Friday

Queen of Pop Madonna keeps her crown

Madonna retained the title Queen of Pop by taking the throne of the Billboard 200 album chart for the eighth time on Tuesday, as her latest album MDNA beat Lionel Richie's country-themed Tuskegee to the top of the weekly sales list. Madonna's 12th studio album, dedicated to club-friendly dance tracks, sold 359,000 copies in its first week despite lukewarm reviews from critics and minimal promotional appearances by the singer.This is the fifth time in the 53-year-old singer's career that her album has debuted at No 1, following her 2008 CD Hard Candy, and she is the second woman to top the chart eight times behind Barbra Streisand, who holds the title with nine chart-topping albums.MDNA also was No 1 on iTunes charts in 40 countries and had the biggest single day pre-sales on iTunes by any artist in history, Madonna's label Interscope Records said in a statement.