Adele's Hello breaks record with 1.1 million digital sales

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Adele breaks records for digital sales with her single Hello.
Adele's Hello was streamed 47.5 million times globally on Spotify, making it the most-streamed song over a week in the online streaming platform's history. PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - British singer Adele has smashed records with her comeback single Hello, selling more than 1.1 million digital songs in the first week. Hello become the first song ever to pass the one million mark on the Billboard charts.

Adele also roundly beat Canadian teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, whose latest single Sorry sold 276,800 downloads in its debut week, taking second place, according to data for the past week released by Nielsen Music on Monday (Nov 2).

Hello is the first single from Adele's upcoming album 25, to be released this month, and follows a four-year break from music after her album 21 won six Grammys and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Hello was streamed 47.5 million times globally on Spotify, making it the most-streamed song over a week in the online streaming platform's history.

The music video also broke records on entertainment platform Vevo, delivering more than 27 million views in the first 24 hours after its release last week.

Nielsen Music said the previous best-selling digital song in a single week was American rapper Flo Rida's Right Round in 2009, which sold 636,000 downloads.

On the Billboard 200 album chart, Australian pop punk band 5 Seconds of Summer grabbed the No. 1 spot, selling 192,000 units of their new release Sounds Good Feels Good.

That pushed country singer Carrie Underwood into second place with her new album Storyteller with some 177,000 units sold. Blake Shelton, country music star and a judge on television show The Voice, saw his greatest hits collection Reloaded; 20 #1 Hits debut in fifth place.

The Billboard 200 chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

Canadian rapper The Weeknd held on to No. 3 with Beauty Behind The Madness, and last week's chart toppers, Pentatonix, slipped to eighth with their self-titled album of a cappella songs.

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