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 Rose Marie spent eleven successive weeks at number one in 1955. Two US women solo artists, Whitney Houston and Miley Cyrus have had ten-week runs at number one. The overall record for successive weeks at the top is still held by Canadian Bryan Adams with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You in 1991. The only song to spend longer at the summit is Frankie Lain’s I Believe which spent a total of eighteen weeks there (in runs of nine, six and three weeks) in 1953.

Alex Warren heads an unchanged top three. Ravyn Lenae’s Love Me Not is still at number two, one place ahead of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club. Sombr’s Undressed climbs one place to number four, swapping places with WizTheMC and Bees & Honey’s Show Me Love.

Skye Newman had her first chart hit earlier this month with Hairdresser. That song climbs to a new peak of number sixteen this week. It is joined, and surpassed, by Family matters, a new entry at number eight. She still has no Wikipedia page. The available information about her is generally on promotional websites so can be somewhat hyperbolic.

Last night (Thursday) the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards ceremony was held in London. The awards were established in 1956 and celebrate achievements in song composition and soundtracks. The winner of the Rising Star award was Lola Young who topped the chart with Messy earlier this year. This week she has a new entry at number 25 with One Thing. The only other charting single with One Thing in the title was by One Direction, unless you count The Fall’s Teleph One Thing. Which you probably don’t.

Last weekend the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Basel. It was won by Austria who, in my opinion, just happened to have the best entry. In recent years, there have often been a few Eurovision songs in the following week’s chart. This year, there are three. The highest is the British entry which finished in eighteenth place. What The Hell Just Happened by Remember Monday put up a respectable showing in the jury vote, but no country put it in their top ten in the public vote, so it received the dreaded nul points in that part. I have always played down suggestions that the voting is political. However, some of this year’s scores from the public vote were a little odd. Anyway, the British public seem to have a better view of the song than the rest of Europe and it is a new entry at number 31.

As mentioned above, Eurovision was won by Austria meaning that next year’s contest will be held in the country better known for classical composers such as Mozart and two Strausses rather than for pop music. The winning entry didn’t make it. However, the German entry Baller by Austrian siblings Abor and Tynna, is at number 34. 

The more eccentric Eurovision entries tend to be rather hit and miss with me. I either think they are gloriously daft, or rubbish. The third Eurovision song in the chart this week, Espresso Macchiato by Tommy Cash, is at number 40. The Estonian entry was a song about Italy. Obviously. It finished third in Basel.

Some artists enjoy major success in the UK with their early material while others build up a following gradually. Others muddle along for a few years before finally having a major hit. On such artist is singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen. His first three albums reached the top ten in her native USA, with two of them topping the chart. The best he could manage in the UK was a number 40 placing with One Thing At A Time in 2023. His major breakthrough in the UK came last year when he was the featured artist on Post Malone’s number two hit I Had Some Help. His fourth album, I’m The Problem, has outdone all of that by going to number one. What I Want, a song that features Tate McRae enters the singles chart at number 32.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet continues its record-breaking run at number two. Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number three. 

Many people, including this writer, thought that The Sherlocks would be in contention for the number one album this week. Three of the indie band’s four albums reached the top ten with 2023’s People Like Me & You getting to number four. Sadly, it was not to be and Everything Must Make Sense is at number four, matching its immediate predecessor.

One of the notable things about Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia album last week was that it picked up a lot more streams than most rock albums. That gave a hint that it would not be yet another album to drop straight out of the chart. It has held up very well, falling four places to number five.

There are many words that could be used to describe the career of Peter Doherty, including colourful and controversial. As a member of The Libertines and, later, Babyshambles, releases were too infrequent to build up any real momentum. His solo releases have been more regular, but with limited success. This week he gets his biggest solo success with Felt Better Alive at number seven.

When CD players first hit the shop shelves, one of the first purchases for many was a copy of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms. The album was the Geordie band’s second number one, spending two weeks there in May and June 1985. It returned to the top in the summer, but really got going in May 1986 when it returned to the top and stayed there for ten weeks. We are, of course, now forty years on from 1985 and many young people are barely aware of what a CD is. A fortieth anniversary edition of Brothers In Arms is at number eight.

It is now eight years since the sad death of Swedish DJ Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii. The track listing of a new compilation, Forever, gives a hint of what he might have gone on to achieve. Songs such as Wake Me Up, Levels and Hey Brother still sound good today. The album is a new entry at number twenty.

Southampton metal band Bury Tomorrow are at number 33 with their eighth album Will You Haunt Me With That Same Patience. They have now had an album peak at every position between numbers 33 and 36 inclusive.