SALES BATTLE OF THE BRITS

There's currently a margin of 12k combined sales between Lewis Capaldi's Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (Virgin EMI) and Ed Sheeran's No.6 Collaborations Project (Atlantic) in the U.K., which begs the question — who will claim 2019's biggest selling new album in Blighty?

With three months left until the end of the year, and no potential stratospheric releases on the horizon from British artists (unless Adele surprises us all), the title is almost sure to go to one of the two. Which one remains to be seen but you can bet Virgin EMI will be pulling out the stops in an attempt to add that coveted title to Capaldi's growing stable of accolades.

On Friday, he released a Bruises EP with four different versions of the album's track, which will count towards its final sales. In addition, his pimped-out performance for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, alongside a symphony orchestra in Croxteth Park last week, had bumped the album up four places at Monday's halfway point. But Ed Sheeran is Ed Sheeran, and has clocked up his 396k sales in just under two months less than the time it's taken Capaldi to hit 408k, according to Official Chart Company stats.

New releases aside, 2019's biggest selling album overall in the U.K. is 2017's The Greatest Showman ST (Atlantic), which clocks in at 450k sales across the last nine months.

Capaldi has a significant lead on singles with "Someone You Loved," which was released in November last year, taking top spot on 1.9m so far, followed by Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" (Columbia) on 1.5m. Sheeran and Justin Bieber's "I Don't Care" (Atlantic) is third on 1.2m.

Top 5 Biggest Albums of 2019 So Far:

1. "Someone You Loved" Lewis Capaldi (Virgin EMI)
2. "Old Town Road" Lil Nas X (Columbia)
3. "I Don't Care" Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber (Atlantic)
4. "Giant" Calvin Harris & Rag'n'Bone Man (Columbia)
5. "Sweet But Psycho" Ava Max (Atlantic)