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LONDON – A 2012 release from Scottish singer Emeli Sande and the soundtrack to Universal Pictures’ Les Miserables are the best-selling albums in the U.K. year-to-date.
The Official Charts Company on Tuesday said that as of the end of the third quarter, Sande’s debut album, Our Version of Events, which was already the biggest-selling album of 2012 in Britain, has sold more than 591,000 copies this year. Its total U.K. sales tally now stands at 1.93 million copies.
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The album spent 66 consecutive weeks in the Official Albums Chart top 10, marking the longest unbroken run for a debut album in Britain. The run beat a record previously held by The Beatles’ Please Please Me for nearly 50 years. Our Version of Events has now spent 85 consecutive weeks in the Official Albums Chart top 40.
The soundtrack to Tom Hooper‘s Les Miserables has been sold 437,000 times in the U.K. since its January release.
Bruno Mars‘ 2012 album Unorthodox Jukebox ranks third year-to-date in the U.K. with nearly 400,000 sales, followed by Michael Buble‘s To Be Loved (394,000) and Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (nearly 356,000).
Albums from Rod Stewart, Mumford & Sons and Justin Timberlake also rank among the top 15 releases in Britain this year. Boy bands One Direction and Stereophonics each have two albums in the top 40, according to the data.
“However, with the busiest sales period for music about to begin, [the] top 40 could change significantly before we ring in 2014,” the Official Charts Company said.
Album releases from the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, One Direction, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow are still expected in the U.K. before year’s end.
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
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