Our Version Of Events leaps ahead of The Beatles' Please Please Me to spend the most consecutive weeks in Top 10 of any debut album.

 

Emeli Sandé’s chart success shows no signs of slowing, as the Scottish singer/songwriter today makes Official Chart history.

 

The Official Charts Company can confirm that Emeli Sandé has smashed The Beatles’ chart record of spending the most consecutive weeks in the UK’s Official Albums Chart Top 10 of any debut album.

 

Our Version Of Events, the debut release from the 2012 BRITs Critics Choice winner which was released in February of last year and went on to become the biggest selling album of 2012, has not dropped out of the Top 10 since its release - that’s a staggering 63 weeks! In doing so, Sandé overtakes British music icons The Beatles who held the record for almost 50 years previously with Please Please Me. The debut album from the Fab Four spent 62 weeks inside the Top 10 between its release in 1963 and 1964.

 

Our Version Of Events has to date sold 1.82 million copies in the UK, spending 10 weeks at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart, and breaking the 100,000 sales in a week tally on three separate occasions. With 429,000 sales racked up already since the new year, the album is leading the way as 2013’s biggest seller also. The album has also enjoyed platinum status in Germany, France, Belgium and Ireland.

 

Emeli is no stranger to the upper echelons of the Official Singles Chart either, appearing on two Number 1 singles (Read All About It with Professor Green, and Beneath Your Beautiful with Labrinth), and having a total of 9 Top 10 singles under her belt.

 

"I’m completely lost for words and this is something I could only have dreamed of," Emeli tells OfficialCharts.com. "The Beatles are the greatest band of all time and their legacy lives on and continues to inspire all of us that make music. I’m so happy that so many people have connected with the stories and the songs on the record, this really is our version of events now. I’d like to say thankyou to everyone that has bought, played or shared my music in the last year, without your support this would never have been possible."

 

Official Charts Company Managing Director, Martin Talbot, comments:

 

“It has been an incredible past 15 months for Emeli Sandé – and to break a record which was set almost 50 years ago by The Beatles is arguably the greatest achievement of all. Across her 63 Top 10 weeks, she has been Top 5 for almost 75% of the time - a remarkable record, by one of the most remarkable new British acts to emerge for many years.”

 

In this new video interview, Emeli takes us on a trip through her career from medical student to getting her first break in music, being nominated as Critics’ Choice at The BRITs, opening (and closing!) the London 2012 Olympic Games, right through to becoming a fully-fledged Official Chart record breaker today!

 

SOURCE: OCC

Fair play to her!

Well that was inevitable sadly! Just hoping she falls short of the 71 weeks '21' had from its debut. Of course she has about half Adele's weeks at #1 and overall sales by this point in their respective runs but it'd be a shame if the figures for top 10 longevity don't reflect '21' as being far bigger :P It only needs 9 more weeks to overtake though and with a pretty dead release schedule I'd be surprised if she doesn't manage it.

Well that was inevitable sadly! Just hoping she falls short of the 71 weeks '21' had from its debut. Of course she has about half Adele's weeks at #1 and overall sales by this point in their respective runs but it'd be a shame if the figures for top 10 longevity don't reflect '21' as being far bigger :P It only needs 9 more weeks to overtake though and with a pretty dead release schedule I'd be surprised if she doesn't manage it.

 

I actually hope she beats Adele in terms of number of weeks in the top10. She won't beat her sales though. I much prefer Emeli's album to Adele's which is completely overrated.

The difference is that Emeli had a re-release which boosted sales, something neither The Beatles or Adele did

No offence to Emeli Sande, but I don't think she really deserves this record - the Beatles and Adele both managed such long streaks in the top 10 based on the album alone, and whether you like Emeli Sande more or not, you have to admit that Our Version Of Events would be long gone from the chart by now if it hadn't been for her performing on practically every major TV event last year - and even a couple of weeks ago when it dropped to number 7 and looked like FINALLY going away, it got conveniently reduced in price and went back up again. Not to mention the fact that it was re-released. I don't know about the Beatles two years after release, but Adele's album is still, even now, at full price, and her success in 2011 was based pretty much on one or two performances alone. (Or certainly not as many!)

 

Now, I'd have nothing against Emeli if her album had performed as well as it has on the quality of the music alone, but considering how much she's been shoved down our throats in the last year, she's getting incredibly annoying now and I hope she goes away ASAP. If this stays in the top 10 for another 10 weeks or so and beats Adele's streak, I personally think it will be a massive injustice. Don't think that'll happen though, the fact that it's now back up to £8.99 on iTunes and falling again says to me that short of another performance, there's not much they can do to keep it going much longer.

 

Sorry for the long comment, I feel the need to rant about this after getting tired of her about 8 months ago! :lol:

Just because Emeli Sande promoted the album, it doesn't mean it "doesn't count" or "isn't deserved". :P I can understand the issue about it being re-released whilst 21 and Please Please Me not being so, but looking at it's chart run, I think it would have remained Top 10 this long regardless.

