Submitted by: kirkland on Tuesday July 06th, 2004 at 08:29 AM EST

There is an art to debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It requires the right balance of sales and airplay.

Garner enough airplay, and you debut in the lower regions of chart. A first week of massive sales combined with a small amount of airplay is the right combination, as "American Idol" third-season winner Fantasia proves by entering in pole position with her debut single, "I Believe"

Since Billboard's chart rules changed in December 1998, only one other single has managed to debut at No. 1: "This Is the Night" by "American Idol" second-season runner-up Clay Aiken. The two tracks are the 12th and 13th singles in the rock era to open at the summit.

Fantasia is the first artist in the history of the Hot 100 to debut at No. 1 with her first chart entry. Aiken would have claimed this honor but for a technicality: When "This Is the Night" debuted, he had already charted with "God Bless the U.S.A." as one of the American Idol Finalists. There wasn't a single by the third-season finalists, so Fantasia spends her first week on the Hot 100 at the head of the class.

Fantasia is not the only "American Idol" finalist making her first chart appearance and collecting her first No. 1 with "I Believe." The song's co-writer, Tamyra Gray, who finished fourth in the first season of the show, can make the same claims.

» Read full story @ Reuters