Monica’s “Standing Still” #1

Early sales indicate that Monica’s brand new album, Still Standing, is projected to debut at #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #2 on the Top 200 album charts. Released on March 23 on J Records, Still Standing is currently #2 at iTunes and Amazon.

Leading the way to Still Standing’s top of the charts entry is the album’s first single “Everything To Me,” which is currently #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and #10 on the Ringtone chart. The projected album entry will maintain Monica’s long standing track record of chart-topping debuts and marks her second consecutive #1 R&B Album debut. Monica’s previous 3 albums (The Makings of Me, After The Storm, The Boy is Mine) have debuted at #1 and/or #2 on either the Top 200 or Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts.

Complementing Still Standing success are the equally high ratings from the critics. People magazine’s 3-star (out of 4) review of Still Standing cites “it’s a consistently rewarding set that relies on Monica’s strong delivery;” while USA Today states the album “effectively revisits the past in a gimmick-free set of cool R&B tracks.”

After Monica’s performance of “Everything To Me” this week on The Early Show and 106 & Park, she returned to her hometown of Atlanta and was greeted by thousands of fans at her in-store/cd signing event at Downtown Locker Room at Camp Creek Mall. Due to the overwhelming demand, a rare encore in-store has been scheduled for today at 6pm at the same location.

Fans also came out in droves online to participate in a live chat with the songstress last night (3/24) on her newly relaunched website, Monica.com. Over 1,200 fans joined the 40-minute chat which temporarily shut down the site to due to the volume.