Billboard: Ed Sheeran Lands First No. 1 Album With 'X'
It's a win for Ed Sheeran! The UK singer/songwriter has scored his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as X (pronounced "multiply") has sold 210,000 sold in its first week. This second studio effort from Sheeran has given him his biggest sales week ever, and has become the largest debut for a pop album this year, in addition to being the fourth-biggest opening overall in 2014.
The honors don't end there, either. Sheeran has earned the largest sales week for a British male artist in close to 10 years, eclipsed only by Rod Stewart's Stardust … The Great American Songbook Vol. III, which debuted at No. 1 with 240,000 sold in October 2004. Sheeran's sales have eclipsed the No. 5 debut of his first album, +. That album debuted to 42,000 records sold in its first week, although it has since gone on to sell 841,000 copies total.
But Sheeran isn't the only one celebrating. In fact, it was a pretty good week all-around for British artists.
Sam Smith holds at No. 2 with In the Lonely Hour, which sold 67,000 copies. Although this is a drop of about 60 percent, the album has already sold 233,000 copies in two weeks
However, the news wasn't nearly as good for Lana Del Rey. Although the chanteuse landed her first No. 1 album last week with Ultraviolence, she's fallen to No. 4 this week with just 44,000 copies sold, a staggering 76% drop. It's a record that started out big, but seemingly lacked staying power. But then, not many albums have the staying power of, say, the Frozen soundtrack, which is this week's No. 5 album. The Disney soundtrack has now reached its 28th straight week in the top 5, selling 38,000 copies. Could it be due to the recent news that Once Upon A Time has cast Anna and Kristoff, along with Queen Elsa, in its latest season? Probably not since, again, the album has been in the Top 5 for the past 27 weeks and all. But it's kind of crazy to think that Frozen still has such a hold on the public imagination this far from its release.
Check out the full Billboard Top 10 for this week below via Billboard:
1. Ed Sheeran, X (210,000 copies sold)
2. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour (67,000 copies sold)
3. G-Eazy, These Things Happen (46,000 copies sold)
4. Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence (44,000 copies sold)
5. Various Artists, Frozen Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (38,000 copies sold)
6. Mastodon, Once More 'Round the Sun (34,000 copies sold)
7. Phish, Fuego (32,000 copies sold)
8. Miranda Lambert, Platinum (29,000 copies sold)
9. Linkin Park, The Hunting Party (29,000 copies sold)
10. Various Artists, Now That's What I Call Music! 50 (22,000 copies sold)