BRITs 2014 stars see hefty sales uplift overnight

BRIT Awards 2014 winners and performers see massive sales uplift overnight following last night’s live show.

Double-BRITs winners Arctic Monkeys, Disclosure, Bastille and Rudimental are among the biggest sales winners so far from The BRIT Awards 2014. All four acts saw their album sales double overnight following the show, according to latest Official Charts Company data.

Today’s Official Charts sales flash only counts up to midnight last night, a mere two hours after Pharrell and Chic’s Nile Rodgers closed the show on ITV, but even in that short time, the British public once again voted with their wallets, snapping up music of this year’s cast of winners and performers to deliver considerable sales boosts for the showcased artists. Albums by Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and Daft Punk also saw increases in only a couple of hours of post-Awards sales.

Bastille could now be a serious contender to snatch the Number 1 slot on the Official Albums Chart this Sunday if current momentum continues into the weekend. Following their performance and win for British Breakthrough on Wednesday night, their album Bad Blood has leapt to Number 2 with a sales increase of 132%, trailing current frontrunner Nina Nesbitt by a mere 600 sales. Their Number 2 hit Pompeii is also enjoying a revival thanks to their mash-up performance of the track with Rudimental’s winning Best Single Waiting All Night. Pompeii has leapt 29 places back into the Official Singles Chart Top 40 to land at Number 32 today, while Waiting All Night zooms back up 52 places.

Best British Single winners Rudimental look set to bounce back into the Top 10, with debut album Home, with sales surging 130% overnight.

“The BRITs is one of the biggest music talking points of the year – and is again proving its power in influencing sales too,” says Official Charts Company Managing Director Martin Talbot. “It is great that so many excellent new British acts are seeing the benefit this year. Double congratulations to Arctic Monkeys, Disclosure and Basti-mental!”

Best British Female Ellie Goulding could be in with a shot at the top spot too – former chart-topping album Halcyon is just 1000 copies off Number 1, thanks to Ellie’s stellar performance of I Need Your Love and Burn at the show at London's O2.

Thanks to Beyoncé's glittering performance of XO, sales of the track have increased by 96%. On the album front, it's 2008's I Am…Sasha Fierce that has seen the biggest uplift, gaining by 67%. Her latest album, Beyoncé, also gets a boost – its sales are up by 48%

Mastercard British Album of the Year AM, from Arctic Monkeys, has seen an 115% increase in sales since the Sheffield lads lifted two statuettes after opening the show with a fiery performance. It's back in the Top 10 according to latest sales data, landing at Number 6.

The biggest surge of the night – and one of the most memorable performances – came from Album of the Year nominees Disclosure. Brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence saw sales of debut album Settle increase by 138% overnight, enough to take them back up to Number 8, a leap of 24 places, while their former single White Noise FT AlunaGeorge rocketed up 81 places enjoying a sales boost of 213% . The BRIT Awards 2014 compilation album also saw a 60% sales rise after the show.

Best British Male winner David Bowie saw a 107% increase in sales for latest album The Next Day, and a 58% boost to The Best Of Bowie hits collection, despite not attending the Awards in person, though neither releases have re-entered the Top 100 at this stage.

When it comes to individual tracks, 2014’s Critics’ Choice champ Sam Smith was the big winner. Sales of his ballad Lay Me Down rose by a whopping 471% to enter the Official Singles Chart at Number 49, and the Best British Single-nominated La La La by Naughty Boy featuring Sam’s vocals also claimed a 127% increase in downloads overnight. In Wednesday’s Official Chart Update, Sam’s debut solo single Money On My Mind was at Number 1 – following the show, he has cemented his lead. His nearest rival, show-closer Pharrell Williams’ Happy, itself enjoying a sales boost of 48%, is over 30,000 copies behind.

And finally, International Male Winner Bruno Mars saw sales of his track Treasure, which he performed live at the show, shoot up by 227%, leaping 87 chart places, according to latest sales data.

The Official Top 10 Brit Awards 2013 Sales Winners so far are as follows:

© 2014 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

The table above shows the increase on sales from Wednesday’s sales flash (counting sales from Sunday to Tuesday inclusive) to Thursday’s sales flash (counting sales from Sunday to Wednesday inclusive).