Rapper Psy has be
come the first South
Korean pop star to make it to the top of the UK singles chart with his song Gangnam Style.
The track has become a global phenomenon and the video featuring his famous horse-riding dance is YouTube’s most “liked” of all time.
Since its release in mid-July it’s been clicked on more than 220 million times. Right now, it’s racking up an average of 10 million new views each day.
It’s a colourful, over-the-top, hilarious pastiche of commercial pop videos and sees Psy debut his now internationally famous “horse riding dance”.
Back home in South Korea, 34-year-old Psy, is already an established artist. Six albums into his career, he’s been singing for 12 years. Psy recently appeared on a US chat show with Britney Spears and Simon Cowell It entered the top 40 at number 37 two weeks ago, jumping to number three last Sunday.
Gangnam Style knocked The Script’s Hall of Fame off top spot.
The Irish band are now at number two, with US rapper Flo Rida at number three with his single I Cry.
The highest new entry was DJ Fresh’s The Feel at number 13.
Mumford & Sons’ new album, Babel, has gone straight to the top of the UK album chart.
The band recently revealed that a song on Babel features a line “lifted completely” from Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. The band’s frontman, Marcus Mumford, admitted to being inspired by the Man Booker Prize-winning novel in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.
He said it was “definitely” a line spoken by central character Thomas Cromwell, but chose not to elaborate. “I’m not going to tell you which, because I think it might be illegal.”
Babel follows their 2009 award-winning debut, Sigh No More, which also re-entered the top 40 this week at number 10.
There is another new entry at number two, Green Day’s Uno, the first of a trilogy of albums.
Opera duo Jonathan and Charlotte, who were contestants on the last series of Britain’s Got Talent, debuted at number five on the chart with their album, Together.
No Doubt’s first album in more than a decade entered the chart at number 16. Push and Shove is the follow up to 2001’s Rock Steady. (Reuters)