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Justin Bieber Lands First UK No.1 With ‘What Do You Mean?’ & Breaks Official Charts Record

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 06:34 PST, Sep 4, 2015

Justin Bieber has scored his first ever UK No. 1 in the Official Singles Chart with “What Do You Mean?” and also set a new record for the highest first-week streams for a UK single.

The single, which the 21-year-old performed live at the VMAs last week, punched in at the No. 1 position on the chart and generated the highest first-week streams for a single ever in the UK, with 3.2 million plays across recognized streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer, and Apple Music, the Official Charts Company confirmed Friday.

That figure breaks the official charts record, and dethrones the record previously set by One Direction’s “Drag Me Down” last month, which pulled in 2.03 million plays in its debut week after release.

“What Do You Mean?” is Bieber’s fastest-selling single in the UK, with a combined sales total of 84,000. This beats his previous best of 55,000 units with “Boyfriend,” which peaked at No. 2 in 2012.

Earlier in the week, signs that Bieber’s comeback single was heading into a No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, arrived after it took an early lead over Patten’s “Fight Song” in the UK’s mid-week Official Top 100 Singles Chart Update.

Bieber, whose career has phoenixed after a difficult hiatus out of the game, broke down crying onstage at the end of his VMAs spot, which also saw him perform his Skrillex and Diplo EDM-pop banger, “Where Are U Now?”

The singer later dropped the music video for “Mean” shortly after the VMAs. The cinematic visual logged in over 21 million views in three days. The lyric video released with the single has 25 million views — and counting.

And the good news keeps coming for the rejuvenated Prince of Pop. In addition to scoring his first No. 1 with “Mean?” and setting a new streaming record for the highest first-week streams for a UK single, the song also set a new global and U.S. record on Spotify.

On Thursday (September 3), Spotify said Bieber’s “Mean?” racked up over 21 million global streams in its first five days after its Friday release, making it the biggest first week recorded at the streaming platform.

The irresistible new hit beats the record set just a few weeks ago by One Direction’s “Drag Me Down” on Spotify, which racked up 20 million Spotify streams in its first week. The Biebs now holds the new global and U.S. record on Spotify, with the highest first-week streams in the U.S. (8,331,248), and globally.

After “What Do You Mean?” dropped on August 28, the song reportedly rocketed to No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes Singles Sales chart in five minutes, before topping iTunes charts in 90 countries. The song is the lead single from Bieber’s upcoming new album, which will be released on November 13.

This is certainly an impressive career turnaround for Bieber. He most certainly owes a lot of that success to the song quality of “What Do You Mean?” (which he co-wrote), the efforts of his fans around the world — and in today’s case, the UK — and his own ongoing, creative and personal resurgence, which the Biebs touched on when he opened up about crying at the VMAs on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show earlier this week.

To recap, Justin Bieber has just landed his very first UK No.1 with “What Do You Mean?,” amid tallying the highest first-week streams for a UK single.

In short: This is what a masterclass comeback looks like.

[Photo by Mark Ralston / Getty Images]

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