BEIJING, Sept. 1 -- In yet another big week for new releases on the U.S. albums chart, the MTV-constructed band Danity Kane trumped hip-hop duo OutKast to take the top spot, while Paris Hilton scored the highest debut for a new solo female pop artist this year with a No. 6.

Danity Kane's "Bad Boy" set sold 234,000 copies last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The winners of MTV's "Making the Band 3" in 2005, the quintet exceeded the debuts of the two other "Making the Band" winners: O-Town's self-titled began with 145,000 at No. 5 in 2001 and Da Band's "Too Hot for T.V." started with 204,000 at No. 2 in 2003.

OutKast opened at No. 2 with its fifth effort, the sound track to its film "Idlewild." The LaFace release sold 196,000 copies, a huge drop from 2003's Grammy-winning "Speakerbox/The Love Below," which moved 510,000 copies in its first week. The duo's film "Idlewild" opened at No. 9 at the North American box office last weekend with just US$5.7 million.

Hilton's Warner Bros. set "Paris" debuted at No. 6 with 77,000 copies; it features the top 20 hit single "Stars Are Blind." Reigning champ Christina Aguilera's RCA album "Back to Basics" fell to No. 3 with 135,000.

Mexican rock group Mana set a new record with "Amar Es Combatir" (Warner Latina), which became the highest charting and biggest debut for a Spanish-language album for a duo or group on The Billboard 200. "Amar" opened at No. 4 and sold 87,000 copies. The old mark was held by Wisin & Yandel's "Pa'l Mundo," which debuted at No. 30 with 30,000 copies last November. "Amar" also crowned both the Top Rock Albums and Top Latin Albums charts.

At 9.54 million units, overall CD sales were down less than 1 percent from last week's count and down 1.2 percent compared with the same week a year ago. Sales for 2006 are down 6 percent compared with 2005 at 344.61 million copies.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)