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[Popchartfreak]

Headline: It’s 4 weeks on top for Ed Sheeran on the singles charts, and a new entry for KSI on top of the albums.



Your Suedey Chart-Commentary-Replacement-Bus-Service standing in with a less fact-filled rundown of this week’s happenings, as Suedey gets a well-deserved short break. Headline: It’s 4 weeks on top for Ed Sheeran on the singles charts, and a new entry for KSI on top of the albums.

It’s good news for Ed Sheeran on the official singles chart as he easily glides into more Bad Habits on strong sales over double that of the number 2, and no contenders looking like kicking him off anytime soon. It’s not the worst record he’s had on top of the charts, and I’m partly to thank/blame for buying it. In the mid-weeks the closest challenger looked set to be Galantis & Little Mix’s poppy Heartbreak Anthem, but in a close run between 4 tracks they were pipped and have to settle for going back up to 3 as The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber climb 3 places to 2. Aussie 17-year-old LAROI makes it a second 2 in a row, following on from Stay, while Canadian The Kid BIEBER is on his 6th.

Jonasu makes the top 10 with Black Magic at 4, just behind Little Mix who topped with a song of the same name last decade, and Eurovision winners Maneskin are back up to 5 with I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE, all that pouting on TV and shouty song titles obv doing them no harm as Beggin’ goes up to a new peak of 6. That’s higher than The Four Seasons 60‘s original and the UK 60’s hit cover from Timebox, but not quite as high as top 5 2007’s Madcon cover. That’s also the first Eurovision winner to get 3 UK top 20’s immediately after their win since Bucks Fizz in 1981, 40 years ago. I urge Maneskin to cover The Land Of Make Believe in tribute, as Bucks Fizz’s 4th & 5th hit singles topped the UK charts. Fingers crossed?

Elsewhere, KSI’s Holiday is up to a new peak of 7 as an album cherry-pick No Time enters at 24 with one of those numerous Lil rappers, and he re-enters with Don’t Stop at 32, and has a greedy 4th track new at 40 as he does a Gang Bang. Sorry Gang Gang, with JAY1 & Deno. JAY1‘s from Coventry and on his 3rd top 40, Deno’s on his 2nd, and I suggest we treat as a Youth Employment Scheme placement, given he’s still only 18. Becky Hill & David Guetta climb to a new peak of 10, Becky’s 3rd top 10, Guetta’s 27th (I make it!) 2 of them this week, and the highest new entry is at 14 for the late Pop Smoke aided by Dua Lipa on Demeanor. Yet another young American rapper murdered, this time by teenage robbers in 2020, Pop Smoke gets a 5th top 40 hit, while Dua Lipa gets a 21st. Tones and I meanwhile gets a second top 20 hit as Fly Away goes where her Dance Monkey went for months and months, this time number 16. Rain Radio & DJ Craig Gorman are up a healthy 19 places to 21, Talk About them being chuffed!

Marshmello and The Jonas Brothers climb to a new chart peak of 26 with the fabulous Leave Before You Love Me, also confirmed as using 70‘s hit Can’t Smile Without You on the songwriting credit. Any similarity to other songs must be due to them borrowing the same tune before Marshmello did, but minus the songwriting credit. Doja Cat’s Ain’t Poo climbs 9 to 29, leaving the chart with a nasty pong, I presume. I’ve managed to avoid hearing it so far, having lost interest in her ongoing potty mouth some singles ago. No @£&%! Post Malone is up 2 to 31, with his Motley Crew. Was he named in honour of that 80‘s horror movie series The Postmalone Always Rings Twice? No? OK.

New entries for Sigala & Rita Ora at 37, with You For Me, Sigala’s 12th top 40, and Rita Ora’s 22nd. British rapper Central Cee debuts at 34 with a Little Bit Of This to celebrate the 5th time he’s troubled the top 40, and Mabel is back at far-too-low 39 after dropping out the 40 twice, Let Them Know is a great little pop record so I can only assume her fanbase are a bit snooty about pop.



On albums, it’s all about British Youtuber, Gamer, occasional Boxer, & Rapper KSI too, as he is literally All Over The Place, selling 3 times as many copies as the number 2, and Olivia Rodrigo’s still a bit Sour about it. That means his second album goes one better than 2020’s Dissimulation, and doing a bit of singing on Holiday hasn’t hurt sales either. Certainly enjoys the media, it’s fair to say. Also debuting high, Pop Smoke’s second, posthumous, album Faith falling short of his 2020 chart-topper Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, new at 3, while Doja Cat’s Planet Ooh Get Her holds at 5. Meanwhile, new at 4, American Singer-songwriter John Mayer debuts with Sob Rock, his 8th top 10 album in 20 years, including 3 chart-toppers.

Ignoring all the to and fro-in of oldie albums that never go away, the next noteworthy album is new at 17 for Foo Fighters - Hail Satin being a limited-availability album under the pseudonym Dee Gees, a sort of tribute to Bee Gees - that’ll be B-arry G-ibb and D-ave G-rohl, then. Dave sang The Bee Gees You Should Be Dancing live on Jo Whiley’s show, and found the vocal range so easy they did 5 Gibb covers and 5 live versions of their own stuff for vinyl release on Record Store Day. Disco rules!

Stephen Fretwell enters at 37 with Busy Guy. Yes, I had to look him up - he’s from Scunthorpe, originally, and has been sporadically releasing albums since 2002, with Magpie peaking at 27 in 2004 and his previous album Man On The Roof hitting 44 in 2007. So after a 14-year break the singer-songwriter returns with a mini-bang.

Other bits n bobs: Amy Winehouse is back following the 10th anniversary of her death and media coverage with Back To Black at 36, and Tina Turner’s classic 1986 Foreign Affair is back at 38 - and I’m not sure why. A reissue with extra tracks, a TV documentary, Record Store Day coloured vinyl, something no doubt. I’m sure someone knows.....!