Rihanna has beaten One Direction in this week’s chart battle for the UK number one spot.

'Diamonds,' the Bajan superstar’s first release from her seventh studio album, was initially trailing in the first set of midweeks but went on to comfortably outsell the boyband’s new single ‘Live While We’re Young,' which eventually ended up at No.3.

Last week's chart-topper, PSY's 'Gangnam Style' dropped to No.2, Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ sold enough copies in just two days to chart at No.4, while Ellie Goulding’s ‘Anything Could Happen’ debuted at No.5.

Elsewhere, there were new entries for Nicki Minaj’s ‘Va Va Voom’ (No.20) Taylor Swift's 'Red' (No.26) and The Other Tribe’s ‘Skirts’ (No.36) and re-entries for Jason Mraz’s ‘I Won’t Give Up’ (No.11) and Adele’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me' (No.37).