X Factor Finalists Claim Number One With Mariah Carey Cover

A remake of Mariah Carey's 'Hero' by finalists in this year's X Factor competition has stormed its way to the top of the singles chart.

The song sold 313,244 copies in its first week, more than the the entire top-10 combined, and is on course to become the biggest selling single of the decade.

The net profits from the song are being donated to the Help For Heroes charity, which helps servicemen and women injured in battle, and the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Last week, Chancellor Alistair Darling confirmed that VAT on sales from the song will be waived and given to the charities.

Elsewhere in the singles chart, last weeks number one Girls Aloud slipped to two, while Jack White and Alicia Keys' Bond theme, 'Another Way To Die', climbed to ten.

In the album chart, Pink's 'Funhouse' was a new entry at one, followed in second place by Snow Patrol's 'A Hundred Million Suns'.