Carey lives up to her idol status

It didn’t take an Einstein to predict that Mariah Carey’s latest, would top the national sales chart on the heels of her appearance last week as the guest vocal coach on “American Idol.”

The set sold 463,000 copies last week, up from the 404,000 first-week figure she logged in 2005 with her career-rejuvenating “The Emancipation of Mimi.” That makes her one of the few superstar acts whose first-week sales have improved over their previous effort in this era of diminishing commercial expectations.

It also gives Carey the highest first-week figure of the year, topping the 375,000 total posted in February by Jack Johnson’s “Sleeping Through the Static.”

Last week’s chart-topper, Leona Lewis’ “Spirit,” slipped to No. 2 with sales of 95,000 copies, while Miley Cyrus’ live set, “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert,” leapfrogged from No. 31 to No. 3 after the collection became available to all retailers. For the first five weeks it was a Wal-Mart exclusive. Sales jumped 162% to 47,000 copies last week.

New country trio Lady Antebellum makes an impressive debut at No. 4 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the country chart with its first album, propelled by the hit “Love Don’t Live Here.”

Overall sales were up about 2% over last week, but down 8.1% from the same week last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

randy.lewis@latimes.com