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With her 18th chart-topping single "Touch My Body," Mariah Carey has officially outrun Elvis Presley in the Billboard charts record this week.
The single from Mariah's new album "E=MC2," which hits the record stores on April 16, marks the singer's 18th hit song to reach No.1, surpassing Elvis Presley's previous record of 17 hits on the top spot. The only other performers she has left to beat out are the current record holders, The Beatles, with 20 No.1 hits.
"I'm just feeling really happy and grateful," the 38-year-old performer told the Associated Press, while keeping a humbled attitude towards the comparison with The King of Rock 'n' Roll, who last topped the singles chart with "Suspicious Minds" in 1969, as well as The Beatles.
"I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world," she explained, "That's a completely different era and time."
"In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different... for me it's about saying, 'Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off."
And although Mariah said she never planned to break any records, as she is just trying to enjoy this period in her life, "Touch My Body" has also set a new record of 286,000 downloads its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, breaking the 277,000 record set last year by Rihanna's "Umbrella."
"I've gone through enough of my life worrying about that kind of thing," the singer said.
Billboard's associate director of charts, Silvio Pietroluongo, noted that "Touch My Body" which rocketed to No. 1, up from No.15 last week, would have reached the top sooner if it had been made available digitally at an earlier date. Finally released online last week, "Touch My Body" had been the only single in the top 75 of Billboard's Hot 100 that was not available at digital retailers.
However, Pietroluongo emphasized the fact that Mariah's milestone has more to do with her popularity rather than the state of the industry in 2008.
"This has more to do with longevity and popularity than anything else," Pietroluongo said. "She's only had four No. 1 singles this decade, so it can't be portrayed as anything to do with the state of the music industry. Mariah has been popular for about 20 years."
In the meantime, Madonna's making chart history too as her single "4 Minutes" rocketed up the chart to No. 3 in its second week, giving her a staggering 37 Top 10 singles. Presley had held the rock-era mark with 36. Madonna's hit racked up 217,000 downloads in its first week of wide release; it had been available as a Verizon exclusive.
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