The biggest selling UK debut album of 2016 is the final nail in the coffin of music
Even BRIT Award winner Jack Garratt couldn't top it
There’s been a lot of talk about this being a tough time for the UK music industry. But we didn’t realise things had got this bad.
It has been revealed that the biggest-selling debut album by a UK artist last year was from… Bradley Walsh. Yes, that’s right, the 56-year-old light entertainer, soap actor, former Brentford professional footballer and host of The Chase, is officially the hottest new act in UK music right now.
As revealed by Music Business Worldwide using Official Charts Company data, his album Chasing Dreams – comprising covers of his favourite songs, with a host of the usual swing-when-you’re-winning suspects That’s Life, Fly Me To The Moon and Mr Bojangles – sold 111,650 copies last year, despite only being released in October.
In the process, he outsold debut efforts from every other hotly-tipped new act that emerged in 2016, including Blossoms (their self-titled debut shifted 74,155), former One Direction star Zayn (his Mind Of Mine sold 65,208) and BRIT Critics’ Choice winner Jack Garratt (Phase sold just 62,954 copies).
Not only this, it outsold albums by the likes of Biffy Clyro, Tom Odell and the Mercury Prize winner Skepta.
In turn, every single one of the albums above were also outsold by Pointless host Alexander Armstrong’s Upon a Different Shore and Rick Astley’s comeback album 50, who scored the 35th and 18th biggest-selling albums of 2016 respectively. Not one debut album made it into the top 40 sellers of the year.
So, A&R people: stop bothering with going to gigs to find new artists, and just put your feet up and watch the telly instead.
And new artists, where the hell are you all? We need someone exciting to save us from Emeli Sandé.
[via Music Business Worldwide]
(Image: Rex)
