22 September 2017
Newsdesk
New data from the Official Charts Company released jointly with UK labels body the BPI shows that combined sales and streams of Sampha's Process rose by 517 per cent in the chart week following the South London singer/songwriter’s acclaimed Hyundai Mercury Prize win.
Demand for the album saw it shoot up spectacularly from Number 152 last week to Number 7 on this week’s Official Album Chart – matching its highest position when it was released in February earlier this year. This is the first time that a Mercury Prize-winning album has entered or re-entered the Official Albums Chart top-10 having been outside the Top 100 the week before.
The album benefitted from a 458 per cent surge in streams, with physical (CD/vinyl) and digital purchases growing by an equally impressive 540 per cent. The song Sampha performed at the Mercury Prize Awards Show, (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano, also enjoyed a large increase in demand, being streamed over 342,000 times – a rise of 265 per cent on the previous chart week.
Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI, said:
“The Mercury Prize has a rich heritage in introducing new artists and their work to a much wider audience of music fans, and 2017 is no exception. All the shortlisted artists will have received a boost in sales or profile, although as the Prize winner Sampha is seeing by far the biggest increase – propelling him towards the upper reaches of the Official Albums Chart and underlining his emergence as an exciting new British talent.
“The live performances by all the shortlisted artists on the night were spectacular, and we’d encourage any fan who missed them first time around to catch them on BBC iPlayer.”
Other shortlisted albums enjoying a sales increase in the week since the awards ceremony include Kate Tempest's Let Them Eat Chaos (+59%), Glass Animals' How To Be A Human Being (+35%), Loyle Carner’s Yesterday’s Gone (+30%), The xx’s I See You (+23%) and The Big Moon's Love In The 4th Dimension (+19%).
The Mercury Prize is known for giving new acts in particular a significant boost in profile and this year was no different, with seven debuts among the 12 shortlisted Albums of the Year. Jazz quartet Dinosaur's Together, As One was one of those debut albums, and the Mercury Prize had seismic effect on its sales – in the nine weeks following its shortlisting it sold 29 times the amount it had done in the nine weeks prior.
Official Singles Chart: Sam Smith earns second week at singles top spot
He's Too Good at Goodbyes but even better at holding on to the top spot – Sam Smith lands a second week at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart.
Too Good at Goodbyes is Sam's sixth chart-topper in the UK, and debuted at the summit last week, kicking off the London star's comeback campaign for his imminent second album.
Dua Lipa's New Rules is at 2, Pink goes back up one to 3 with What About Us, and Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do slides a place to 4.
American rappers Post Malone and 21 Savage are this week's highest new entry with Rockstar, going straight in at Number 5. The feat marks the US rapper’s first UK Top 10.
Camila Cabello and Young Thug's Havana enjoys a new chart peak, rising three places to Number 7, while Avicii and Rita Ora's collaboration Lonely Together makes the biggest gain this week. It zooms 11 slots to Number 10, giving the Swedish DJ/producer his ninth Top 10 in the UK and first in over two years, when Waiting For Love peaked at 6 in summer 2015. It's a 10th Top 10 for Rita.
Stefflon Don and French Montana's Hurtin' Me hits a new high, climbing eight slots to 20, and Niall Horan scores his third solo Top 40 since Once Direction went on hiatus, with Too Much To Ask going in at 24
Craig David lands a 21st Top 40, as Heartline is new at 35, and American rapper XXXTentacion scores his first ever Top 40 single in the UK, with Jocelyn Flores making a croblimb to Number 39.
