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. The singer-songwriter from London has had a very successful 2025. At the start of the year, she was still relatively unknown. Her only singles chart success had been with a version of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) which charted for Christmas 2021, but hasn’t returned in subsequent years. Her debut album, Messy, reached number four when it was released in 2023, but spent just that one week in the top forty.

This year, Olivia Dean’s fortunes have improved dramatically. Last week, Man I Need was at number two for a fifth week while Nice To Each Other was also in the top ten. It is, therefore, not a surprise that The Art Of Loving has gone straight to number one. She is able to celebrate a chart double as Man I Need has at last made that final one place step up to become her first number one single. Nice To Each Other has climbed to number four. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is a new entry at number nine. Dive has plunged out of the chart from last week’s number eighteen position because of the limit of three songs by an artist in the singles chart.

The top five in the singles chart still has two songs from the XPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast drops to number two after eight non-consecutive weeks at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop. The top five is completed by Raye’s Where Is My Husband at number three.

Olivia Dean’s closest rival for the top spot wasn’t close at all, but it is still technically accurate to use the term, or at least it was until the end of the week. The eventual number two is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend. She also has a new entry in the singles chart with House Tour at number seventeen.

Some three years after Little Mix broke up (although, officially, they are “on hiatus”), Perrie Edwards has released her first solo album under the mononym  Perrie. The album, also called Perrie, is at number three having lost its status as the closest rival for the number one spot in the latter part of the week.

Hot on the heels of a Led Zeppelin live EP, Robert Plant is at number four with Saving Grace. Although he has been touring with a band called Saving Grace, the album is credited to Plant alone, making it his twelfth solo studio album. 

Doja Cat has a new entry at number five with her new album Vie. Two songs from the album are in the singles chart. Gorgeous is a new entry at number 34 and Jealous Type re-enters at number 30.

American band Geese are at number 26 with the cheerfully-titled Getting Killed. Mariah Carey has her twentieth top forty album with Here For It All at number 31. Genesis’s last album with Peter Gabriel on vocals, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, is at number 35 thanks to a “50th anniversary” edition. It peaked at number ten when it was released at then end of 1974.

Returning to the singles chart, there are new entries that are not from albums released last week. The highest of them comes from Tate McRae who is at number six with Tit For Tat. The phrase is the reason why a hat is known as a titfer in cockney rhyming slang. Myles Smith is at number 32 with Stay (If You Wanna Dance).

With the year now into its final quarter, the Official Charts Company has published a list of the top albums of 2025 so far. The list highlights just how much streaming of older albums influences the chart. The top album released in 2025 is Sam Fender’s People Watching, but it is only at number six overall. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number one with Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection at number two and the Oasis compilation at three. Compilations by Fleetwood Mac and The Weeknd are also ahead of Sam Fender. Fender’s time with the top-selling album released in 2025 will not last much longer as Taylor Swift released a new album today (Friday).