Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent’ Reaches No. 1 In The U.K.

With his second album, ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent’ (EMI), Lewis Capaldi storms to the top of the charts.

The Scottish singer-songwriter had established a shocking pace. Capaldi’s LP was selling more copies at the halfway point of the chart cycle than the remaining top 20 albums put together. ‘Broken By Desire’ had the best opening week of any title in 2023 when the chart was issued, with over 95,000 chart sales.

The Official Charts Company reported that it surpassed Ed Sheeran’s ‘Subtract’ (Asylum)’s 76,000 first week chart units and is the most streamed, downloaded and physically purchased LP of the most recent cycle.

That outperforms Lewis’ 2019 debut ‘Divinely Uninspired To a Hellish Extent’ which saw 89,000 chart units sold in its first week of sales.

The most impressive start by a solo artist since Harry Styles’ ‘Harry’s House’ peaked at number one in May 2022 with 114,000 chart units was achieved by Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ in October 2022, with 204,000 chart units.

Capaldi’s major achievement ends Sheeran’s reign at the top with ‘Subtract’ at two weeks; the song drops 1-2.

With ‘Take Me Back to Eden’ (Spinefarm), the British metal band ‘Sleep Token’ achieves a career high (and makes their first top 10 entry), debuting at No. 3. Def Leppard’s ‘Drastic Symphonies’ (Mercury), featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra, follows closely behind at No. 4.

With ‘Pantomime’ (Loma Vista), Swedish rockers ‘Ghost’ finally score a third spot in the U.K. top 10. Pantomime debuted at No. 8 in 2022 as the follow-up to ‘Impera’, which peaked at No. 2.

– Riya Sohini