Adele attends the television show 2015! Menschen, Bilder, Emotionen - RTL Jahresrueckblick on Dec. 6, 2015 in Cologne, Germany.
Adele's 25 (XL Recordings) comfortably saw off the challenge of Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams (Warner Music) to start a third week atop the U.K. album chart today (Friday). Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" (Def Jam/Universal) started a second week at No. 1 on the singles chart.
New Official Charts Company data shows 25 with a huge third-week sales tally of 354,000, to bring its total U.K. sales to date to a heady 1.593 million. It was the highest total in an album's third week since Take That's The Circus sold 382,000 in its third week in 2008.
Coldplay, for their part, have the highest-selling No. 2 album for five years, moving 236,000 units of their new set. It's their first studio album not to debut at No. 1, but in more cheery news, opening sales far outstripped those of last year's Ghost Stories (168,000) or 2011's Mylo Xyloto (208,000). Their current single "Adventure Of A Lifetime" climbed 15-9 to become their 16th top ten U.K. hit.
Adele's '25' Hits 5 Million in U.S. Sales
Elvis Presley's If I Can Dream (Sony Music CG), with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, fell 2-3, and Bieber's Purpose 3-4. Jess Glynne's I Cry When I Laugh (Atlantic/Warner) held at No. 5. There was one other top 20 arrival, former X Factor contestant Fleur East's Love Sax and Flashbacks (Syco Music/Sony) opening at No. 14. Now That's What I Call Music 92 started a third week at the compilation chart summit.
Bieber once again has the top two tracks of the week, with "Love Yourself" racking up combined chart sales of 114,000 while the song it replaced at the top last week, "Sorry," held at No. 2.
Sigala's "Sweet Lovin'" (Ministry of Sound), featuring Bryn Christopher, was the singles chart's highest new entry at No. 3. It follows tropical house DJ Sigala's No. 1 hit "Easy Love," which is newly certified gold by the BPI for combined sales of 400,000. Adele's "Hello" dipped 3-4 on the new survey and "You Don't Own Me" (RCA/Sony) by Grace featuring G-Eazy held at No. 5.
The swift approach of the holiday season was confirmed, as every year, by the return to the top 20 of both Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (Columbia/Sony), up 35-13, and "Fairytale Of New York" (Warner Bros.) by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl, rising 58-20. Another festive perennial, Wham's "Last Christmas" (RCA/Sony), raced 65-27.