26 November 2021
Newsdesk
Adele reigns supreme this week on the Official Chart as 30 making a record-breaking debut at Number 1.
With first-week chart sales totalling 261,000, 30 scores the biggest opening week of 2021 so far, overtaking ABBA’s Voyage (204,000). It’s also the biggest first-week for an album since Ed Sheeran’s Divide in 2017, as well as the biggest opener for a female solo album since Adele’s last album, 25, in 2015.
30 comes out on top with 67% physical sales and is this week’s biggest seller on vinyl, with 16,700 copies sold on wax. 30 is also the most-streamed album of the week with a staggering 55.7 million plays across its 12 tracks.
It becomes Adele’s fourth UK Number 1 album; she has now reached Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart with all of her studio albums, a record for a female act. All of Adele’s previous albums are also present in the chart this week; 25 (Number 15), 21 (Number 18) and 19 (Number 31).
Adele also lands the rare Official Chart Double as Easy On Me claims a sixth consecutive week at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart. The track is now Adele's longest-running Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, outstripping Someone Like You (5 weeks).
The singer spent the week in a three-way chart battle with herself. Nevertheless, with over 101,000 chart sales and 11.5 million streams, Easy On Me beat out two other tracks from 30, Oh My God, which claims the week’s highest new entry at Number 2, and I Drink Wine, which finds itself at Number 4.
Elsewhere on this week’s Official Albums Chart, Oasis are a new entry at Number 4 with the live recording of their Knebworth 1996 gig. Their first UK Top 10 album in 11 years, the band’s greatest hits Time Flies 1994-2009 also re-enters the Top 40 at Number 36.
Further new entries in the Top 10 come courtesy of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with their second collaboration album Raise The Roof (5), London rap collective D-Block Europe with mixtape Home Alone 2 (6) and Elbow’s Flying Dream 1 (7). James Blunt’s greatest hits collection The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021) also debuts at Number 9 - catch up on James discussing the album on this week’s episode of our livestream series The Record Club in association with Bowers & Wilkins here.
Outside the Top 10, there are further new entries from Bruce Springsteen with live album The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts at Number 11, while Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra debut at Number 12 with Happy Together. Meanwhile, glam rockers The Darkness are at Number 16 with Motorheart.
And we can officially say it’s Christmas time! Michael Bublé’s Christmas is this week’s biggest gainer on the Official Albums Chart, rising 39 places to Number 17. It follows the similar rise of Christmas classics from Mariah Carey and Wham! over on the Official Singles Chart as the most wonderful time of the year creeps closer.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s classical take on Motown - A Symphony of Soul debuts at Number 21 - their highest charting placement as a solo entity since 2004. Sting also earns his 21st UK Top 40 album with The Bridge at Number 27, and finally, U2’s ninth album Achtung Baby re-enters the Top 40 at Number 34 thanks to a 30th-anniversary boxset release. It previously peaked at Number 2 in 1991.
