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Kendrick Lamar gets his first number one single

Kendrick Lamar tops the UK singles chart for the first time, well into the second decade of his career. Sabrina carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart. Kendrick Lamar gets his first UK number one single. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart. Kendrick Lamar had his first top forty hit in 2013 when he was the featured artist on Robin Thicke’s Give It 2 U. Since then he has amassed a total of 29 top forty hits with twelve of them reaching the top ten. It is, therefor
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Taylor Swift tops both charts for a second week, although her album sales take a hefty tumble.

With such a big lead in last week’s singles chart, it is no surprise that Taylor Swift gets a second week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. Her five UK number one singles have now spent a total of twelve weeks at the summit, almost as long as Alex Warren’s Ordinary managed earlier this year. While remaining at number one, Taylor Swift has not repeated last week’s feat of occupying the whole of the top three. She does, though, still have three songs in the top six which isn’t bad going. O
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Kendrick Lamar gets a second week at number one. Sam Fender has his third chart-topping album.

Kendrick Lamar holds on for a second week at the top of the singles chart. Sam Fender has the fastest selling album by a British solo artist for a few years. There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week with last week’s number one from Kendrick Lamar facing stiff competition from Chappell Roan. The Roan song in question, Pink Pony Club, was released five years ago. However, it made no impact on the chart until last year when it reached number thirteen. This followed the suc
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Alex Warren’s Ordinary gets a third week as the number one single. Mumford and Sons top the albums chart with their first release in over six years.

Alex Warren gets a third week at number one with his Ordinary single. If he loses the top spot next week, Ordinary will be the first single this year to spend an odd number of weeks at the summit. Warren’s Carry You Home climbs one place to a new peak of number nine. Alex Warren heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two. Doechii’s Anxiety, which sounds even better each time I hear it, is still at number three. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things holds on at
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The top of the chart is still Messy

Lola Young's Messy remains at the top of the singles chart for a fourth week. Taylor Swift gets a record-breaking thirteenth number one album. Lola Young stays at the top of the singles chart. Taylor Swift gets another number one album with a late release. Lola Young’s Messy extends its run at the top to four weeks. It is the longest running new song at number one by a British act since Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding spent a total of eight weeks there with Miracle in spring 2023. Her song wi
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Alex Warren bags a sixth week at the top of the singles chart. One year after its release, Taylor Swift’s latest album returns to number one.

Alex Warren spends a sixth week at the top of the singles chart with ordinary. The last song to get at least six weeks at number one was Sabrina Carpenter's Taste which had a run of nine weeks from the end of August last year. The last song with exactly six weeks at the summit was Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero which went to number one in October 2022. Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle had a six-week run starting in April 2023 but that came after a previous two-week run. Once again, the top
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Chappell Roan gets her first number one single. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart once again.

Chappell Roan finally gets to the top of the singles chart. Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the albums chart. Chappell Roan was one of the biggest new stars of 2024 but still ended the year without a number one single to her name. Her success has continued into the early months of 2025; as of last week’s chart, she had spent a total of 29 weeks in the top ten with Good Luck Babem Hot To Go and, to complete the trio of three-word titles, Pink Pony Club. Still, however, a chart-topping s
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Alex Warren spends an eleventh week at number one. Sparks take on Sabrina Carpenter at the top of the albums chart.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary continues its run at the top of the singles chart into an eleventh week. Just three other songs have had a run of exactly eleven weeks at the top. Slim Whitman’s Rose marie did it in the early years of the chart in 1955. While four songs have subsequently had longer runs, the next song to spend exactly eleven weeks at number one was Dance Monkey by Tones & I in 2019. Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits (2021) has since matched that run. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club moves back
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Alex Warren has an Ordinary Week 2 on top and The Lottery Winners number comes up

Alex Warren holds at 1 on the Single Track chart, and The Lottery Winners lucky number comes up in albums. That number is 1. Alex Warren makes it week number 2 at number one for Ordinary, a great ballad with gospel choir touches, making it the first time since Kate Bush was Running back Up That Hill that my personal chart and the Official Chart have the same number one. Alex’s previous good hits also get a boost with Carry You Home at a new peak of 10 (and his second top 10 hit) and Burning Do
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Alex Warren gets a fourth week at number one with Ordinary. Elton John, in collaboration with Brandi Carlile gets his tenth number one album

