Once again popchartfreak is filling in while I enjoy the French sun

uess who’s Number 1? Charli xcx & Billie Eilish, and Chappell Roan on albums.

Charli xcx and guest (uncredited so far) feature Billie Eilish both grab another chart-topper as Guess debuts on top with a lively video helping push Sabrina Carpenter away from the top spot and now at 2 with Please Please Please. Charli last nestled on top 12 years ago, when Icona Pop’s I Love It did the trick, and also co-written by Charli. That makes two number ones for Charli and the first British act on top of the singles chart since Wham!’s christmas classic grabbed 4 weeks on top, and the first new track since errr The Beatles Now And Then did it 10 months ago. Billie Eilish prevents it being an all-British affair with her 3rd number one, following on from Bond Theme No Time To Die, and her Barbie track What Was I Made For. Charli meanwhile also goes top 10 with Apple at 8 and reaches a new peak with 360 at 11 so I make that 17 top 40 hits in 12 years. Billie’s on an even bigger 23 and counting since breaking through in 2018, cos album track Wildflower also debuts at 37 as previous tracks higher up the track listing give way to others. It’s rather nice actually! If Billie hasn’t had official credit when it’s clearly her contribution that helped get the number one slot then that would make a farce of artists getting feature credit for far lesser contributions. Although it would be more like going back to the olden days when guest acts just did it because they felt like doing it (and without a credit) - not to get 3,467 collaboration “hits”.

Elsewhere in the top 10, last week’s top 5 all drop one slot, with Chappell Roan’s fab Good Luck, Babe at 3 (but Hot To Go! is up to 15 and Red Wine Supernova up to 32 to compensate), Billie Eilish’s second top 5 this week, the lovely Birds Of A Feather, is at 4, Myles Smith’s jolly Stargazing at 5, and Dasha’s Austin at 6. Bl3SS, Camrin Watsin & Bbyclose hold at 7, with Eminem at 10. Jordan Adetunji is up to 9 with Kehlani, and it seems to be with actual Kehlani shortly, Adam Port & co rise to 16 as they Move even higher, and *NSYNC are up to 12 with Bye Bye Bye as Deadpool & Wolverine continues to do the biz. I can’t hear the song now without visions of body parts flying everywhere.

Other new entries a bit thin on the ground this week though, with just two: Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D. in at 31 with Somedays, giving the dance track Aussie producer his 3rd top 40 track since 2022, and the British dance producer D.O.D. on his 3rd too. Irish Singer Jazzy is on her 4th top 40, meanwhile. HanuMankind & Kalmi are new at 35 with Big Dawgs. No, me neither, but it's not an ode to Deputy Dawg - topical 60's pop culture reference there for the only famous Dawg. Malayalam roots Texan Sooraj and a spice, it seems. I’m playing it now so you don’t have to: actually there’s a potentially great rap track here, the raw and driving rhythm is rather good, and I can make out most of what they rap - sadly. Hoes and Dick (a mate I assume over with gardening equipment, I know I’ve been poking a lot of patio weeds lately with my hoe) and bookies and fighting police as a comparison to fighting bullies. Hmm. Gambling is not a great lifestyle choice kids! There may be a link with the aforesaid fighting. Try something a tad more lyrically positive next time lads, it’ll be brilliant!





Over an albums, it’s taken 17 weeks but Chappell Roan finally gets The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess on to the top spot. It’s been so long that an album grew week on week to that extent that I need to spend a load of time looking up the last time it happened! But I’m taking on the challenge. More in a mo, but my faves on the album are non-single Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl and especially Red Wine Supernova, but So Long, Babe isn’t on it, being as 9 of the tracks have been singles, including the biggest track Hot To Go! First released in September 2023, it’s taken just over 10 months to top the charts, making it on it’s 17th week on the chart. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season album was an older album (18 months) when it topped the chart in February this year, and it took 37 weeks on the chart to do it, so Chappell is relatively speedy in comparison.

Charli xcx meanwhile is back up to her previous peak of 2 with Brat, so what with the number one single, the Mercury Prize award-nomination boost, and what have you, she must be in with a shot at the top spot still. Taylor Swift is at 3, Billie Eilish 4 as Slim Shady finally drops down from the top spot to 5. The highest new entry is a collaboration project at 7 from Squiggle, Ye, and Ty $ as I shall call them, cos I’m not searching how to find symbols on a keyboard. Let’s just agree it’s Kanye and Ty with a mate and never mention it again until they get proper spelling and physical releases. It’s called Vultures 2. Presumably picking over the bones of Vultures 1.

The seconf-highest new entry at 33 is Jack White with No Name. Not counting The White Stripes and other side projects, this breaks his run of 5 top 10 in a row as solo performer, with 4 more with The White Stripes, 3 with The Raconteurs, and three with The Dead Weather, so that’s a total of 15. So that’s about it, the usual suspects swapping places and re-entering, a bit of shuffling here and a bit of plummeting there, and one name I don’t recognise at back up to 28 after previously peaking at 29: Nursery Rhymes By CoComelon, and aimed at little kiddies to sing along to. If you fancy an Itsy Bitsy Spider singalong on audio streaming or video streaming, this is for you! Babysitting service, keeps ‘em occupied for ages!