Rachel Platten tops the UK singles chart for the first time

Singer-songwriter Rachel Platten has scored her first ever UK No 1, topping the official singles chart with the track Fight Song. The power ballad first entered the top 100 at No 68 last week, and climbed 67 places this week, following her success in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Belgium.

“I feel so excited and so proud that Fight Song has hit No 1 on the official singles chart, I can’t really believe it,” Platten told Official Charts. “It’s amazing to me that this song that I wrote when I was going through one of the hardest times in my life is also the thing that made my dreams come true. I’m just kind of overwhelmed and really grateful.”

The singer, who joined Taylor Swift on stage in June during her 1989 tour, finished nearly 3,000 combined chart sales ahead of today’s No 2, Felix Jaehn’s Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better) ft Jasmine Thompson.

Jess Glynne, this week’s album chart No 1, drops to No 3 in the singles charts. Her song Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself is followed by Calvin Harris & Disciples’ How Deep Is Your Love. Harris’s single is the most streamed track for the third week running, racking up 2.44m listens in the last seven days. The top 5 is completed by Charlie Puth’s Marvin Gaye ft Meghan Trainor.

Back to the album charts: Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh scored combined sales of just under 60,000. She has the second biggest opening week of any debut album in 2015, behind James Bay’s Chaos and the Calm, which accumulated 64,000 combined sales.

“I can’t believe it. It’s just … wow! It genuinely hasn’t sunk in yet – it really hasn’t,” Glynne told Official Charts.

“It’s the most insane feeling to have your whole album accepted by the British public. To see how well it’s been received is possibly one of the most overwhelming feelings I’ve ever had. I’m so proud and excited about this album – I love every song on it. The fact that people are buying it and loving it as well is like some insane dream!”

Elsewhere, The Very Best of Cilla Black falls to No 2, and Bon Jovi’s 13th studio album, Burning Bridges, is the rock group’s 15th top 10 album, entering at No 3. The rest of the top 5 is completed by Britain’s Got Talent duo Bars & Melody and Dr Dre’s Compton at No 4 and No 5, respectively.
New entries include Disturbed, whose sixth album Immortalized is in at No 8, Scottish band the Fratellis at Number 16 with their fourth album Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied, and the Strypes, who are in at No 17 with Little Victories. Natalie Imbruglia’s Male debuts at No 20.