Lana Del Rey has landed a sixth UK No.1 album - and achieved one of her biggest weekly sales totals to date.
Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd opened at the summit with sales of 41,925, according to the Official Charts Company.
In the process, Del Rey’s ninth studio album became the fastest-selling of 2023 so far. It sold 9,717 CDs, 20,809 vinyl albums, 2,582 cassettes and 998 digital downloads, as well as 7,819 units from sales-equivalent streams. The album is also No.1 on the vinyl chart.
Lana Del Rey previously hit No.1 with Born to Die (2012), Ultraviolence (2014), Lust for Life (2017), Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019) and Chemtrails Over The Country Club (2021).
Significantly, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd achieved her biggest opening week since Ultraviolence debuted at No.1 with 48,028 sales nine years ago. It follows a pattern of increasing sales over Lana Del Rey’s recent run of releases, only interrupted by 2021’s Blue Banisters, which charted at No.2 just seven months after the huge No.1 for Chemtrails Over The Country Club (40,111 week one sales).
Ben Mortimer, Polydor president, said: “I was lucky enough to get a preview of the album back in October 2022. Lana played it to us at her home in California, which as you can imagine was an absolute career highlight. I was floored. It was obvious she was working on something very special, and we’ve been preparing for the album ever since. She is one of the world’s greatest songwriters, and we’re very lucky to get to support her.”
Ben Mortimer
Tap Music’s Ben Mawson and Ed Millett said: “Lana continues to break records and expectations by being true to herself. She’s in a lane of her own, never waivers, does everything with intention and artistic purpose and reminds us that the greatest artists, the ones with longevity, are the ones that are driven by that creative intuition. The demographic of her fanbase is broader than ever, with a whole new, younger audience as TikTok has driven catalogue discovery as well as the wonderful new music.
“The key with any Lana album release is to plug into her album narrative and bring her album to life. Creating these eventised moments through the set-up and into release are key in galvanising and energising the fanbase to spread the word, when traditional media and social media are not drivers in the same way as they are for other artists.
“We are proud to have been part of Lana’s journey for the last 13 years and excited for the next steps.”
Friday (March 24) was Del Rey’s biggest ever day on Spotify globally with 33 million streams. Did You Know… secured her biggest Spotify opening day for any of her albums with 18m streams globally.
Del Rey is now tied with Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead and Blur on the list of acts with the most UK No.1s. She also ranks as the female solo artist with the fifth most No.1 albums in the UK - only Madonna (12), Taylor Swift (9), Kylie Minogue (8) and Barbra Streisand (7) have more.
Martin Talbot, chief executive, Official Charts Company, said: “The achievement of Lana Del Rey in scoring six No.1 albums in just 11 years is quite something, especially given she has done so with the biggest first week numbers of any album this year. She is a genuine superstar of our era.”
Subscribers can read our 2021 cover story with Lana Del Rey and her team here.
PHOTO: Chuck Grant
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