Stormzy Takes On Cliff Richard In Fight For UK No 1 Album
Stormzy and Cliff Richard are battling out for this week’s UK Official Number 1 album, according to the Official Charts Company.
Stormzy is leading the way in the midweek chart. The rapper is looking set to score a hat-trick of Number 1 albums with his third studio release This Is What I Mean, having previously reached the summit with 2017 debut Gang Signs & Prayer and 2019’s Heavy Is The Head.
Buy Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean here
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Currently in line for a No 2 entry on the chart, Cliff Richard has returned with his festive collection Christmas With Cliff. His first dedicated Christmas release in 19 years – since 2003’s Cliff At Christmas – the record is on course to become Cliff’s 47th Top 10 solo album, in a recording career that now spans over 60 years.
Cliff’s not the only star with a hit Christmas album, Michael Bublé’s Christmas is on its way up the charts and is currently No 11 in the midweeks.
Elsewhere, David Bowie’s new compilation A Divine Symmetry could provide the late star with a 69th Top 40 album. A four-disc package of rarities and demos, the posthumous compilation chronicles the 12 months running up to the release of Bowie’s 1971 breakthrough LP Hunky Dory.
Meanwhile, Stormzy co-hosted Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show on Monday to mark the release of This Is What I Mean. Speaking about the album, the star reflected, “It felt very refreshing and it felt therapeutic. A lot of artists say that it felt like therapy but it’s never really felt like that for me. I don’t know why but when I’ve heard artists talk about that I’m like ‘Ah that’s interesting’.
“For me, it’s just always been something I do and something I love but it’s never felt like going in and having therapy. And I think this time, it did feel like that, it felt like I had to be really still and be really self-reflective.”