- Music
- 07 Jan 16
It was an extraordinary 12 months for the unassuming Irish superstar Hozier. A year of awards and accolades has been topped and tailed with news of 1.25 million sales in the UK alone...
Irish hero Hozier went within an ace of topping the Official UK Chart of the Year with his superb single ‘Take Me To Church’. The track, the original video for which has been viewed a mind-boggling 300 million times on YouTube alone, racked up a remarkable 1.25million sales, in Britain, from January to December, despite the fact that it had been released in 2014.
The sales reflect the essential fact that it was a truly astonishing year for the Co.Wicklow singer, who was named Man of the Year, in the Hot Press Annual 2015. During the year, he had snaffled a host of gongs, including an Ivor Novello award for the song; Song Of The Year at the BBC Music Awards; Top Rock Song and Top Rock Artist at the Billboard Music Awards; Album of the Year at the European Border Breakers Awards; and Rock Song of the year at the Teen Choice Music awards.
The data for 2015, released by Official Charts, reveals – somewhat predictably – that Mark Ronson’s 'Uptown Funk' ft. Bruno Mars was the biggest selling track of the year.
While it, too, was originally released towards the tail end of 2014, the song achieved a combined sales and streaming total of 1.76m over the past year – making it far and away the No.1 track of 2015.
The song held down the No.1 spot in the UK charts for seven weeks in all, and it remained in the Top 40 for 39 weeks. Since its release, it has racked up a combined sales total of 2.25million.
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At No.2 in the chart is OMI's stupidly addictive summer singe ‘Cheerleader’, as remixed by Felix Jaehn, which grabbed the runners-up slot with 1.52million sales.
Ellie Goulding’s 'Love Me Like You Do’, from the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack and 'See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa completed the Top 5, with sales of 1.19million and 1.17million apiece.
Justin Bieber was the only artist to have two tracks in the Top 10, with 'What Do You Mean' and ‘Sorry’. Years & Years, who were unknown at this time last year, came in just outside the Top 10, at No.11, with ‘King'.