Britney Spears Photo by: Lucas Jackson / Reuters / Landov
Britney Spears's Album Hits No. 1 | Britney Spears
To say she's had a rough year is an understatement. But it looks like Britney Spears will be capping off 2008 on a happy note: She has the No. 1 album in the country.

Though official numbers won't be released until Wednesday, initial reports indicate her new Circus has sold more than 500,000 copies – easily placing it at the top of the charts.

"I think she is America's pop princess, and the world's pop princess, and this just reconfirms it to everyone who doubted it," her manager, Larry Rudolph, tells the Associated Press.

The impressive sales are also noted on Spears's official Web site, with a not-so-subtle suggestion from one blogger: "Suck on that[,] haters."

Downward Spiral Unlikely

Last year, Spears's album Blackout hit No. 1, but then sales plummeted as her personal life took a downward spiral. A repeat of that negative pattern seems unlikely these days, given the star – who turned 27 on Dec. 2 – has her father, Jamie Spears, in charge as her court-appointed conservator.

Spears will be kicking off her national concert tour March 3, in New Orleans.
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