Ed Sheeran tops UK singles chart after longest climb to top spot

[November 03, 2014] LONDON (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has seized the top spot in Britain's singles chart with his track "Thinking Out Loud" after the longest ever climb to the top spot, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday.

The English artist's song spent 19 weeks in the top 40 gradually winding its way to the top. It racked up a combined sales figure of 89,000 in the last week and has sold more than 356,000 copies and been streamed almost 14 million times since June.

Sheeran unseated Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" from the number one spot pushing it into second place. U.S. singer Taylor Swift moved up to number three from number five with her track "Shake it Off".

In the albums chart, Swift also enjoyed success notching up her second number one album in Britain with "1989", which became the fastest-selling album of the year by a female artist shifting 90,000 copies in the last seven days.

Ed Sheeran's album "X", the fastest-selling and longest-running number one album of 2014 overall, climbed to number two from number three.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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