Eminem's Houdini becomes his eleventh number one single. Taylor Swift is still at number one in the albums chart.

Eminem gets his eleventh number one single Taylor Swift spends another week at the top of the albums chart.

At the ripe-old-age of 51, Eminem magically gets his eleventh number one single with Houdini, a song that includes a sample from Steve Miller Band’s Abracadabra. By his usual standards, it isn’t too bad but it stands no chance of getting on a Suedehead playlist. His new album supposedly sees the end of his alter ego Slim Shady who was the subject of his first hit single in 1999.

None of Eminem’s previous ten number one singles lasted more than a week at the top. One of those previous number ones, 2002’s Without Me is a re-entry at number 38.

Until 2020, there had been precisely zero hit singles called Houdini, or even with the word in the title. Now there have been three and all three reached the top ten.

If Abracadabra continues Eminem’s run of one-week number ones, the song in pole position to replace it is Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso which slips to number two this week after five weeks at the top.

Central Cee and Lil Baby climb one place to number three with Band4band, swapping places with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy). Billie Eilish stays at number five with Birds Of A Feather.

Singer and producer Fred Again (ne Gibson) had three top forty singles last year including the number four hit Adore U. He seems to have lost his adoration of the 21st letter of the alphabet as it doesn’t feature in the title of his latest single Places To Be, a new entry at number 35. The song features Anderson .Paak (born Brandon Paak Anderson who has been absent from the top forty since 2021 as well as Chika who has been absent from the chart for ever.

All of the named artists in this week’s new entries were born in the twentieth century. That would still have been true even if Marshmello and Kane Brown had made it, which they didn’t. I wonder how many more times that will happen.

After returning to the top of the albums chart last week, Taylor Swift stays there for another week with The Tortured Poets Department. The last album to spend a second week at number one after returning to the top was also by Swift - Midnights at the beginning of 2023. Billie Eilish climbs back up one place to number two with Hit Me Hard And Soft.

Becky Hill, the one former contestant on The Voice to have survived to have a career, is t number three with Believe Me Now? The title follows the theme set by her debut album Only Honest On The Weekend. I suspect we won’t be seeing any party using that as an election slogan.

South Korean boyband Ateez get their third top ten album with Golden Hour Part I (the Part I bit sounds threatening) at number four. As with their previous “albums”, it is actually an EP. If the prospect of a Part II was not bad enough, there are eight members meaning that there are eight potential solo careers to come.

Richard Hawley gets his fifth top ten album with In This City They Call You Love at number five. A number of his previous albums have been named after parts of his home city of Sheffield. This time he has opted for a fact about the steel city. His first chart entries were as a member of Longpigs and he was briefly a member of Pulp. The album’s writing has been inspired in part by Hawley’s reaction to the death of his great friend Pulp’s Steve Mackey last year.

Australian veterans Crowded House get their sixth top ten album with Gravity Stars at number eight. They had their first top tenner in 1991 when Woodface reached number six.

Rapper K-Trap is at number ten with Smile?