheeky Girls at number three.

Transylvanian twins Monica and Gabriela were laughed off the ITV1 show, but bounced back with a record deal for their Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) single. They are marginally ahead of Sir Elton John and Blue - which is actually this week's number one.

Midweek sales figures suggest Girls Aloud have sold in excess of 30,000 copies of their release Sound Of The Underground.

HMV chart expert Gennaro Castaldo said today: "First day sales around the country show Girls Aloud have delivered the first blow in the race for the Christmas No.1."

Girls Aloud and One True Voice, whose release is called Sacred Trust, were formed after months of auditions and TV voting.

The boys had long been predicted to take the festive chart-topper. But when both bands' singles were finally aired many changed their minds and Girls Aloud pushed ahead as the bookies favourites for the first time this week.

Both acts are on a huge promotional drive with numerous TV, radio and personal appearances to push their single to the top. TV viewers have followed the fortunes of the Popstars wannabes and shared the highs and lows by choosing who made it to the final line-up.

Castaldo added: "The girls have developed a slight lead over One True Voice, although the boys remain within striking distance and can easily turn it around over the remainder of the week."

Sales so far this week shows that both acts could sell more than 200,000 copies of their debut singles. However that is a far cry from the astonishing performances of other made-for-TV stars.

The now defunct Hear'Say sold more than half a million copies of their debut Pure And Simple in just six days in 2001. And earlier this year Will Young did even better by shifting 1.1 million copies during its first week.