The UK market has been crying out for a bona fide breakthrough star for a long time – and now it’s got one beyond any doubt.
Human, the debut album from Rag’N’Bone Man, has landed straight in at No.1 on the Official UK Album Chart today (Feb 17), with 117,000 equivalent sales across physical, download and streaming.
Not only was 67% of that number made up of physical sales (approx 78k), but according to the Official Charts Company the total tally is enough to make Human the UK’s fastest-selling debut album by a male act for a decade.
Amazingly, that means in just seven days, Human (released via Columbia/Sony Music UK) has sold more than any debut album by a UK artist managed domestically in the whole of 2016.
The UK’s biggest-selling debut British artist album of 2016 was Bradley Walsh’s Chasing Dreams with 111,650 calendar year sales.
After that, the biggest debuts came from Blossoms (74,155 UK sales in 2016), Zayn (65,208) and Jack Garratt (62,954).
(This discounts the first duo album from well-established acts Michael Ball & Alfie Boe, which sold over 511,000 in the UK in 2016.)
Only three debut acts have sold more albums in week one than Rag’N’Bone Man since 2010: One Direction’s Up All Night (139k), Rebecca Ferguson’s Heaven (128k) and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ self-titled release (123k), all released in 2011.
The 117k figure also means Human outsells the rest of this week’s Top 10 combined, giving Rag’N’Bone Man – real name Rory Graham – a bigger opening week than debut albums by the likes of Ed Sheeran (+, 2011) and Sam Smith (In The Lonely Hour 2014).
Human is also the overall fastest-selling album of the past 12 months, since David Bowie’s Blackstar.Music Business Worldwide
