Jump to content

Chart News

A group blog by Chart Team in General

  • Entries

    69

  • Comments

    93

  • Views

    139,715

Contributors to this blog

About this blog

Entries in this blog

Chart

Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart.

Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart. There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week. There was no real doubt that Olivia Dean would be getting her second number one single. The question was whether Sam Fender would get his first. Back in the days when the singles chart measured physical sales only (because that was all that was available), it was relatively unusual for a single to fall down the chart and
Chart

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.
Chart

MK and Chrystal get a second week at the top of the singles chart. Wet Leg get their second number one album, beating a surprise release from Justin Bieber.

MK and Chrystal’s single Dior spends a second week at number one. Lewis Capaldi's Survive therefore remains the only 2025 number one to spend just seven days at the top. Only two other songs have been single-week number ones in the last twelve months. Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild remains at number two. She has accumulated a total of fourteen weeks at number two to add to her 23 weeks at number one in the singles chart giving her a total of almost nine months in the top two since June last year
Chart

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
Chart

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
Chart

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
Chart

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
Chart

Kylie Minogue and Wham battle it out for the Christmas number one single. Pink Floyd top the albums chart with an anniversary release of Wish You Were Here.

The race for the Christmsa number one this year was complicated by the way streaming platforms report their figures. The updates on Monday and Wednesday both showed Kylie Minogue’s Xmas with a clear lead over Wham’s Last Christmas. However, it wasn’t as simple as that. The sales for Kylie Minogue’s single were from a combination of multiple physical formats and streams. However, those streams came from one platform only, and it just happened to be the only one which seems to have worked out ho
Chart

KPop Demon Hunters get a fifth week at the top of the singles chart. Sabrina Carpenter gets a second number one album.

For the fifth week, Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast sits at the top of the singles chart. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are down to number five with Soda Pop. Twenty years ago, another (much better) animated band were at number one in the form of Gorillaz with Dare. Talking of Gorillaz, they are actually in the top forty this week. The latest random song to re-enter the chart is their
Chart

KPop Demon Hunters and the cast of thousands remain at the top of the singles chart. Biffy Clyro get their fourth number one album.

HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast extend their run at the top of the singles chart with Golden to an eighth week. Three-quarters of the way through 2025, we have had eleven number one singles of varying quality. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop. Once again the Demon Hunters have thwarted Olivia Dean’s Man I Need which is at number two for a fifth week. This week’s
Chart

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
Chart

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
Chart

It’s another Golden week for K-Pop at the top of the singles chart. Tom Grennan gets his third number one album.

Golden, the single whose credited artists take nearly as long to say as the length of the song itself, spends a third week at number one. HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and All had a healthy lead in Wednesday’s update so we may have to endure this for a while yet. The best single with the word Golden in the title is Suede’s Life Is Golden whose video was filmed in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat which has been abandoned since the Chernobyl d
Chart

Harry Styles gets another number one album but faces a tight battle in the singles chart.

Once the release date of Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally was announced, there was no doubt that this particular Friday the thirteenth would not be unlucky for him. There was no prospect of there being anything resembling a race, just a complete walkover. Let’s leave aside the fact that the people responsible for the title seem to have been determined to make some of us type a supposed sentence that makes no sense. Just a couple days after Harry Styles released his
Chart

Golden remains at the top of the singles chart. Ed Sheeran cruises to his ninth number one album.

HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast continue their reign of terror at the top of the singles chart as Golden grabs a seventh week at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast climb one place to number three with Soda Pop. The same combination are at number five with Your Idol. Olivia Dean’s Man I Need is at number two for a fourth successive week. Sabrina Carpenter’s Tears fall to number four. 
Chart

Golden remains at the top of the singles chart for a sixth week. Sabrina Carpenter gets a second week at number one in the albums chart.

There is still no shifting HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast from the top of the singles chart as Golden stubbornly stays there for a sixth week. The KPop film is also responsible for Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast at number four with Soda Pop. Olivia Dean's Man I Need remains Golden’s closest rival for the top slot, remaining at number two. Sabrina Carpenter is still shedding her Tears at number
Chart

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
Chart

Djo gets his first number one single in a chart littered with songs from Stranger Things. Olivia Dean remains at the top of the albums chart.

After missing out on a return to the top spot last week by a mere 500 “sales”, Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia made another attempt to get an eighth week at number one. In the four weeks since the song fell from the top, there has been a new number one each week although that included two non-consecutive weeks for Wham’s Last Christmas.  However, Taylor Swift faced opposition from Djo’s End Of Everything. There are a lot of Stranger Things=related songs in the chart this week (more on that
Chart

Djo gets a second week at number one in the singles chart. Olivia Dean remains at the top of the albums chart.

After climbing to the summit last week, Djo gets a second week at number one with End Of Beginning. It is the first song to get a second consecutive week at number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which topped the chart for four successive weeks last November and December. That song is at number three this week, continuing its annoying habit of finishing the week one place below where it was in the midweek updates. Dave and Tems move up to number two with Raindance, a song that wou
Chart

Dave gets his fourth number one single, helping Tems to get her first. Robbie Williams gets a record-breaking sixteenth number one album.

Dave’s Raindance entered the top ten last November and was one of the few non-festive songs to remain in the top forty for the whole of December. After climbing to number three last week, it now climbs to the summit to give him a fourth number one single. It also helps Tems, the featured artist, to get her first chart-topping single. Solder readers will remember that the UK experienced a lot of rainfall throughout Rihanna’s ten-week stay at number one with Umbrella. Judging by this week’s weathe
Chart

Dave and Tems dance their way in the rain back to the top of the singles chart. Olivia Dean returns to number one in the albums chart.

After a week when it never seemed to stop raining, Dave and Tems climb back to the top of the singles chart with Raindance. The song’s last spell at number one lasted just a single week. Time will tell whether it falls so soon this time. Raye climbs back up to number two with Where Is My Husband. Djo’s End Of beginning remains at number three. Harry Style’s Aperture drops to number four after a week at the summit. Taylor Swift is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia. Like last week, all of
Chart

Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club gets a second week at number one. Lady Gaga has a fifth number one album.

Chappell Roan remains at the top of the singles chart. Lady Gaga gets her fifth number one album. Having climbed to the top of the singles chart last week, Chappell Roan remains at number one with her Pink Pony Club. It therefore avoids becoming the first one-week number one since Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song four months ago. Alex Warren climbs one place to number two with Ordinary. The release of Lady Gaga’s new album helps Abracadabra climb three places to number three, matching its previous
Chart

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
Chart

An unusual chart double as Harry Styles tops the singles chart while his former bandmate Louis Tomlinson has the number one album.

As mentioned in last week’s commentary, Harry Styles is the nearest current equivalent to Robbie Williams, someone who started life in a boyband and who has then achieved huge success as a solo artist. Like Williams with Take That, Styles was just sixteen when he became part of One Direction. Any member of a band who starts a solo career faces a difficult choice. They can continue with songs in a similar style to those released by their band, or they can do something different. As a boyband’s
Chart

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