Taylor Swift’s Red rules over the album charts this week

Taylor Swift ruled over the charts, securing an eighth number one and clean streak with her album Red, according to the Official Charts Company.

The album surpassed the opening week sales of the original Red album, which debuted at number one in November 2012 with 62,000 sales.

In a bid to regain ownership of her music, Swift embarked on the re-recording of her first six albums after the master recordings were sold.

Red finished ahead of two massive recent chart-toppers, Abba’s Voyage and Ed Sheeran’s Equals – overtaking Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour to claim the biggest week for a female artist this year.

The pop star’s latest chart-topper marks her fifth number one album in less than three years and she is the first and only female artist to have eight UK number one albums this century.

Taylor now matches Kylie Minogue for solo artists with eight Official UK number one albums – the only female artist to have more is Madonna with 12.

Meanwhile, Little Mix finish at number four with their new greatest hits collection Between Us, and Sir Rod Stewart’s The Tears Of Hercules lands at number five to become his 37th Top 10 in the UK.

On the day Adele released her much anticipated album 30, the star triumphed once again on the Official Singles Chart, landing a fifth consecutive week at Number one with Easy On Me.

The track now ties with Someone Like You for Adele’s longest-running number one on the Official Chart.

With more than 67,000 chart sales and 7.6 million streams, the song won another hotly-contested chart battle with Ed Sheeran’s Shivers, which holds at number two.

According to the Official Charts Company, the highest new entry this week comes courtesy of Taylor Swift’s 10-minute track All Too Well at number three, her 18th Top 10 single.