The market for singing teen girls keeps getting more crowded. Which means increasing competition for the same dollar.

Can you say catfight?

These days, we don't have just the familiar battle of Britney vs. Christina. We've also got Jessica (Simpson) vs. Mandy (Moore), with newcomer Willa (Ford) waiting to square off against the victor.

Meanwhile, in the teen-girl-group division, there's 3LW vs. Dream vs. Eden's Crush in an all-out, hair-pulling free-for-all.

So who's winning these bouts as of now?

It looks as if Jessica has Mandy bruised and beaten. First, Simpson's "Irresistible" album got off to a faster start — debuting at No. 6 to Moore's No. 35. Now, after nearly two months out, Moore's sales stand at a weak 140,000 to Simpson's burlier 415,000.

This rematch is following the script of their contest last year in which Simpson's debut album, "Sweet Kisses," moved 1.6 million, wiping the floor with Moore's "I Wanna Be With You," which sold fewer than half that (728,000). Just goes to show, it doesn't pay to play the nice girl (Moore's persona). After only seven weeks out, in fact, Moore's self-titled latest has been beaten down to No. 118 on Billboard's Top 200.

Meanwhile, the rookie on this scratch-'n'-bite circuit — Willa Ford — opened at a featherweight No. 56 three weeks ago with her debut, "Willa Was Here." This week, it dips to 101, despite a top 10 single with "I Wanna Be Bad." In other words, playing bad girl won't help much either, if the full album doesn't deliver.

As for the teen girl-group smackdown: 3LW (short for Three Little Women) and Dream (Puff Daddy's white-babe act) seem to be dead-even in their battle. The former has sold 1.1 million copies of its debut, the latter 1.3 million. Dream's album has an advantage here — it's been on the market longer — which evens the playing field even more.

Both acts are giving a good pounding to the TV-created insta-girl-group Eden's Crush. The distaff answer to O-Town has sold just 313,000 copies of its debut, "Popstars," since its release 14 weeks ago. At least the foursome's single, "Get Over Yourself," has moved 525,000 platters, but that downgrades them to the weakest weight class: one-hit wonders.

If Eden got crushed in the women's division, one man with heavyweight teen-appeal looks to be headed for the ropes as well. Tyrese, the male model turned singer, has seen his sophomore album plunge to No. 115 after 11 weeks. "2000 Watts" has managed to sell 382,000 copies in that span. But it lacks the momentum to come close to the numbers moved by his 1999 debut, which topped 1.2 million. Maybe Tyrese should adjust his album's title from "2000 Watts" to "500" or so.






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