Jump to content

General

Chart

Rein Me In holds for a 3rd week and Gorillaz grab a 3rd album number one

Rein Me In holds at the top and Gorillaz grab a 3rd album number one. Simon is unable to do the commentary today and this is a shoddy replacement bus service, so there may be errors. Or not! Brits winner for Song Of The Year Rein Me In gets a post-win boost to hold at one for a 3rd week for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean as it faced strong competition from Alex Warren’s new track Fever Dream. I downloaded both so neither benefitted from my purchase! Alex Warren has to make do with number 3 for now
Chart

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean get a second week at the top of the singles chart. Mumford And Sons get their fourth number one album.

After completing a marathon journey to the top of the chart last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets a second week at number one. The song first appeared on Fender’s People Watching album released early last year. Dean was invited to choose a song from the album to sing as a duet. She chose Rein Me In and Fender has been rewarded with his first number one single. Olivia Dean can also be found at number two with So Easy (To Fall In Love). Pink Pantheress jumps six places to numbe
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

Taylor Swift gets her sixth number one single with Opalite. Olivia Dean remains at the top of the albums chart.

In October last year Taylor Swift became the first artist to reach number one with a song that had the name Ophelia in its title. Now she has become the first artist to top the chart with a song called Opalite.The song originally reached number two, behind The fate Of Ophelia, and spent eight weeks in the top ten. Last week it was at number fifteen. Its promotion as an official single, along with a vinyl release, sees it climb all the way to the top. It is Swift’s sixth number one single and the
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

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

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

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

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

Raye re-enters at the top of the singles chart as a flood of re-entries replace the Christmas songs. Olivia Dean follows a highly successful 2025 by claiming the first number one album of 2026.

The Christmas period has been a problem for the Official Charts Company (OCC) since streaming was included in the calculations for the chart. This became more pronounced when they introduced the Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR) whereby the value of a song’s streams was downgraded if streams were declining for three weeks and the song had been in the chart for ten weeks. Because streamers started listening mostly to Christmas songs, almost all other songs saw their streaming figures decline. Songs
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

Wham complete their annual ascension to the top of the singles chart. Kylie Minogue gets her eleventh number one album.

One of the consequences of the singles chart being dominated by streams, specifically songs from playlists, is that the same songs dominate the chart every December. One of those songs is, of course, Wham’s Last Christmas which climbs to number one for the fifth time this week. Its first two runs at the top lasted for just one week but it has spent rather longer there for the last two years. Thus, this is its tenth week at the top in total. For many years, Last Christmas was the UK’s best-sellin
Chart

Taylor Swift is still singing about Ophelia at the top of the singles chart. Olivia Dean returns to the top of the albums chart.

Taylor Swift spends a fourth consecutive week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. It has now spent a total of seven weeks at the summit, making it Swift’s longest-running chart-topping single. Raye remains at number two with Where Is My Husband. A clear sign that Taylor Swift may well be in her last week at the top (at least until next year) is that Wham’s Last Christmas is at number three with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at five. Brenda Lee is at number six with Rockin’
Chart

Taylor Swift remains at the top of the albums chart. Veteran rock band Aerosmith get their first number one album with some help from Yungblud.

Taylor Swift gets a sixth week at number one with The Fate Of Ophelia. Swift has now spent a total of sixteen weeks at the top of the singles chart. Combined with her 36 weeks atop the albums chart, she has now accumulated a combined total of 52 weeks (one year) at number one in the two main UK charts. Only ten artists have spent more weeks at number one. Of those ten, only two - The Beatles and Elvis Presley - have spent at least a year at the top of each chart. When Ed Sheeran spends another w
Chart

Taylor Swift wins another tight race at the top of the singles chart. The albums chart is topped by 5 Seconds Of Summer.

There was another close battle at the top of the singles chart. In Wednesday's update Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia had a lead of under 300 over Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. This week they were joined by Raye’s Where Is My Husband. That was a few thousand behind, but the song had a physical release this week. It was unclear how many of those physical sales had been included in the update. By Friday, the top three were in the same order as on
Chart

The KPop Demon Hunters and Taylor Swift battle it out for supremacy in the singles chart. Swift flies back to the top of the albums chart.

There was a close battle for the number one single this week between the two songs that have topped the chart for thirteen of the last fifteen weeks - Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia and Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. In Monday’s update Swift was ahead by just over 100 copies. By Wednesday she had extended her lead to around 1,000 chart sales. By the end of the week Taylor Swift was still in front, so The Fate Of Ophelia returns to the top after
Chart

The KPop Demon Hunters remain at the top of the singles chart. Florence + The Machine have the number one album.

After climbing back to the top of the singles chart last week HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast get another week at number one with Golden. This brings its total number of weeks at the summit to ten. However, it is still not the longest-running number one of the year. That title is still held by ASlex Warren’s Ordinary which had a total of 13 weeks at the top. That song is in the top twenty for a 39th week, climbing two places to number fourteen. In the separate S
Chart

Taylor Swift loses her positions at the top of the charts to the Demon Hunters cast and Dave.

After three weeks topping the singles and albums charts, Taylor Swift has been toppled from the summit of both of them. Her successor in the singles chart is not exactly new. It is the song toppled by Olivia Dean the week before Swift took over. The third run at the top for Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast brings its total up to nine weeks at the top. Taylor Swift's The Fate Of Ophelia slips to number two, one place ahead of Raye’s Where Is My Husband
Chart

Taylor Swift holds on at number one in the singles chart, but faces stiff opposition at the top of the albums chart.

After topping both the singles and albums charts for the last two weeks, Taylor Swift started the week looking to perform the double for a third successive week. The midweek updates indicated that she would succeed in getting a third week at number one in the singles chart with The Fate Of Ophelia, but the albums chart was a different matter. Of her four previous number one singles, only Anti-Hero has spent longer at the top. Swift’s Opalite falls to number five this week. HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDRE
Chart

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
Chart

Olivia Dean’s chart double is followed immediately by one for Taylor Swift as her new album tops the chart and provides the top three singles.

As referenced in last week’s commentary Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl last week. Without the rule allowing only three tracks by a lead artist to appear in the chart simultaneously, the twelve tracks would probably occupy the top twelve positions. That would have knocked Olivia Dean right out of the top ten after climbing to number one last week. The treatment of album streams for chart purposes has always been a difficult issue to resolve. The most cont
Chart

Olivia Dean scores a chart double with her first number ones in both the singles and albums chart.

For the first time in several weeks, there was a genuine contest at the top of the singles chart. Would Hunter/X and co get yet another golden week at the top or would the release of her album help Olivia Dean rise to the top? Olivia Dean’s Man I Need was at number one in the midweek updates. In Wednesday’s update it held a lead of a little over 3,500 chart units over Golden. There was, by contrast, never any real doubt about whether Olivia Dean’s album The Art Of Loving would top the chart. T