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- The Vamps may succeed where Haim, Jay-Z and Calvin Harris have narrowly failed, in ending the 2017 Sheeran album’s fourth run at the top of the charts in the U.K.
- The Vamps may succeed where Haim, Jay-Z and Calvin Harris have narrowly failed, in ending the 2017 Sheeran album’s fourth run at the top of the charts in the U.K.
Ed Sheeran’s domination of the 2017 albums chart is continuing into the second half, even as more challengers try to knock his album ÷ (pronounced “Divide”) off the No. 1 spot. The Vamps may succeed where Haim, Jay-Z and Calvin Harris have narrowly failed, in ending the 2017 Sheeran album’s fourth run at the top of the charts in the U.K.
Still, Sheeran’s ÷ is the runaway winner of 2017 so far, based on the Official Charts Company’s half-year snapshot of physical sales, downloads and streams of albums. At that point, it had a combined total of 2 million copies across all formats in Sheeran’s native U.K., mainly based on physical sales, with almost 1.22 million copies shifted. A further 371,000 people opted for downloads with 415,000 streaming equivalent sales.
Music analysts said the strength of physical sales suggest a demand from people less likely to normally buy music, such as supermarket shoppers or those with less interest in digital. Much the same phenomenon with physical sales was seen with Adele. The Sheeran album, the home of singles such as “Shape Of You” and “Castle On The Hill,” has been at No. 1 for 14 weeks in total, in four consecutive runs from March.
Kasabian, Harry Styles, The Beatles, London Grammar and Royal Blood have all knocked Sheeran off the top and down to No. 2 for a week each with new albums (or re-release in the case of The Beatles) before he has defied predictions that the album’s reign is over by re-emerging in top spot. Events such as Sheeran’s headline acoustic show at the Glastonbury Festival on June 25, televised around the world, helped him to swiftly reclaim the top spot.
Most recently, first Calvin Harris, Haim and Jay-Z had albums with strong first-week sales seen likely at the “midweek” point of hitting the top spot. An increasing number of albums get there for one week on their release, especially for those by artists with strong fan bases, but then fall back fast. In these last few cases, though, Sheeran has held them off, giving him a current run of three straight weeks at the top.
This week, The Vamps’ third studio album Night & Day, on EMI, is currently outselling Sheeran’s, on Asylum, by two to one. If it holds on to the No. 1 placing by the time of the official announcement on Friday July 21, it will be the British pop band’s first chart-topper. It is an ambitiously themed piece planned a double set. The first half, The Night Edition, is out now, with the second half, The Day Edition, penciled in for a December release. Some music executives are already joking that Sheeran will still be there by Christmas with The Vamps pushing for a second time to defeat his juggernaut then.
Sheeran, 26, is currently in joint 71st place (tied with Dolly Parton, no less) in the Forbes list of the World’s Highest-Paid Entertainers 2017. He had a relatively quiet 2016 before his singles broke Spotify records and started selling out arenas on a global tour. His earnings are put at $37 million.
