Entertainment

Ava Max and Tom Walker among best-selling artists of 2019 so far

The Greatest Showman is the biggest-selling album of the year overall.
The Greatest Showman is the biggest-selling album of the year overall. The Greatest Showman is the biggest-selling album of the year overall.

Ava Max and Tom Walker are among the biggest-selling artists of the year so far in the UK, according to the latest figures.

American pop star Max’s hit song Sweet But Psycho has been named both the best-selling and the most-streamed song of 2019 to date, the Official Charts Company said.

Max’s breakthrough single – which topped the charts in the first three weeks of this year – has a total of 663,000 combined sales, including 78.9 million streams, in the first quarter of the year.

Ava Max
Ava Max Ava Max burst on to the scene with Sweet But Psycho (OfficialCharts.com)

The newcomer has fended off competition from pop heavyweight Ariana Grande, whose previous chart-topper 7 Rings is the second biggest-selling song of the year with 616,000 combined sales.

Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man’s Giant is in third place, Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved – the current number one – is in fourth place overall, and Post Malone’s Wow is the fifth best-selling song of the year so far.

Walker’s record What A Time To Be Alive has been named the best-selling debut album of the year by the Official Charts Company, and sixth biggest-selling album overall.

Released in March, the Scottish singer-songwriter and Brit Award winner fended off competition from other newcomers including Sigrid and Dave to the accolade.

The overall biggest-selling album of the year to date is the official cast recording for The Greatest Showman.

The film soundtrack’s success has spilled over from 2018 into this year, having spent the first five weeks of 2019 at the top of the charts.

The Greatest Showman
The Greatest Showman The Greatest Showman is the overall biggest-selling album of the year to date (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Niko Tavernise)

The Greatest Showman’s combined sales for the year so far stand at 263,000.

It has been at number one for 28 non-consecutive weeks since its release at the end of 2017, and has only been out of the top five once.

Grande’s fifth album Thank U, Next is the year’s second biggest-selling album at the end of the first quarter, with combined sales of 164,000.

Despite not being the biggest-seller overall, the record is the most-streamed of the year with 269 million plays in total.

George Ezra’s Staying At Tamara’s is at number three, the Bohemian Rhapsody film soundtrack by Queen is at number four, and the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, is at number five.