Ariana rings up a record-breaking number one
Ariana Grande's icy new single 7 Rings has sold 126,000 copies to enter the charts at number one - setting a new streaming milestone in the process.
The song, which riffs on The Sound of Music's My Favorite Things, was played 16.9m times last week, a chart record. Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You was the previous record-holder, with 15.3m plays in a week last month.
7 Rings is also the first single to sell more than 100,000 copies since the Grenfell charity single in June 2017. Grande's song is a tongue-in-cheek hymn to retail therapy, inspired by a trip to Tiffany's last year, where she bought her friends matching diamond rings.
It came with a lavish video, set in a neon-lit house, where the champagne is flowing and the props are almost entirely pink. On YouTube, the video was watched 23.6 million times in its first 24 hours and has now been played more than 72 million times.
Taken from Grande's forthcoming album thank u, next, 7 Rings sold 126,000 copies last week - almost twice as much as its nearest competitor, Ava Max's Sweet But Psycho. Sam Smith and Normani's Dancing with a Stranger rose one place to three, while Calvin Harris scored his 22nd top five single as Giants jumped from seven to five. In the album charts, The Greatest Showman's soundtrack spent its 28th week at number one, putting it on equal footing with The Beatles' Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Nine releases debuted elsewhere in the albums top 40, with singer-songwriter Dodie's Human EP at number five and Mercury Prize-winner James Blake at six with Assume Form.
