As stated in NME Martin Talbot the Chief Executive at the Official Charts Company, said: “Congratulations to BLACKPINK. Being any kind of chart first is a record which can never be taken away, so for their new album ‘Born Pink’ to become the first UK Official Number One by a K-pop girl group is a fantastic achievement – and puts them in the record books forever!”

The rest of this week’s UK top five includes Suede‘s Autofiction at Number Two, the band’s highest chart position since 1999. The London-based rock group also claimed the best-selling album in UK independent record stores this week,. Then Rina Sawayama‘s Hold The Girl at Number Three, Marcus Mumford‘s (self-titled) (Number Four), and Pink Floyd‘s Animals reissue (Number Five).

The album was accompanied by the release of a vibrant video for the lead single “Shut Down,” which paid homage to some of BLACKPINK’s prior collective and solo releases. There where visual references to their singles “Kill This Love,” “Ice Cream,” “How You Like That,” Rosé’s “Gone,” Lisa’s “Money,” and Jennie’s “Solo”. BLACKPINK also shared two tracks from Born Pink prior to its release – first, “Ready To Love,” which premiered as part of the band’s virtual concert with PUBG. In August, they then returned with their vivacious single “Pink Venom,” which upon release broke Spotify and YouTube records for a K-pop girl group and racked up the views for the biggest music video premiere of 2022 so far. You can view the music video below.

Additionally according to The Korea Times quoting YG Entertainment citing data from Hanteo Chart, (a local market tracker) the album broke the record for the biggest first week sales by a K-pop girl group in history by selling more than 1.54 million copies in the first week of its release. BLACKPINK are also set to embark on a world tor kicking off with a pair of dates in Seoul before heading to North America and Europe which will include two shows at The O2 in London.

Speaking directly to his fans, Capaldi said: “I have been diagnosed with Tourette’s. I wanted to speak about it because I didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something.” He described the situation as “new” and said, “I haven’t really learnt much about it.” He revealed he has had Botox on his shoulder to help stop it from moving and that he is “learning new ways to cope all the time.” When speaking on the diagnosis he went on to say: “When they told me, “We think you’ve got Tourette’s”, I was like, “Do you know what, that makes so much sense”. When I look back at my interviews from 2018 I can see that I’m doing it.”

According to the NHS, Tourette’s syndrome usually starts during childhood and the tics and other symptoms usually improve after several years and sometimes go away completely. Lewis revealed that his tic affects his shoulder. “My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous, or stressed, it is something I am living with. It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said, “It comes and goes. Sometimes I can go months without doing it. I thought I had some horrible degenerative disease so I’ll take Tourette’s.”

Capaldi isn’t the only pop star to reveal a Tourette’s diagnosis in recent months. Billie Eilish opened up about living with the condition during an interview with David Letterman for Netflix. “If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see lots of tics,” she said. “I don’t care. It’s really weird, I haven’t talked about it at all.

Capaldi spoke about his diagnosis following sold-out two nights at London’s O2 Arena. During the show he announced he would be releasing a new single ‘Forget Me’ which is due out on 9th September. He treated fans to a snipped of the new track during his second show in London. Capaldi shot to fame after his single ‘Someone You Loved’ became the best-selling single of 2019 in the UK. In May 2020, the song had become the longest-running top 10 UK single of all time by a British artist. ‘Forget Me’ is Lewis’ first release since his debut album Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent spent 10 weeks at the top of the UK charts.

Absolutely mental. What an achievement Ed. Congrats! @spotify pic.twitter.com/Sber0327ap

— Ed Sheeran HQ (@edsheeran) July 26, 2022

Within the announcement, Spotify also confirmed other artists who have acquired a significant following within the platform. With 91.64 million followers, Ariana Grande has been named the second most followed act. Coming in at third place is “Bad Guy” singer Billie Eilish who has a confirmed 66.18 million Spotify followers. In fourth place is Drake, with.40 million followers; in fifth place is Justin Bieber, with 63.49 followers on Spotify.

This recent announcement is just one of many career highs which Sheeran has obtained since his career took flight. Last month, it was reported by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) that the singer was the UK’s most played act of 2021; the singer was named the most-streamed artist after obtaining 81.20 million monthly listeners. Sheeran has also acquired the title of Most-played single with his commercially successful single “Bad Habits”, the track marked his first single release in over four years and spent multiple weeks as the UK’s number one single. In 2017, Sheeran also won the same double award; the singer obtained the esteemed title of Most-played single for his megahit “Shape Of You”.

The win means that the singer has been awarded two different awards within two different years, an impressive feat achieved by only a few. Fellow British artist Adele is another artist to win multiple titles; in 2011, the singer was named the most played artist and the most played song within the same year. The global popstar acquired the most-played single title for her megahit “Rolling In The Deep”.

Within the compiled data, The PPL also confirmed other artists who have obtained a significant amount of attention. The British music industry organisation proved David Guetta to be 2021’s second most played artist and also confirmed that Dua Lipa had come third, following from second and third are artists Little Mix, Coldplay, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Calvin Harris, Taylor Swift and Pink.

