Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding head a top ten with no fewer than four Eurovision songs. Ed Sheeran still has the number one album.

Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding still top the singles chart and Ed Sheeran gets a second week atop the albums chart.

Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding remain at the top of the singles chart with Miracle extending its run to six weeks. It is still only the sixth song to get to number one so far this year. The first of them, Raye and 070 Shake’s Escapism, won an award for Best Contemporary Song at the Ivor Novello Awards show last night (Thursday).

Last weekend Liverpool hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately, the UK entry - Mae Muller’s I Wrote A Song - didn’t do quite as well as Sam Ryder’s 2022 entry Space Man. It has, however, done better charts-wise than most recent UK entries.It reached number 30 after it was selected in March and has now returned at number nine.

I Wrote A Song is joined by a number of other songs from the night. All of which finished higher on the scoreboard than Mae Muller’s song. The contest was won by Sweden’s Loreen with Tatoo. In doing so she became only the second act in the history of the contest (after Ireland’s Johnny Logan) to win twice. She won with Euphoria in 2012. That song reached number three; Tattoo enters at number two. This, of course, means that Sweden will host next year’s contest, half-a-century after Abba’s triumph in Brighton. Expect a host of stories about an Abba performance to mark the occasion. Also expect those stories to be untrue.

Finland’s Eurovision entries are often among the most entertaining. They, famously, gave the song its first rock winners in the form of Lordi with Hard Rock Hallelujah (not the first song with Hallelujah in the title to win). This year we were treated to Cha Cha Cha (a delightfully retro-sounding Eurovision song title) by Käärijä and was well within the Finnish tradition of bonkersness. Enough British people liked it to make it a number six hit this week.

The third non-UK Eurovision song to make it into the chart is yet another one from one of the Nordic states, Norway. The country who gave us a quarter of Abba entered Alessandra’s Queen Of Kings which enters at number ten. Hey! Thanks to jimwatts at Buzzjack for pointing out that this is the first time ever that four Eurovision songs have occupied the UK top ten.

One of the non-competing performers was, naturally enough, Sam Ryder who was able to perform his new single Mountain (a little lower than space). With a record audience watching it would have been unfortunate if he had been unable to get into the top forty. He enters at number 35 to get his second top forty hit.

David Kushner’s Daylight slips to number three. Ed Sheeran’s Eyes Closed (which is one way of shutting out daylight) is at number four. Lewis Capaldi is at number five with Wish You The Best. His new album is out today (Friday). I;m going to stick my neck out and predict that it will be number one next week.

Lil Durk made his chart debut as featured artist on Drake’s Laugh Now Cry Later in 2020 and turned up again the following year on KSI’s No Time. Now he’s decided to force a terrible song of his own on the British public. All My Life (featuring the equally untalented J Cole) is at number seventeen.

Inexplicably, there have not been many songs with the word Mathematics or variants thereof in the chart. Even Cherry Ghost’s Mathematics missed out on a top forty place. This week the word finally makes its top forty debut as Lil Mabu (yes, another Lil) lands at number 27 with Mathematical Disrespect.

The rule limiting the number of songs by a single artist that are allowed to chart at one time sees Ed Sheeran’s boat sink from last week’s number fifteen to be replaced by Life Goes On at number 29. At least it is easier to type than Noah And The Whale’s clumsily-titled L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. The Noah And The Whale song, on the other hand, is better.

The Jonas Brothers surprised chart-watchers in 2019 when they had a top ten hit with Sucker, over a decade since they had last graced the top forty. They have returned to the charts a few times since and they are at number 37 this week with Waffle House. If it is about one of the many word puzzles to have cropped up on t’internet in the last year or so, we may yet get Wordle House or even Sedecordle House. If it is food-based, maybe we’ll get Pancake House or Crumpet House instead although the latter title might be misinterpreted.

Beyonce’s Cuff It returns at number 24. After a welcome return to the chart last week Florence + The Machine’s magnificent Dog Days Are Over climbs to number 21, deservedly beating its previous number 24 peak.

After trouncing all-comers last week it is no surprise that Ed Sheeran’s - (Subtract) is still number one this week although his winning margin is substantially smaller than might have been expected. It is the first new album to get a second week at the top since Taylor Swift’s Midnights last autumn. Midnights had another two-week run at the top at the start of this year.

Understandably, there were no big-name albums released last week as record labels would have assessed their chances of getting to number one to be extremely low. As it turned out, a major artist would probably have gained a comfortable victory over Ed Sheeran. The most successful of last week’s new albums is rapper Potter Payper’s Real Back In Style at number two.

Having already released an album called Jonas Brothers the New Jersey trio had to think hard before coming up with an equally-unoriginal album title before settling on The Album, a title previously used by Abba. Their new set is at number three.

The Weeknd’s hits compilation The Highlights slips one place to number four. Brighton indie-rock band Lovejoy are at number five with Wake Up & It’s Over. I think I used up the quips about TV detectives when they had a hit single in February.

Alison Goldfrapp is at number six with her debut solo album The Love Invention. She had five top ten albums as the singer with Goldfrapp. Ed and Tom Russell, performing as Overmono, are at number eleven with their debut album Good Lies.

To finish, I first have to thank popchartfreak for his wonderfully entertaining commentaries over the last six weeks. I also wish to be self-indulgent and pay tribute to a man I said a final farewell to last week. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. The first reason is that I literally wouldn’t be here - or anywhere else. Secondly, he passed on his love of music to me. His tastes were largely different from mine (he was a big opera fan) but he still introduced me to the likes of The Seekers (whose wonderful singer Judith Durham died last autumn) and Simon And Garfunkel which led to me developing my own musical tastes.

RIP Dad, I’ll Never Find Another You 17 September 1927 - 5 April 2023.