Olivia Rodrigo has landed a notable UK chart double, breaking records in the process as her debut album Sour opens at No.1 and “Good 4 U” becomes her second chart-topping single. The breakthrough artist thus becomes the youngest solo artist in UK chart history to achieve that double, at 18 years and three months old.
The Official Charts Company reports that combined, first-week chart units of 51,000 for Sour give it the biggest opening week for a debut album since Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent in May 2019. It’s also the biggest first week of 2021 for any album in the UK market, overtaking Foo Fighters’ 42,500 for Medicine At Midnight in February.
The last artist to hit No.1 simultaneously with their debut album and concurrent single was Sam Smith, with In The Lonely Hour and the track “Lay Me Down.” Sour racked up an aggregate of 45.7 million track streams in its first week in the UK, a new all-time record for a debut album.
“Good 4 U” debuted at No.2 on last week’s Official Singles chart and now climbs to the top with new chart sales of 117,000, of which 13.5 million were streams. As on the Billboard Hot 100, the new success follows Rodrigo’s first No.1 single with “Drivers License” in January. That track topped the US chart for eight weeks, and the UK countdown for nine.
She first made the UK singles chart in January 2020 with “All I Want,” which reached No.72 the following month and then re-charted a year later, entering at a new peak of No.32.
Rodrigo’s UK singles chart presence this week doesn’t end there, either, as two tracks from the album register sufficient chart sales to enter the Top 10: “Déjà Vu,” which has been on the chart since mid-April, hits that higher ground for the first time, climbing 11-4, while “Traitor” is new at No.8.