The recently released data also confirmed the UK’s most played singles of 2021. Within the findings, it was confirmed that English singer Tom Grennan held two spots within the list; the artist positioned in second place for his collaboration with Calvin Harris entitled “By Your Side” and also came third for “Little Bit Of Love”. Also included within the top ten are The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”, Little Mix, Galantis and David Guetta’s single “Heartbreak Anthem”, and Coldplay’s “Higher Power”

The UK music industry is no stranger to producing record-breaking artists. Leading the way are chart-dominating artists Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Adele along with heritage artists like Queen and Elton John. Adele alone is the only artist to exceed 1 million album sales last year and her album, 30, sold twice as many copies as any other. But it wasn’t just the super-established that made waves in British music in 2021. This substantial growth was also down to the work of breakthrough acts such as Glass Animals, Rex Orange County and BBC Sound of 2022 winner, PinkPantheress. In fact, Glass Animals song “Heat Waves” was Australia’s No. 1 single of the year

Last year, nearly 400 UK artists accrued over 100 million audio streams worldwide, compared to around 300 artists in 2020. The figures also revealed that there were notable artists who gained over 250 million streams yet did not achieve a UK Top 40 single, proving that despite moderate success in the UK, some of these artists will be extremely established overseas. Such artists included Grammy-nominated Ella Mai, metalcore band Asking Alexandria, and Scottish-American singer Bishop Briggs. Ella Mai’s single “Boo’d Up” hit the top five of  The Billboard Hot 100 and was an R&B No. 1 in the US, but peaked at 52 on the UK chart.

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI, BRIT Awards & Mercury Prize said, “These record-breaking figures once again highlight the extraordinary popularity of British music internationally. This is not just about our much-loved superstars, but new artists and bands from all over the UK who, with their label’s investment and expertise, are able to successfully navigate the competitive streaming landscape.”

The BPI also predict that, if this growth continues, British music exports could rise to £1 billion or more by the end of the decade. However, they do take note of the intensifying global competition and urge the Government to support artists to achieve this growth. “Continued success isn’t guaranteed,” states Taylor, he continues “with sustained support from Government, British music will continue to thrive all around the world.”

Read more here: www.bpi.co.uk

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OfficialCharts.com has reported that the album sold a total of 261,000 chart sales, outselling ABBA’s new album Voyage which sold 204,000 units. Adele’s new album has accumulated 67% of physical sales with 16,700 Vinyl sales making it this week’s highest-selling Vinyl. The album has also enjoyed success within streaming platforms, the album’s 12 tracks have collected an astonishing 55.7 million streams. Due to these large figures, the album is this week’s most-streamed album.

The album has enjoyed the most profitable opening week so far this year, a title previously held by ABBA’s Voyage. Adele’s fourth studio album now holds the record for the biggest first week for an album, a record previously held by Ed Sheeran’s for his 2017 album Divide. Adele’s recent release has also broken her own record for the biggest opening week for a solo female album, the singer previously held this title for her third studio album 25.

The 33-year-old singer has also broken another record for a female artist, the “Easy On Me” singer has now had all four albums chart at number one within the charts. Adele’s entire back catalogue is also within the chart this week, 25 has placed at number fifteen, 21 at number eighteen and 19 has reached number thirty-one.

Adele has also been experiencing triumphant success within the singles charts. Her recent single “Easy on Me” has remained at number one for a sixth consecutive week. The single has now become her most successful single release within the charts, a title previously won with “Someone Like You” which spent 5 weeks at number one. The singer has also spent this week in a three-way contest with herself within the charts. “Easy On Me” won the battle with over 101,000 chart sales and a phenomenal 11.5 million streams. The singer’s other chart contenders also placed within the top five, “Oh My God” placed at number two and “I Drink Wine” placed at number four.

Taking up the rest of the top five is Ed Sheeran, the singer has two tracks positioned within the top of the chart. “Shivers”, the second single to be taken from the 2021 album =, has placed at number three and the previous number-one single “Bad Habits” closes off the list at number five.

.@GlassAnimals‘ “Heat Waves” rises 13-10 on this week’s #Hot100.

It reaches the top 10 in its 42nd week. That’s the longest trip to the top 10 in the chart’s 63-year history.

— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) November 8, 2021

The record was previously held by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood and her Grammy winning single “Before He Cheats”. Underwood took a meagre 38 weeks to climb into the top 10 and peak in 8^th position. 4 Weeks less than Glass Animals journey.

Meanwhile, the bands UK tour began in Glasgow last night. The tour will see them all over the UK with dates in Birmingham, London, Dublin and many others. See the full list of tour dates here.

While announcing the tour, the band also released a new single “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)”. Most of the viral success the band received from “Heat Waves” had clearly evaporated as the new single didn’t break the top 100 in the US or UK. The song has, however, been well received by fans along with it’s video directed by Drew Kirsch who co-directed Taylor Swift’s video for her single “Me”.

Upon releasing the single, frontman, Dave Bayley stated “The new single is intended to provide a musical release from the pressure cooker of a global pandemic”. The band also expressed the sensation of releasing new music during a pandemic as “overwhelming”. Bayley elaborated “That’s what this track is about – that pressure cooker exposing and expanding so many cracks, but struggling to fill them in and decompress”.

The bands slow and steady approach seems to be working well for them too, as “Heat Wave” also managed to land 5^th position in the UK Singles Chart. While not quite as long winded as the climb in the US, it still took 35 consecutive weeks of climbing to finally make it. Dreamland is also, unsurprisingly, Glass Animals’ most commercially successful album debuting at number 2 upon the albums’ release in 2020.