Rihanna’s Diamonds Beats Adele’s Skyfall and 1D to No 1 in UK Singles Chart

The American Music Awards: Nominations Are In — Rihanna performs during the 2012 iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas, 22 September. (Photo: REUTERS) Reuters

Rihanna's newest single, Diamonds, has topped the UK singles chart, pushing British boy band One Direction's Live While We're Young to third. One Direction won three awards at the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards 2012, for Best British Single, Album and Music Act.

Meanwhile, South Korean rapper Psy took second with Gangnam Style and Adele ranked fourth with the theme for the forthcoming Daniel Craig-starring James Bond film Skyfall.

Officialcharts.com indicated Rihanna's song was 250 copies behind One Direction's single last week but finishes this week nearly 19,000 ahead of the British band, with sales in excess of 105,000 copies. The report also said One Direction's single was the band's fourth Top 10 hit in twelve months.

Diamonds is Rihanna's seventh No 1 entry in the singles chart (sixth as a lead artist) and is a song about moving on from unhealthy relationships. The composition of Diamonds, which is now available on iTunes in the UK, features an orchestration of drums, synthesisers and electrical rhythms.

Also according to the report, Skyfall, which debuted at No 4, has sold over 84,000 copies and is the first Bond theme to take its title from the film since Madonna's Die Another Day, which reached No 3 in 2002. Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together rounded off the chart, while the title track from her forthcoming studio album, Red (her fourth) is a new entry at No 26.

Top 10 UK Singles