Ariana Grande, Tamar Braxton top Billboard 200

Ariana Grande, performing here on NBC's "Today" show, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her album "Yours Truly."

By Mikael Wood

Sept. 11, 2013 11:09 AM PT

Katy Perry isn’t the only female musician roaring this week.

In a pronounced about-face from last week -- when each of the 10 top-selling albums in the country was by a male act -- women took the top spots on the new Billboard 200, the trade magazine reported early Wednesday.

The Nickelodeon star Ariana Grade debuted at No. 1 with “Yours Truly,” her set of early-’90s-inspired R&B numbers that many (including yours truly) have compared to the “Emotions“-era work of Mariah Carey. Grande’s album sold 138,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, followed closely by another R&B disc: Tamar Braxton’s “Love & War,” which enters the chart at No. 2 with sales of 114,000.

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In a detailed post, Billboard’s Keith Caulfield wrote that Grande is the first female artist to debut at No. 1 with her first album since Kesha pulled off the feat with “Animal” in January 2010. And Braxton, whose older sister the is the soul-music veteran Toni Braxton, “tallies the largest sales week for a female R&B/hip-hop album since last November, when Alicia Keys’ ‘Girl on Fire’ bowed with 159,000.”

Two additional R&B albums, both by men, debuted inside the top 10 as well: John Legend’s “Love in the Future” at No. 4 and Jaheim’s “Appreciation Day” at No. 6. The chart’s other new entrant was Nine Inch Nails’ comeback effort, “Hesitation Marks,” which came in at No. 3 with sales of 107,000 copies.

Watch Grande’s video for her summer hit “The Way” below.