LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- "American Idol" champion Kelly Clarkson didn't have to wait a lifetime for the moment when her television fame was transformed into record-setting gold on the pop charts.
The bubbly 20-year-old who wowed a national TV audience on the Fox network's summer reality series shot to No. 1 on the latest Hot 100 singles chart from Nielsen SoundScan with "A Moment Like This," the song she performed on the final episode of the show.
The single, paired with the song "Before Your Love" on a double-A-side record, rose from the No. 52 spot after going on sale in stores last week, marking the biggest leap to No. 1 in the history of the Hot 100, her label, RCA Records, said Wednesday.
Clarkson's debut, selling 236,000 copies its first week in stores, grabbed the top spot away from the song "Dilemma" from hip-hop star Nelly. That song, which also featured vocals from Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child, spent seven weeks at No. 1.
Because relatively few songs are released commercially as singles anymore, most hits depend on broadcast exposure to achieve a place on the singles charts, whose rankings are based on a combination of radio airplay and retail sales.
"We're in uncharted territory," said Geoff Mayfield of Billboard magazine, which publishes the charts. "It's unusual to have a retail single to begin with, and it's even more unusual to have one sell decent numbers."
Mayfield said Clarkson's single was the first to sell more than 200,000 copies since 1999.
Clarkson, a former cocktail waitress from Burleson, Texas, landed her recording contract with RCA as the winning contestant on "American Idol: The Search for a Superstar," capping a nationwide talent search that turned the show into a summertime TV sensation.
An audience of nearly 23 million viewers tuned in to the "American Idol" finale on September 4 to see Clarkson sing her hit ballad, with the refrain, "Some people wait a lifetime/For a moment like this." But Monday's follow-up concert special, taped in Las Vegas and featuring performances by all 30 semi-finalists from the show, was a ratings dud.
Clarkson embarks -- along with runner-up Justin Guarini and the eight other finalists from the show -- on a 27-city U.S. arena tour that opens October 8 in San Diego and winds up November 20 in Seattle.
Meanwhile, the heavy metal band Disturbed claimed the top spot on the latest pop album chart with its sophomore release "Believe," bumping the Dixie Chicks from their three-week perch at No. 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The top 10 for the week ended September 22 was one of the most eclectic in weeks, ranging from the country pop of the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith to the rap musings of Eminem and Nelly to the jazz stylings of Norah Jones and Kenny G.
"Believe" sold 284,000 copies during its first week of release, a far better showing for the Chicago-based band than its debut album, "The Sickness," which bowed at No. 191 in March 2000 and peaked at No. 29 in the charts.
The Dixie Chicks' latest album, "Home," slipped to No. 2 with sales of 168,000 copies, bringing its four-week tally to more than 1.5 million units. Teen pop ingenue Avril Lavigne's debut album slipped one spot to No. 3 with sales of nearly 132,000 copies.
Rounding out the top five were two rap albums -- Nelly's "Nellyville" release, holding steady at No. 4, followed by Eminem's third major-label LP, "The Eminem Show," which has spent 18 weeks lodged in the upper echelons of the pop charts. "Nellyville" and "The Eminem Show" have chalked up respective sales tallies of 3.4 million and 5.8 million copies.
