Official Charts Flashback 2019: Lewis Capaldi gains first Number 1 single with Someone You Loved

Someone You Loved would become the first of five UK chart-toppers for the Scottish singer, and his first to shoot him into superstardom.

Five years ago, Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi rose to Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart for the first time ever; gifting the Scottish singer-songwriter the first of what would become five (and counting!) chart-topping singles in the UK.

And while it may have seemed at the time that Capaldi came out of precisely nowhere to become one of the most popular singers in the country, in actual fact it was a long and winding road for the Glaswegian to the top of the charts.

Before topping the charts in March 2019, Someone You Loved - a bruised and brilliant weepy ballad, anchored by Lewis's gravel-rough vocal performance - had actually been released that past November, forming part of Lewis's second EP, Breach.

So, yes, it did take Someone You Love a while - nearly five months - to reach the top of the Official Singles Chart. It entered the UK Top 40 for the first time in January 2019, at Number 29, before jumping very quickly, in successive weeks surging to Number 13, to Number 10, to Number 9, to Number 3 for two weeks and, finally, to Number 1, with chart units totalling over 57,000 for that week sending Lewis to the top spot.

When Someone You Loved reached Number 1, however, it didn't let go. It stayed at the summit of the Official Singles Chart for seven weeks in total, and ended the year as the Official biggest song of 2019, beating out tough competition from the likes of Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish.

According to data from the Official Charts Company, Someone You Loved's all-time UK chart starts are very, very impressive. The ballad has collected 5.4 million chart units in total, included 285,000 downloads and a mind-melting 674 million streams.

If that streaming tally seems impressive, that's because it is. Two years ago, we named Someone You Loved as the official most-streamed song of all time in the UK, a title it still holds today (Lewis's closest competition for the title, Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You, currently has 618 million streams to its name).

Someone You Loved marked the arrival of Lewis Capaldi has a true chart juggernaut, he claimed another Number 1 single from his debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, with the even more emotional Before You Go, while his second LP Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent contained no less than three UK chart-toppers; Forget Me, Pointless and Wish You The Best.

Elsewhere in the Official Singles Chart in this week in 2019: Calvin Harris & Rag'n'Bone Man's Giant surges to its all-time peak (2), and Pink's Walk Me Home was that week's highest new entry, and only debut inside the Top 10 (8), it remains Pink's last UK Top 10 solo single.