POP sensation Jahmene Douglas fought off strong competition to land top spot in the Official Chart with his debut album this weekend.

The 23-year-old Swindon singer, who rose to stardom as the runner-up in last year’s X-Factor, launched his debut album at his former workplace Asda Walmart last Monday and last night knocked Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines off its perch.

Jahmene had opened up a narrow lead at the top of the artist albums’ midweek chart with Love Never Fails, which features covers of Beyonce’s Halo, Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love Of All with his X Factor mentor Nicole Scherzinger and David Guetta’s Titanium – his first single.

On Wednesday he was only a few thousand sales ahead of Blurred Lines, which was at number one for one week but dropped to two in the midweek chart, while rap titan JAY Z’s Magna Carta fell to third.

Announcing the news on BBC Radio One’s Official Chart Show Dan, from the network’s Dan And Phil Show, said: “The number one is Jahmene Douglas, the runner up on last year’s X-Factor with a gospel album made up of covers.

“He was worried it was not going to work with those but it has. Nicole would be proud. Well done.”

Due to X-Factor contract rules, all the songs on Jahmene’s album had to be cover versions, or gospel interpretations as he prefers to call them, but the album did not receive a warm welcome from national critics, who said he had tackled songs that were too big.

The soul star, who was unearthed at a Swindon Talent competition in 2010, said he was delighted it had gone down much better with fans.

Earlier this week he told the Adver: “Coming out of the X Factor I couldn’t make an artist album straight away, but this album gets my name out there. “My second album will be more my stuff because I do write a lot of stuff.”