Stores expect Lummis album to fly away

By REBECCA BARRY

Ben Lummis is no longer a single guy. Today the New Zealand Idol goes from the voice behind one local hit to having his name on a whole album.

Already his first single, They Can't Take That Away, has sold 45,000 and topped the charts since its release a month ago.

Also on the album, entitled One Road, will be a cover of Seal's Kiss From A Rose - his showstopper from late in the NZ Idol competition.

Most of the other songs on the 12-track album are from international pop songwriters-for-hire whose credits include Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Jamelia, Atomic Kitten and Westlife.

But one song, It's All Good, is co-written by Lummis.

A pre-release copy revealed the album to be a slick mix of R&B in the Usher vein, slow-jam ballads and a touch of reggae with lyrics casting Lummis as a hopeless romantic.

Record company BMG said One Road had shipped double-platinum, meaning more than 30,000 copies have been sold to retailers.

A representative from The Warehouse in Manukau City, where the singer will make an in-store appearance at 2pm on Saturday, predicted the store would sell at least 400 copies today.

Says Lummis: "I'm still kind of in shock when [manager and former NZ Idol judge] Paul [Ellis] tells me, 'You're number one, Ben, you're still number one'. I don't know what to say. What can you say? Eighteen weeks ago I was just singing in church. But now my whole life has turned around."

BMG is expecting chaos when the singer appears at in-store signings throughout the country this weekend. Last month, more than 2000 fans went to the Sounds Music Store at Botany Town Centre, where Lummis spent more than two hours signing singles, cell phones, teddy bears and T-shirts.

NZ Idol runner-up Michael Murphy, whose album is due out by Christmas, will release his first single immediately after the Idolised tour, which starts at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna on July 1.