U.K. CHARTS: ELLIE SKATES TO #1 

Ellie Goulding has claimed the final U.K. Official Singles #1 of 2019, and the third of her career, with “River” (Polydor). Over on albums, Rod Stewart remains on top with You’re in My Heart (Rhino).

“River”—a cover of Joni Mitchell’s indelible Christmas song—was released by Amazon Music as part of its Amazon Original series in late November. It rises ten places today to hit the top on 78k combined sales.

The track fended off strong competition from a number of festive hits, including Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (Sony) at #2 and “Last Christmas” (Epic) by Wham! at #3. The latter sets a new streaming record this week, notching up 17.1m plays to claim the biggest week of streams for a song in the U.K. ever. The previous record holder was Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” (Island), which racked up 16.9m plays in a week in January 2019.

“Fairytale of New York” (Rhino) by The Pogues f/Kirsty MacColl is the final Christmas tune in the Top 5 at #4, followed by “Own It” (Merky/Atlantic) by Stormzy f/Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy at #5.

On the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, Rod Stewart has a third week at the top with his collection of classics on 47.5k combined chart sales.

Stewart fended off competition from Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Reprise), which lifts from #8 to #2 — its highest peak in seven years. There’s a big contrast between this week’s Top 2 albums: 96% of Stewart’s sales were physical copies, while 66% of Bublé’s sales came from streaming.

Elsewhere, Robbie Williams’ The Christmas Present (Columbia) rebounds three places to #4, and Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go (Polydor) jumps seven places to #10.