Drake and the Greatest Showman soundtrack hold on to their places at the top of the respective charts.
Still no change at the top of the charts as Drake gets a fifth week atop the singles chart and the Greatest Showman extends its run at the top of the albums chart to a seventh week.
The wait for a new number one single goes an as Drake drones away for a fifth week with God’s Plan. The arrival of a video (best watched with no sound) has seen its sale increase after declining for the last few weeks.
Rudimental (joined by Macklemore and Jess Glynne) get a second week at number two with These Days. Fresh from winning Brit Awards for Best Breakthrough Act and Best British Female Artist on Wednesday (21 February) Dua Lipa climbs one place to number three with IDGAF.
Portugal. The Man climb into the top five at number four with Feel It Still. The song has climbed the chart in each of its eight weeks in the top forty (a relatively rare feat nowadays) and reaches a new peak in its 30th week in the top 100. Surely even chart fans who don’t like the song (and I suppose they do exist) would love to see it complete a marathon run to the summit.
After a performance at the Brit Awards ceremony most notable for ITV’s frequent use of the mute button, making for an incoherent mess, Kendrick Lamar climbs six places to number five with All The Stars. Keala Settle falls three places to number six with This Is Me.
Camila Cabello’s only duty on Wednesday night was to present an award (with, for no obvious reason, Tottenham and England striker Harry Kane) and to hear her name being mispronounced by host Jack Whitehall. Her forename should be pronounced Cameela. She returns to the top ten at number ten with Never Be The Same.
German Anton Zaslavski, better known simply as Zedd, had the first of his three top ten hits to date in 2014 with Stay The Night, a song which featured vocals by Paramore’s Hayley Williams. He subsequently teamed up with Hailee Steinfeld (more from that Hailee later) on Starving which also featured American duo Grey. He and Grey are now joined by Texan singer Maren Morris on The Middle, a new entry at number 37. Based on the official credit, Morris is the one in the middle.
There has been an increasing (and rather annoying) tendency recently for artists to spell their name and / or song titles entirely in upper case. It may, therefore, be considered perfectly logical that somebody would release a song called Capital Letters. The artist to rise to that particular challenge is Hailee Steinfeld, last seen in the chart with Let Me Go. Declining the opportunity to do it all on her lonesome, she has enlisted the help of BloodPop® whose use of the registered trademark symbol continues another annoying trend. At least the song itself, a new entry at number 39, is pleasant enough.
Stormzy and Jorja Smith both took to the stage on Wednesday night. Stormzy upset Daily Mail readers by suggesting that Theresa May might not be the greatest person who has ever lived while Jorja Smith performed in a duet, considered rather ill-conceived by many, with Rag ‘n’ Bone Man. Their single together, Let Me Down, returns at number 40. Justin Timberlake opened the proceedings. He climbs five places to number 22 with Say Something.
The Greatest Showman soundtrack remains well ahead of the rest of the field to gain a seventh week at number one in the albums chart. The last album by a non-British act to spend as long at number one was The Essential Michael Jackson immediately after his death in 2009. The last album by a living non-British act to do so was Boyzone’s By Request way back in 1999. British acts The Beatles, Adele and Ed Sheeran have all had a run of seven weeks or more at the summit in that time.
Perhaps the biggest surprise at the Brit Awards was that Ed Sheeran won none of the prizes in the gift of the panel. The only award he won was the Global Success Award which is based purely on global sales. Many people (not all of them natural cynics) believe that the award was invented in order to ensure that One Direction could be guaranteed to win something. He stays at number two with ÷ while × climbs four places to number thirteen and + is up six places to number 32.
Dua Lipa’s eponymous debut album climbs eight places to a new peak of number three. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s Human returns to the top five at number four and Camila Cabello’s Camila is up nine places to number five.
The organisers of any awards ceremony know that there is always a risk that at least one winner will be slightly less than sober. This year that slot was taken by Damon Albarn when he collected the award for Best British album, won by Gorillaz’ Humanz. It is safe to assume that he will not be invited to join The Temperance Movement any time soon. In the meantime, the band have achieved their most successful album with their third release, A Deeper Cut, which enters at number six. Their previous two albums have both reached the top twenty but this is their first venture into the top ten. They should not be confused with the Temperance Seven who had a few hit singles in the early 1960s, long before any members of the Temperance Movement were born.
Perhaps because they thought calling themselves Stuart and Stuart would be silly, Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David decided to name themselves after a French television show instead. And so Belle and Sebastian were born. Their whimsical pop would have made them into multi-millionaires if these things were decided by music critics. Sadly for them, the British record-buying public has had other ideas and their chart record remains modest. Their ambitiously-titled new album, How To Solve Our Human Problems Parts 1-3 formed from a trio of EPs, enters at number 28.
Before Wednesday’s Brit Awards show albums sales (with the sole exception of The Greatest Showman) were pitifully low. As a result, any albums which received a significant boost in sales following the show could expect to climb up the chart, unless they were already close to the top.
The re-entries are led by Stormzy’s Gang Signs And Prayer (winner of the Best British Album award) which is back at number ten. Ariana Grande was scheduled to appear as part of a tribute to the 22 people killed in a terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena last year. Unfortunately, she was ill and was advised by her doctors not to travel to the UK. Her place was taken by Mancunian Liam Gallagher who sang a stripped down version of the Oasis Song Live Forever. His As You Were album climbs seven places to number seventeen, the Oasis hits album Time Flies is up ten places to number 27 and their (What’s The Story) Morning Glory album re-enters at number 35. The victims of the attack ewre also remembered in a dedication in the closing credits of the programme.
Foo Fighters (winners of Best International Group, an award which clearly should have been won by Arcade Fire) are back at number 36 with their Greatest Hits album.
Although Arctic Monkeys were not so much as mentioned in the Brit Awards show their AM album is a re-entry at number 37.
Next week’s Radio 1 Chart Show will be broadcast earlier than normal. Nevertheless, next week’s commentary can be expected somewhere close to the usual time.
Published on: 2018-02-23 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 461602 Views
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