Lionel Richie outselling Madonna on iTunes and Amazon

At no time would anyone have predicted that there would be a battle for sales supremacy between this week's new releases by Madonna (MDNA) and Lionel Richie (Tuskeegee). After all, Madonna's last studio album, 2008's Hard Candy, opened at number 1 while Richie's last, 2009's Just Go, only made it to number 24.

Still, don't underestimate the rerecording of a number of hits, many of which went to the top of the charts, with a bunch of country stars to stoke your sales. Right now, as this is written, Lionel Richie's Tuskeegee is outselling Madonna's MDNA on both iTunes and Amazon.

Both albums jumped the traditional U.S. release date of Tuesday, being released yesterday, so we are only 24-hours into the week but, if the trend holds (and there are no guarantees that it will), this could be a huge upset.

For the record, the top five albums at iTunes as of 1:45 AM on Tuesday, March 27:

Tuskegee (Deluxe Edition) - Lionel Richie
MDNA (Deluxe Edition) - Madonna
The Hunger Games (Soundtrack) - Various Artists
Amaryllis - Shinedown
21 - Adele

The top five albums at Amazon as of 1:45 AM on Tuesday, March 27:

Tuskegee - Lionel Richie
21 - Adele
MDNA - Madonna
Wrecking Ball (Special Edition) - Bruce Springsteen
The Hunger Games (Soundtrack) - Various Artists