GRAMMY-winning artist TobyMac latest release, Eye On It, (ForeFront Records/EMI CMG Distribution), landed on the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart earlier this week—marking only the third time ever that a Christian album hit No.1 on the main U.S. album chart.

Eye On It was also the first Christian album since 1997 to notch the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 after selling 69,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Released Aug. 28, the first Christian album also debuted at No. 1 on the Christian Albums chart.

Additionally,the album was No. 1 on the digital albums chart, with 35,000 downloads sold—50% of its overall debut, according to Billboard magazine. Sales for TobyMac's fifth studio album (27%) came from Christian bookstores, Nielsen SoundScan said.

TobyMac's chart-topper puts him in the company of country star LeAnn Rimes, whose inspirational record "You Light Up My Life" reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1997, and Bob Carlisle, who notched two weeks on the top spot in the same year with "Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace)."

Eye On It is TobyMac's ninth entry and third top-10 placing on the Billboard Top 200. As part of the trio dc Talk, he claimed five more hit albums on the tally, including the No. 4 album Supernatural (Virgin Records) in 1998, according to Billboard.

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