ONE-DAY SALES: DEAR DIARY

Remember Alicia Keys?

Of course you do. Clive Davis’ young neo-soul/R&B diva turned heads and stacked Grammys with her J Records debut, Songs in A Minor, two years ago. Now she’s back, and her music’s once again turning up the heat.

Indeed, according to early reports from national accounts, Keys’ sophomore album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, is on track to sell 550k in its first week, and could go as high as 600k. That means two things: One, her second album’s an instant smash, and two, her second album will debut at #1 on next week’s chart.

Sales of Diary are being aided by Keys’ intensive slate of television appearances. She did Good Morning America twice last week and a third time on Tuesday (when the record came out); she appeared on Oprah on Monday; and she’ll do two nights on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Thursday and Friday.

Will all the TV exposure drive Keys’ first-week number even higher? We’ll have to wait and see.

Next week, be on the look out for albums from Hoobastank (Island/IDJ), the Offspring (Columbia), American Idol Ruben Studdard (J), Musiq (Def Jam/IDJ) and Avant (Geffen).