Basshunter enjoys Swede smell of success

10:33 | Monday July 21, 2008

Although second single All I Ever Wanted had to settle for runners-up slot, Basshunter’s debut long player, Now You’re Gone: The Album goes one better, winning a closely fought battle to debut at number one on the artist albums chart, with sales of 36,825 giving it a 6.6% advantage over Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, which ends five weeks of domination, dipping to number two on sales of 34,533.

Basshunter – 23-year-old James Altberg from Halmstad – previously topped the singles chart with the title track from Now You’re Gone, and becomes only the third Swedish act ever to have a number one album, the others being Ace Of Base, who did so in 1994 with Happy Nation, and Abba, who racked up nine number ones, most recently topping the list in 1999, when their Gold: Greatest Hits returned to pole position.

Now You’re Gone: The Album is the introductory artist album release on the Hard2Beat label – the Ministry Of Sound’s response to All Around The World’s success with commercial dance.

The Mamma Mia! soundtrack album - featuring 17 Abba songs as interpreted by the likes of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski – raced to the top of the compilation chart last week, and is now the number one album on the combined chart, with sales of 59,576 putting it well clear of Basshunter in the rankings.

Mamma Mia! is the first multi-artist film soundtrack to top the combined album chart since Bridget Jones’ Diary in 2001. That album went on to sell 1,114,655 copies.

After lagging behind McFly’s One For The Radio in the midweek sales flashes, Dizzee Rascal’s Dance Wiv Me collaboration with Calvin Harris and Chrome fought back and enjoys a third straight week at number one on the single chart, with sales of 41,879 taking its 20-day total to 144,376.

For more see this week’s issue of Music Week, out today.