U2 level with David Bowie as latest album sees band clinch 11th UK number one

By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

U2 have secured their 11th UK number one album with Songs Of Surrender, the Official Charts Company said.

The Irish rock group, made up of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, have seen records such as 2009’s No Line On The Horizon and 2004’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb climb to the top of the charts.

Their first British number one album in more than a decade has now put the band at level pegging with David Bowie, whose hit records include 1983’s Let’s Dance.

The band are a few top records short of the act with the most number one albums on the Official UK Chart, which is The Beatles on 15.

U2’s LP also topped the Official Vinyl Albums Chart this week.

The rest of the top five in the album chart this week included The Weeknd’s The Highlights, out since 2021, at number two and Miley Cyrus’s eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation, which is in third spot after being released two weeks ago.

Taylor Swift’s Midnights, released last year, and Pink’s Trustfall, out in February, are at number four and five, respectively.

Cyrus has also hit another milestone as she landed her 10th week at number one in the singles charts with her break-up song Flowers.

The 30-year-old former Hannah Montana actress now has the longest-running top single by a female solo artist this decade so far, according to the Official Charts Company.

She overtakes fellow Disney actress Olivia Rodrigo, who starred in Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and had a nine-week number one stint with 2021’s Drivers Licence.

Cyrus is also level-pegging with Harry Styles’s As It Was and will need another week at the top of the charts to equal Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits, which is the longest-running singles chart-topper of the 2020s so far.

This week, DJ and record producer Calvin Harris and singer Ellie Goulding’s collaboration Miracle reached number two in the charts as Die For You by Canadian singer The Weeknd slid to number three.

Nigerian singer Rema’s Calm Down has also climbed the charts to hit number four as Cameroonian American singer Libianca Fonji entered at fifth place with the afrobeat song People.