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Scotty McCreery's first full week as a published recording artist has been a pretty good one.
The "American Idol" winner released his "I Love You This Big" single last week and it debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single was also the third most popular digitally downloaded song, with 171,000 downloads in the first week.
And despite some controversy about the Garner native's possible "country radio" reception, Scotty's first single broke Country chart records last week when it debuted at No. 32 -- the highest ranking for a new artist's first single.
Scotty's single debuted in first place on the iTunes singles chart (a week later he's still in the Top 10), and his "Idol" compilation album is currently in the No. 10 spot on iTunes.
Runner-up Lauren Alaina's single "Like My Mother Does" debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was downloaded 121,000 times, putting her at No. 11 on the Digital Songs chart.
Both Lauren and Scotty are out-performing last year's "Idol" winner, Lee DeWyze, whose debut single was a cover of U2's "Beautiful Day." That single debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 at No. 24 and had 95,000 downloads in the first week.
