Jessica Simpson's Album A Public Affair Marks Highest Chart Debut and Opening Sales of Singer's Career

NEW YORK, NY (Epic Records) - Superstar JESSICA SIMPSON's fifth album A Public Affair made its debut at the top of the Billboard chart at No 5 with sales over 100K, marking the singer's highest chart debut and biggest opening week sales of her music career. (Her previous album In This Skin debuted at No 10 with 64K in sales) Remarkably, this musical career high was achieved in spite of a vocal chord injury which stunted many of the artist's singing appearances during the week of album release. Current plans to sing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on September 7th and the Ellen DeGeneres show on September 11th are still in tact.

Jessica Simpson's newest single "I Belong to Me" -which was originally a special track for retailer Wal-Mart - was voted a favorite by her fans and will now appear on all versions of A Public Affair. Jessica will shoot the video for this new single in Los Angeles this month. Meanwhile, her first single, the exuberant "A Public Affair" is No 5 with a bullet on the Billboard Club/Dance chart. Upon its release, the video fast became an MTV TRL chart topper and No 1 on the Yahoo! video chart. The clip was directed by Brett Ratner and features guest stars Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Andy Dick and Ryan Seacrest. Fans can also go www.JessicaSimpson.com to purchase a personalized version of "A Public Affair" with their name in the song.

Simpson started her multi-platinum musical career in 1999 with her major label debut, Sweet Kisses which spawned the smash single, "I Wanna Love You Forever." Two years later she followed up with Irresistible. By her third album in 2003, Simpson showcased her maturity with the triple platinum In This Skin which spawned hits like "With You" and the reworked Berlin track, "Take My Breath Away." Her last effort in 2004 was Rejoice: A Christmas Album, showcasing cherished holiday favorites.
Jessica Simpson stars in the movie Employee of the Month opening on October 6th in theaters everywhere.
www.jessicasimpson.com