Much like the Calvin record, it's not that it 'doesn't count', it's just not as impressive as it sounds because of the way she went about achieving it compared to The Beatles/Adele.

I can't vouch for the price of the Beatles album in the summer of 1964, though I'd imagine that it was still full price (which was of course much more in real terms than an album costs nowadays). But I can tell you the Beatles hardly had a day off in 1963-4; even when they weren't on tour they were recording or appearing on TV or radio. They actually had their own series on the radio, which was probably the more important medium in the early sixties, especially to a younger audience. People just didn't make as much of a fuss about it because that was how the music business worked in those days. You just couldn't wait three years between the first and second albums. Also, the Beatles had to sell a lot less to stay T10 at 1963 sales levels - I know nobody really knows what the Beatles albums sold, but I've never seen anyone suggest Please Please Me has sold much more in 50 years than Our Version Of Events has in less than two.

 

And to be honest, I've opened too many newspapers where "Rihanna leans over balcony" or "Harry Styles arrives at airport" are considered news stories to get really het up at Emeli Sandé getting publicity for actually doing her job.

 

Sorry, turned your rant into one of my own there.

Edited April 28, 201312 yr by The Hit Parade

Also, there was much less competition in the 60s. Now there are several top ten debuts each week. 63 weeks (or 21's 71 weeks) is nothing but impressive, no matter how you look at it.

I suppose in some ways though 'Clown' propped the album up well into this year, which was actually from the original edition of the album itself.

Can she just leave already?

Fair play to her, she has achieved huge success, while i admit im getting tired of her at the moment there is no denying her success and also we cant fault her for promoting where she could, how often have we complained about various artists having flops due to poor promotion etc, emeli got the opportunities and took them so i cant fault her for that. Additionally she has promoted the album on the songs and hasnt as someone mentioned promoted it from dating, stripping getting drunk at parties etc.

Have to concur with the people saying it's not really that impressive as it sounds, she's just been EXTREMELY lucky getting some big promotions at exactly the right time -- for example, it was on the verge of leaving the Top 10 last summer (even in a dead sales period) before the Olympics happened, then it was again on the verge of leaving before Xmas before she got the X Factor and Sports Personality of the Year gigs, and then AGAIN it was down to #9 in the midweeks just a couple of weeks ago before the price cut. Not to mention the never-ending stream of singles.

 

Whereas with '21', all promotion for the album stopped in September 2011 (partly because Adele was obviously unable, but also the label themselves seemed to stop trying, only giving the most half-hearted of pushes to 'Rumour Has It' if that can even count as a single), yet it still sold enough to stay in the Top 10 for months afterwards purely because of its reputation as a great album.

Edited April 28, 201312 yr by Danny

Big wow, she's been in the top 10 forever. Doesn't mean the album isn't still crap.

I can't vouch for the price of the Beatles album in the summer of 1964, though I'd imagine that it was still full price (which was of course much more in real terms than an album costs nowadays). But I can tell you the Beatles hardly had a day off in 1963-4; even when they weren't on tour they were recording or appearing on TV or radio. They actually had their own series on the radio, which was probably the more important medium in the early sixties, especially to a younger audience. People just didn't make as much of a fuss about it because that was how the music business worked in those days. You just couldn't wait three years between the first and second albums. Also, the Beatles had to sell a lot less to stay T10 at 1963 sales levels - I know nobody really knows what the Beatles albums sold, but I've never seen anyone suggest Please Please Me has sold much more in 50 years than Our Version Of Events has in less than two.

 

And to be honest, I've opened too many newspapers where "Rihanna leans over balcony" or "Harry Styles arrives at airport" are considered news stories to get really het up at Emeli Sandé getting publicity for actually doing her job.

 

Sorry, turned your rant into one of my own there.

Very good point!

Are you really counting all those appearances?

 

Promotion has always helped. And why didn't Spice Girls' GH stormed to #1 after their well promoted comeback at the Olympics instead?

Edited April 28, 201312 yr by SKOB

Are you really counting all those appearances?

 

Promotion has always helped. And why didn't Spice Girls' GH stormed to #1 after their well promoted comeback at the Olympics instead?

 

Because no-one likes the Spice Girls' music anymore. That's a completely different story however :lol:

 

I agree that it's not as simple as promotion/publicity = guaranteed best-seller (after all, Tulisa would've had one of the biggest-selling albums of last year if that was always the case), it is very true that an artist who gets all the promotion in the world still wouldn't sell anything unless people who heard their stuff actually liked it. But still, it's hard to get away from the fact that, before the Olympics and all her other huge opportunities came along, the album's sales were far from spectacular....at one stage, it was being outsold by both Lana Del Rey and 21's second-year sales.

Well yes, but there is also the rolling stone effect.. once you get things going they'll keep going for a while.

 

See also: Jessie J

Edited April 28, 201312 yr by SKOB

Because no-one likes the Spice Girls' music anymore. That's a completely different story however :lol:

 

Despite the fact that they still have a massive fanbase...