Adele Breaks Record for Fastest-Selling Album in U.K. Chart History
On Friday Adele's album 25 (XL Recordings) will become the fastest 2 million-selling album in U.K. chart history.
Adele‘s done it again, this time with lucky number two (million).
On Friday (Dec. 18), her album 25 (XL Recordings) will become the fastest 2 million-selling album in U.K. chart history. The Official Charts company reports that by Thursday evening, 25 had reached 1.97 million sales in the U.K., bolstered by having sold between 46,000 and 61,000 copies a day for the past week. Adele smashed the previous record in just 29 days, which had been held by British pop duo Robson & Jerome, whose debut album in 1995 hit the 2 million mark after 42 days.
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This also marks the fourth straight week that 25 has sat atop the Official Albums Chart. Adele is in royal company there, with the No. 2 slot still filled by Elvis Presley‘s If I Can Dream (Sony Music CG), which features 14 Elvis classics with added orchestral arrangements. The king bumped Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams to No. 3, followed by Justin Bieber’s Purpose holding at No. 4 and Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh rounding out the top five.
Bieber, on the other hand, crushed the Official Singles Chart with his song “Love Yourself,” co-written with Ed Sheeran. The track had 102,000 combined sales in the U.K., and with it the artist beat out his previous single “Sorry,” which still holds at No. 2. Bieber is now the first artist to ever have four consecutive weeks in the top two spots on the Singles Chart, impressively beating out The Beatles who had a three-week reign in 1967/68 with “Hello Goodbye” and “Magical Mystery Tour (EP).”
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Filling in the rest of the top five are Adele’s “Hello” (3), Grace featuring G-Eazy’s “You Don’t Own Me” (4), and Bieber again, with “What Do You Mean” (5).
X Factor winner Louisa Johnson jumped onto the Singles Chart at No. 9 with her winner’s single “Forever Young,” a Bob Dylan cover and the first Dylan song to make the top 10 since Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” hit No. 7 back in 2011.
With one week until Christmas, five holiday songs appeared in the top 40: perennial hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey (12), The Pogues’ and Kirsty MacColl’s “Fairytale Of New York” (15), Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (24), Wizzard’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” (34) and Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone” (35).
