Bowie's Blackstar on track to top US and UK charts

David Bowie is on track to top the charts in the UK and US as sales of his latest album soar in the wake of his death.

Just two days after the release of ★ (Blackstar), on his 69th birthday, the singer died on Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer, which he kept secret from everybody but his family and closest friends. Tributes poured in after the news of his death broke.

Sales of ★ (Blackstar) reached 43,000 in the UK in the 24 hours after his death was confirmed, with the numbers still rising rapidly. It currently tops the midweek UK Top 40 Album Chart as well as the iTunes chart and sales of much of Bowie’s back catalogue have risen sharply, the Guardian reports.

And in America, Bowie is on track for his first ever No.1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. Billboard predicts ★ (Blackstar) could sell as many as 130,000 copies in the US by the time the chart positions are announced.

★ (Blackstar) producer Tony Visconti described the album as Bowie’s “parting gift” to the world and added: “He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of art.”

Meanwhile, Record store Rough Trade says it will donate the profit from all sales of any Bowie album sold in the month of January to Cancer Research UK.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.