Entertainment

Michael Buble leads close race for number one with new album Love

Mumford & Sons and Little Mix follow behind with only 6,033 combined sales separating the three albums.
Mumford & Sons and Little Mix follow behind with only 6,033 combined sales separating the three albums. Mumford & Sons and Little Mix follow behind with only 6,033 combined sales separating the three albums.

Michael Buble faces tough competition from Mumford & Sons as his tenth studio album, Love, enters the UK albums chart at number one.

Following close behind the Canadian crooner are the folk rock four-piece, whose fourth album, Delta, enters in second place.

LM5, the fifth album by British pop group Little Mix, sits in third position.

Only 6,033 combined sales separate the three albums, according to the Official Charts Company’s early week report.

If Buble, recently returned from a two-year hiatus following the diagnosis of his son with cancer, holds his position it will be his fourth number one album in the UK.

Newly reformed, Boyzone’s seventh and final studio album Thank You & Goodnight enters in fourth position and could give the group their highest charting album since 2010’s Brother.

The Beautiful South’s frontman Paul Heaton’s solo effort, The Last King Of Pop, enters at number six.

Over on the UK singles chart, Ariana Grande is all but guaranteed a third week at number one with her track Thank U, Next. The track leads by around 10,000 units, according to data from the Official Charts Company.

It would be the American pop star’s third week at number one and the first time Grande has scored such a run. Last week the track earned Grande the biggest weekly UK streaming figures for any track so far this year, with 9.76 million plays.

Notably absent from the singles chart is Cheryl, whose comeback single Love Made Me Do It languishes at 45 after entering at 19 last week.

Last night the former Girls Aloud singer performed the track on the X Factor in a raunchy routine that saw her licking her hand and writhing around in a tight black bodysuit.

Media watchdog Ofcom said today that it had received 15 complaints objecting to the sexual tone of the routine.

In second place on the UK singles chart is Woman Like Me featuring Nicki Minaj by British pop group Little Mix and in third is Shallow from the soundtrack to A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.