The soundtrack for The Greatest Showman has overhauled a long-standing chart record held by Adele, by spending more weeks at Number One than any other album this century.

In the latest set of charts released this weekend, the final ones for 2018, show that the cast recording soundtrack album for Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman is yet again at the top of the UK Albums Chart, spending a 24th non-consecutive week at the summit.

This means that it has now surpassed the record of 23 weeks spent at the top that had previously been held by Adele’s blockbusting album 21, released back in 2011 and which spent its time at the top between February that year and April the following year.

Hugh Jackman'The Greatest Showman' soundtrack has beaten Adele's chart record

Indeed, The Greatest Showman’s soundtrack has not left the top five places for the entirety of 2018, and has variously beaten off competition from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Manic Street Preachers and Camila Cabello to retain its place at the top throughout the year.

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The singles chart shows a great deal of change, with American singer Ava Max scoring her first UK no.1 hit with ‘Sweet But Psycho’, a track that’s already been a huge success throughout Europe, hitting the top in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Poland.

Last week’s Christmas Number One by LadBaby, a parody version of Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ with a sausage roll theme and which raised money for foodbank operators The Trussell Trust, fell all the way to Number 21.

More than half of this week's Top 40 consists of Christmas songs, down to people streaming and downloading them over the festive period. Mariah Carey's ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is at number two, and Wham!'s ‘Last Christmas’ is at three. Winter classics by The Pogues, Band Aid and Shakin' Stevens also returned to the top ten.

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