Lewis Capaldi has broken a UK albums chart record with his album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (EMI).
After charting at No.9 on Friday (November 6), Capaldi’s debut logged a 77th consecutive week in the Top 10. It means that the LP has passed the previous record of 76 consecutive weeks for a solo artist set by Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Asylum/Atlantic) in August 2018.
It was a nail-biting finish for Capaldi, who was outside the Top 10 at the beginning of the week. In the end, he posted 6,866 sales, almost 1,100 ahead of the No.11 album by Black Stone Cherry.
EMI MD Clive Cawley said: “77 weeks in the Top 10, who’d have thought that was even possible for an artist these days? To hit that landmark and to topple that Ed Sheeran chap – who’s had a few hits in his day – is an eye-watering achievement. I feel we’re running out of quotes about what an exceptional and unique artist Lewis really is.
“I believe we only have Simon & Garfunkel ahead of us now. But I think we’ll all happily concede to their timeless and incredible legacy and just see how much further we can keep this run going for – as a bit of fun as much as anything. Divinely inspired stuff.”
To hit that landmark and to topple that Ed Sheeran chap – who’s had a few hits in his day – is an eye-watering achievement
Clive Cawley
Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent has already passed a million sales and was the biggest album of the year at the halfway mark. It has sales to date of 1,052,306, according to the Official Charts Company.
However, it has some way to go before it catches Ed Sheeran’s ÷ album, which has sales to date of 3,593,893. Sheeran’s album spent 20 weeks at No.1 compared to 10 for Capaldi so far.
As reported in our charts analysis, only nine other albums can boast a longer Top 10 run, all of them soundtracks save for Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel, which holds the group record with 92 unbroken weeks to its name.
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