Adele, Whitney make up half the Top 10; 'We Are Young' rockers fun. debut at No. 3

*My bad for posting this late..

Nine straight weeks. That’s how long Adele’s 21 has sat atop the Billboard 200 in 2012.

(The disc has been at No. 1 for 22 weeks total — the most since Prince’s 1984 album Purple Rain.) This week, the Grammy-winning, Brit Award bird-flipping, generally beloved diva, whose song “Set Fire to the Rain” was positively butchered last night on American Idol, moved yet another 297,000 copies of 21 this week. Its total now stands above 7.6 million.

Adele’s previous effort, 19, which debuted in 2008, is also enjoying a big bump from her recent awards sweep. The set placed in seventh, with 39,000 units sold. And let’s not forget about her Live At The Royal Albert Hall DVD, which has quietly moved 680,000 total units (31,000 in this week alone) since its debut in November.

Another diva, Whitney Houston, filled up three spots in the Top 10, as fans continue to revisit her deep catalog in the wake of her death. The compilation Whitney: The Greatest Hits spent another week in second place, moving 174,000. The Bodyguard soundtrack, meanwhile, moved all the way from 38-6. Finally, Houston’s self-titled debut album sat in ninth place, with 30,000 copies sold.

In third place, fun., whose breakout single “We Are Young” spends another frame atop the Hot Digital Song chart this week, sold 70,000 copies of their sophomore album Some Nights — a much higher placement than the band’s first album, 2009′s Aim and Ignite, which peaked at number 71.

After high-profile features on both Glee and a Chevy Super Bowl commercial, it appears that fun. have managed to turn all their exposure into legitimate sales success.

Rapper Tyga entered the chart in fourth place, as his second album World: Rise of the Last King, sold 61,000 copies. His latest single, “Rack City” has proven his most successful to date. It peaked at number 7 on the Hot 100, and currently sits at 3 on the Rap Songs chart.

In eighth place, buzzy hip-hop duo (and current fave around the EW offices) Chiddy Bang served up 31,000 copies of its party-ready debut LP Breakfast. Just outside the Top 10, recent SNL performers Sleigh Bells’s Reign of Terror started number 12.

In milestone news, Taylor Swift’s third album Speak Now passed the 4 million mark this week. She’s the first female since Britney Sears to push her first three albums past 4 million. Check out the Top 10 below:

1. Adele, 21 – 297,000
2. Whitney Houston, The Greatest Hits – 174,000
3. fun., Some Nights – 70,000
4. Tyga, Careless World: Rise Of The Last King – 61,000
5. Various Artists, Now 41 – 54,000
6. Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard soundtrack – 47,000
7. Adele, 19 – 39,000
8. Chiddy Bang, Breakfast – 31,000
9. Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston – 30,000
10. Various Artists, Grammy Nominees 2012 – 29,000

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<3 Adele and I love 'We Are Young.'

go adele!

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