Shania Twain wins fiercely fought battle against Wolf Alice to claim her first Number 1 in 18 years on the Official Albums Chart
After a hotly contested week-long tussle, it’s Shania Twain who wins this week’s battle for Number 1 over Wolf Alice on the Official Albums Chart.
Despite the North London band leading the way on Monday’s Official Chart Update, country-pop superstar Shania has pipped them to the post with her new album, Now, finishing ahead by 764 combined sales.
Earlier this week, Wolf Alice’s drummer Joel Amey urged fans to buy their latest record, Visions Of A Life, saying he was “proud” of what they’d made and recalled a story in which he was forced to line dance to Shania’s 1999 hit Man! I Feel Like A Woman, comparing the memory to Stephen King’s horror novel/film It.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later weighed in on the battle, pledging his support for Wolf Alice, while Niall Horan was backing Shania, describing the singer as his “favourite person in the world”.
Now becomes Shania’s second Number 1 album in the UK, 18 years after she last hit the top spot with Come On Over in 1999. That album went on to become one of the UK’s biggest selling records of all time, with 3.4 million pure sales to date. The star will be returning to the UK for the first time in 13 years next September for a string of UK arena shows – tickets are on sale now.
MORE: The UK's Official Top 40 biggest singles of 2017 so far
Now is the second Number 1 album by a female artist released this year in the UK, after Lana Del Rey’s Lust For Life debuted at the top back in August.
Meanwhile, Wolf Alice’s Visions Of A Life settles for second place and becomes their second album to debut at Number 2.
New entries and high climbers
Two more albums make strong debuts this week; David Gilmour earns his fourth Top 10 with Live At Pompeii, which debuts at 3, followed by Demi Lovato's latest collection Tell Me You Love Me at Number 5 - a personal Official Albums Chart best for the singer.
INTERVIEW: Demi Lovato talks new album and how she almost quit music for good
Elsewhere in the Top 10, Miley Cyrus notches up her fourth Top 10 album with Younger Now at 8, the new Halloween-themed Michael Jackson album Scream lands at 9, and Feeder's The Best Of retrospective debuts at Number 10.
Just outside the Top 10, Road Songs For Lovers by singer-songwriter Chris Rea is new at 11, ABBA legend Benny Andersson opens at 12 with his latest solo album Piano, and after Tom Petty’s untimely death this week, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits re-enters at 14 – a new peak for the collection that previously topped out at 18.
MORE: Look back over every Official UK Number 1 album ever
Further down, a new David Bowie collection titled A New Career In A New Town 1977 - 1982 is at 19, Manchester duo Hurts land at 21 with their fourth collection Desire, and Jamie Lawson's second album Happy Accidents enters at 23.
Finally, the cast recording of new play Girl From The North Country (28), Black To Blues by US rock group Blackstone Cherry (29), Disstracktions rapper/YouTuber KSI (31), and Time by Sheffield alt-rockers Milburn (33) all earn a place in this week’s Official Albums Chart Top 40.
View this week's Top 100 Official Albums Chart in full
Article image: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Remind yourself of every Official UK Number 1 album of 2017 below:
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etin
congrats shania.. very solid album
NR
Neil Randall
EMI that grand old lady of the music companys very happy I'm sure! The Killers last week and Shania this! Plus The Beatles Sgt Pepper 50th reissue earlier in the year!
A
Alfred
Actually #14 is not a new peak for "Greatest Hits" by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. It peaked at #10 on 7 November 1993: see http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/19931107/7502/ (the database seems to be mixed with the Doris Day Album of the same name, this is why it shows a wrong peak position in the summary...)
kIsS tHe PaNdA
Hilarious, Wolf Alice really thought they had this one in the bag. I bet people requested refunds when they heard Corbyn liked them, oops.
DG
Dan Gerous
Wolf Alice debuting at Number 2 is impressive when up against an International artist who has been on the music scene for over 20 years. And with a 'comeback' album too. And Shania is on a major label! Less than 800 copies separate Number 1 and Number 2 this week. A couple of weeks ago when Foo Fighters debuted at No.1 it outsold Number 2 four to one!
JR
James Robison
You can't expect an artist who has been gone from music for 15 years to come back and completely outsell everyone by a merry mile within a week. The music landscape has changed so significantly since 2002, it is nowhere near the same. The fact she has landed a number one album in Australia, Canada and the UK is astounding. You wouldn't believe the public would be that interested in Shania after almost 20 years of being absent. Regardless of the 700+ sales it topped Wolf Alice's album by - for it's only the second female album of the year to be Number 1 after Lana Del Ray. That doesn't happen for no reason. A band like the Killers are a band - their appeal is much wider. Shania's appeal may be wide based on her previous sales but after 15 years - you wouldn't have believed it would have done platinum in Canada within 5 days. Give Shania some credit. She is a legend returning when all the legends are on their way out.
CM
Cheyanne Moore
I think she also went number 1 in the USA, too. Your points about the music industry changing so much are right on, its been 15 years!
Z
Zak
Anyone know how many units Demi did? Sales/streams ratio? Wish OCC would show units. Her album is excellent, wish it did better but I guess it still did decently. Also happy Shania beat that pretentious indie band