Drake beats Florence and the Machine to top of the charts

Drake’s new album Scorpion has debuted at the top of the charts, denying Florence and the Machine the number one spot.

In a hard-fought battle for the top of the charts, the Canadian rapper’s latest record shifted 20,000 units in combined sales more than High As Hope, the fourth album by the Florence Welch-fronted band.

Scorpion, Drake’s second UK number one album, had a total of 64,000 in combined sales across digital download and streaming equivalent sales.

According to the Official Charts Company, 78% (50,000) of Scorpion’s sales came from streaming – giving the musician the second biggest ever opening week of streams for an album in UK chart history, behind Ed Sheeran’s Divide.

High As Hope, released on the same day as Scorpion, debuted at number two on the albums chart with just over 40,000 combined sales.

Welch’s group’s previous three records have all topped the charts, although their first record Lungs debuted at number two, before later hitting the top spot.

Previous chart-topper The Greatest Showman soundtrack is down to number three this week, and Georga Ezra’s Staying At Tamara’s is at number four.

The top five is rounded off by the new album from Gorillaz, The Now Now.

Another chart high was scored by the late jazz musician John Coltrane, whose posthumous record Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album has debuted at number 15, giving him his first ever top 20 album.

Official Charts Company CEO Martin Talbot said: “It is quite remarkable that it has taken until 2018 for John Coltrane to register a chart hit album – and says everything about the British public’s love for classic, timeless jazz.”

Drake has also scored another chart success this week as his new track Don’t Matter To Me, a collaboration with the late Michael Jackson, has been named the most-streamed track of the week in the UK and is now number two on the singles chart.

Ezra has scored a second week at number one with his single Shotgun.

Shotgun is also the first ever number one under the Official Singles Chart’s new rules, which came into effect this week and now includes video streams for the first time ever.

Reporting services will now include the newly-launched YouTube Music plus video streams from streaming services Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.

Shotgun has had its strongest performance yet with combined units of 76,000, and was the best-selling track of the week with 18,000 pure sales, the Official Charts Company said.

On audio streaming services it has been played 5.8 million times, and its video has been seen just less than three million times.

Solo by Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato is at number three, while two other tracks from Drake’s album Scorpion – Nonstop and Emotionless – are at number four and number five respectively.

Football anthem Three Lions by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds has rebounded to the top 40 for the first time since the last World Cup in 2014, and is now at number 24 after a surge in streaming from England fans.