U.K. CHARTS: TAYLOR SCORES FIFTH CHART-TOPPER

Taylor Swift has scored her fifth #1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart with Folklore (Virgin) on 37k sales. Over on singles, “Head & Heart” (Asylum) by Joel Corry and MNEK remains on top for a second week on 76k sales.

With Folklore, Swift joins Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion as the only female artists to score five or more U.K. #1 albums. Streaming represented 67% of Folklore’s week one totals with 33% downloads. It’s the biggest week of album downloads this year, surpassing the opening week of Eminem’s Music To Be Murdered By.

Elsewhere, Ronan Keating’s 11th studio album, Twenty Twenty (Decca) is new at #2 and Welsh pop-punk band Neck Deep debut at #4 with All Distortions Are Intentional (Hopeless).

Three albums rebound into the Top 10: Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (Warner Records) rises five to #8 following its Mercury Prize nomination; Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Legend (Tuff Gong) lifts 11 to #9 following a release on picture disc vinyl; and Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years–Don’t Stop (Warner) climbs five to #10 following the death of founding member Peter Green.

Logic’s No Pressure (UMG) lands at #11, Australian rapper The Kid LAROI enters at #12 with his debut set F**k Love (Columbia) and Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters (Sony) re-enters at #33.

Finally, three One Direction albums return to the Top 40 following the group’s 10-year anniversary celebrations last week: 2012’s Take Me Home (Syco) at #25, 2015’s Made In The A.M re-enters at #37, and 2014’s Four is #40.

On the Official Singles Chart, “Head & Heart” finished the week with 9.1m streams. It was ahead of its closest competition— “Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat)” (RCA) by Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo—by 18,000 chart sales.

This week’s highest new entry, and most downloaded song of the week, comes from British DJ Nathan Dawe as “Lighter” (Atlantic) f/KSI opens at #4. Headie One and Drake’s “Only You Freestyle” (Relentless) climbs four places to #5.

Swift claims three Top 10 tracks this week: “Cardigan” at #6, “Exile” f/Bon Iver at #8 and “The 1” at #10. She is only the sixth female artist to ever have three songs concurrently in the Top 10 following Vera Lynn (1952), Ruby Murray (1955), Rihanna (2010), Ariana Grande (2019) and Dua Lipa (2020).