Alex Warren still has the number one single. Elton John gets another number one album. Alex Warren’s Ordinary remains at the top of the chart for a fourth week at number one. It is the second song to spend a month at the summit this year after Lola Young’s Messy. Yes, we have had a messy month and now we have an ordinary one. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club spends a third consecutive week at number two, it’s fourth week in the runner-up slot in total. When Ed Sheeran released - in 2023m he
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Alex Warren’s run at the top of the singles chart goes into double figures. Morgan Wallen gets his first UK number one album.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary gets a tenth week at the top of the singles chart. While it is only the fourteenth single to spend at least ten successive weeks at number one, it is the fourth in the 2020s. The last song to do it was Dave and Central Cee’s Sprinter which had a run of ten weeks in 2023. Last weekend some newspapers (and tabloids) reported that Warren had broken the record for a US solo artist’s consecutive weeks at number one. Others added the word male. Both were wrong. Slim Whitman’s
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Lewis Capaldi’s comeback single is his sixth number one. Lorde gets her first number one album. Both singers have benefitted from playing at Glastonbury last weekend.

Whatever you may think of Lewis Capaldi’s music, it is surely hard as a fellow human being not to sympathise with him for his experience at Glastonbury two years ago. His Tourette’s syndrome forced him to abandon his set. This year, he chose to play his first live show since then at the same venue and he wowed the audience in a way many of his critics may be reluctant to acknowledge. Oh, and his first cousin once removed, former Doctor Peter Capaldi, joined Franz Ferdinand for Take Me Out in a g
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Alex Warren gets a fifth Ordinary week at the top of the singles chart. Those Damn Crows have their first number one album.

Alex Warren remains well clear of the opposition at the top of the singles chart. Ordinary’s fifth week at the summit makes it the longest-running number one single of the year so far. The last five-week number one was Gracie Abrams’ That’s So True in November and December of last year. This means that this year’s Easter number one matches the song that was replaced by last year’s Christmas number one. Ordinary heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two.
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Alex Warren is still refusing to be budged from the top of the singles chart. Ed Sheeran returns to number one in the albums chart.

Alex Warren’s Ordinary spends a twelfth week at number one in the singles chart. Just four other songs have had a twelfth successive week at number one; all four of them managed at least one more week at the top. Ordinary now has the second longest time at the top for a first number one as the lead artist, behind Drake’s One dance which spent an interminable fifteen weeks there in 2016. He had spent time at number one before, but not as the lead artist. He was the featured artist on Rihanna’s Wh
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Suedehead2 Chart Commentary 1st August 2025: The K‘s slay on singles & albums: KPop Demon Hunters and The K’s.

Suedehead2 Chart Commentary 1st August 2025: The K‘s slay on singles & albums: KPop Demon Hunters and The K’s. Justin Bieber’s Jack Johnson-ish ballad might have been expected to hang on to the top spot after just one week reigning, but Daisies was up against repeat viewings of the KPop Demon Hunters by little kids. Children have a voracious appetite to repeat play faves so I’m putting the climb to the top spot for Golden down to that. I look forward with dread to future pop quiz questions
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Alex Warren gets his first number one single.

Alex Warren gets his first number one single. Steve Wilson narrowly misses out on a first number one album. Alex Warren climbs to the top of the singles chart to get his first UK number one. Sadly, it is with the aptly-titled Ordinary rather than the significantly better Carry You Home which is back up to number twenty this week. The Californian singer-songwriter released his first music in 2021, but didn’t enter the UK ((or US) top forty until last year. At the beginning of the week, it was
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Lola Young's Messy is still number one

Lola Young spends a third week at number one with Messy. The weeknd gets a fourth number one album. Lola Young remains at the top of the singles chart. The Weeknd gets the number one album. Lola Young gets a third week at number one in the singles chart with Messy. This means that new songs by British artists have already spent as long at number one in 2025 than in the whole of last year. There is a familiar look to the rest of the top five. It contains the same songs as last week, and the we
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Suedehead2’s Substitute Chart Commentary 8th Aug 2025: Chappell Roan grabs a 2nd number one.

