July 02, 2009

By By Robert Thompson, Toronto

Michael Jackson sales soared in Canada last week following the pop star's unexpected death.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, the top six albums on the catalog album chart were from Jackson, including his greatest hits collection, "Number Ones" (Sony Music), at the chart summit. It sold more than 10,000 copies last week, 43% of which were digital albums.

That figure made it the third-highest selling album in Canada overall for the week, behind the No. 1 album by Black Eyed Peas, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), and "Old Crows/Young Cardinals" (Dine Alone) by Canadian noise rockers Alexisonfire, which debuted as the second-highest selling album of the week.

Each of the six Jackson albums in the chart sold more than 1,000 copies, Soundscan noted.

On the digital song chart, three songs - "Billie Jean," "Thriller," and "Black or White" - are in the Top 10 selling tracks. All told, 14 songs from either Jackson or the Jackson 5 are in the Top 50 digital tracks.

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