U.K. CHARTS: ATLANTIC SINGLES GOING STEADY

Ed Sheeran has been half-dethroned! While ÷ (Atlantic) is #1 on the Official Albums Chart for its eighth consecutive week, Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson are #1 at singles with “Symphony” (Atlantic). Ben Cook’s Warner U.K. label has now held the top singles spot for 17 out of the 18 chart weeks in 2017.

“Symphony” is Clean Bandit’s third #1 and Larsson’s first. It follows last year’s “Rockabye” which spent nine weeks at #1 on the Official Singles Chart toward the end of last year. Including that, Cook and team had a 22-week run at the top thanks to Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.” The run of success was briefly thwarted by Harry Styles.

For the Atlantic team, order has been restored as Sheeran sits behind Clean Bandit at #2 and #3 this week with “Shape of You” and “Galway Girl.” Styles’ “Sign of the Times” (Columbia) is #4, followed by Drake’s “Passionfruit” (Island) at #5.

One of two new entries in this week’s Top 10 is Jason Derulo, Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign with “Swalla” (Warner Bros.) at #6. Shawn Mendes is the second after rocketing 136 places to #7 with “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” (Virgin EMI).

Over on the Official Albums Chart, despite sitting 4k sales ahead of Sheeran at midweek stage, ‘90s pop group Steps finish 16k sales behind at #2 with self-released comeback album Tears on the Dancefloor. The album was the most downloaded of the week, while Sheeran won thanks to physical sales and streams.

The second highest new entry is Irish singer/songwriter Imelda May at #4 with fifth album Life Love Flesh Blood (Decca). Rag’n’Bone Man stays at #3 with Human (Columbia), followed by Kendrick Lamar and DAMN. (Polydor) at #5.

Texas end at #6 with ninth album Jump on Board (BMG), indie metalcore band While She Sleeps is #8 with You Are We, while Maximo Park are behind with Risk To Exist (Cooking Vinyl) at #11.