Simon is still enjoying hols and in the charts Chappell Roan’s The Subway is her 2nd chart-topper while in albums Renee Rapp gets a first number one. The Subway dropped and immediately headed the chart updates during the week, Chappell Roan having quite the pent-up demand since her 2024 breakthrough as material as old as 5 years filtered through to mass popularity following Good Luck Babe finally getting her that break. Notably Pink Pony Club hit the UK top spot 5 years late, making The Subway
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MK and Chrystal win a tight race for number one as Lewis Capaldi fails to survive at the top. Oasis dominate the top of the albums chart as their reunion tour gets underway.

Regular readers will know, or will have guessed, that I write at least some of a week’s commentary before the chart is unveiled on Friday. In particular, I might write about the number ones in one or both charts. If the race is close, I have two main choices. I can write two alternative versions. When the chart was announced on a Sunday (and that last happened ten years ago), I would often write two alternative versions. That has become more difficult with the chart being unveiled on a weekday.
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Alex Warren gets an extra Ordinary week at the top of the singles chart. James Marriott has the number one album.

After it was replaced at number one last week, people might have thought that Alex Warren’s Ordinary had had its time at the top. The first signs that they were wrong came on Sunday when it was back at number one in the first update of the week. It is still there at the end of the week, giving it a thirteenth week at number one in total. It thereby creates another chart record. Its return to the top after an initial twelve week run shatters the record set by Frankie Laine’s I Believe way back in
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Suedehead2's replacement Chart Commentary: Justin Bieber gets an 8th Number One single and Alex Warren gets a first number one album

Justin Bieber gets an 8th Number One single and Alex Warren gets a first number one album Simon est en vacances, Bon Voyage Simon! Meanwhile in the UK, Dior almost hung on for a 3rd week at Number One (other fashion brands are available) for MK featuring Chrystal, though at the weekend a mere 800 copies were between Justin Biebers’ Daisies rising to 2 and Alex Warren’s Eternity entering at 3. In the event Justin scored his 8th number one with Daisies ten years on from his first and his first
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Lola Young stays at number one

Lola Young bags a second week at number one. Central Cee scores a second number one album. Lola Young gets a second week at the top of the singles chart. Central Cee has the number one album. After climbing to the top of the pile last week, Lola Young gets a second week at number one with Messy. It is the first new song by a British act to spend a second week at the top since Chase & Status and Stormzy’s Backbone last August. The rest of the top five is also unchanged (an all too common o
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Lola Young makes it to number one

Lola Young finally makes it to the top of the singles chart with Messy. Robbie Williams has his fifteenth number one album. A close race at the top of the singles chart. Robbie Williams gains a fifteenth number one album. There was a tight contest at the top of the singles chart with Lola Young and Rose & Bruno Mars aiming to replace Gracie Abrams. Abrams herself was also in the running. With Gracie Abrams in third place in Wednesday’s update, she was always likely to miss out on a ninth
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Sabrina Carpenter returns to the top of the singles chart. Yungblud claims the number one albums slot.

After being dislodged from number one last week by the return of Alex Warren’s Ordinary, Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild returns the compliment by going back to the top this week. Three of Carpenter’s number one singles have now returned to the summit after being toppled.  It used to be a rarity for songs to return to number one, but it has become more commonplace in recent years. However, an ABAB pattern (with songs alternating single weeks at number one) is still unusual. It last happened in 19
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Eight weeks at the top for Gracie Abrams

Gracie Abrams remains at the top of the singles chart for an eighth non-consecutive week. Chappell Roan climbs back to the top of the albums chart. Gracie Abrams remains at number one in the singles chart. Chappell Roan returns to the top of the albums chart. Gracie Abram’s second run at the top of the singles chart enters a third week, giving her a total of eight weeks at the top with That’s So True. The last song to spend exactly eight weeks at the top, again in two separate runs, was Calvin