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 on ACR that experience a substantial increase in streams, relative to the market, can be reset to the standard ratio. However, that would apply to all Christmas songs so the OCC introduced a rule that all songs over three years old were on ACR permanently (with some exceptions which we will come to later). However, this still meant that songs in the chart towards the end of the year were treated unfairly simply because of the dominance of Christmas songs.

The OCC had a number of options to tackle this. Doing nothing would arguably have deterred record companies from releasing singles at a time when they would be adversely affected by the rules, so that was not an attractive option. They could have suspended the ACR rule in December which would have allowed more non-Christmas songs to remain in the chart in that month. They chose an alternative approach, resetting all songs that went on to ACR in December to the standard ratio in January. That seemed like a reasonable compromise. Applying the normal rules (only resetting songs that had significantly outperformed the market) would have meant that very few songs would be reset. Again, that would have deterred record companies from releasing songs for several weeks in the autumn.

That long ramble explains why many songs that dropped out of the chart in December have returned to the top forty while songs that dropped out before then remain outside.

Raye’s Where Is My Husband had dropped out of the top forty, to number 48  last week when the number of Christmas songs peaked. This week she rebounds all the way to number one to grab her second chart-topping single after Escapism almost exactly three years ago.

The chart published immediately after Christmas did, as ever, include a handful of non-Christmas songs. Among them was Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which just about clung on at number 40. This week it climbs all the way back to number two.

Taylor Swift almost set a record that can never be broken by getting the biggest rise within the top forty. However, there is still an opportunity to climb from the bottom position to the top. Maybe after next Christmas In 2011 Adele’s Someone Like You climbed back up to number one from number 47 after a stunning performance at the Brit Awards ceremony, a climb now beaten by Raye. Other songs have climbed from a lower position, but generally because copies were sold before the official release date.

Dave and Tems climb to number three with Raindance. 

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean are at number five with Rein Me In. The song first entered the top ten in July 2025. Since then it has remained in the top forty, one of the few survivors of the Christmas onslaught. However, it has spent most of that time outside the top ten. This week is the seventh time the song has entered the top ten, a record for a song in a single chart run. Thanks to Jimwatts at Buzzjack for that information. Dean is on her own at number four with So Easy (To Fall In Love).

As well as all the re-entries there are four new entries. Two of them are songs that were performing relatively strongly in December. For the last two weeks they have been two of the highest placed non-Christmas songs which hadn’t yet made the top forty. The first comes from South African singer-songwriter Tyla whose choice of song title, Chanel, may - or may not - be a desperate plea for some freebies. If so, she has raised her sights since her debut hit Water in 2023. Chanel is a new entry at number fifteen.

Kato’s Turn The Lights Off came very close to being a new entry in the Christmas chart before falling back last week. This week, it climbs into the top forty at number 33. It marks a top forty debut for the Danish producer and for Jon, whoever he is. The song was originally released in 2010 when it failed to chart.

While the concept of choosing a new track as a single from an already-released album is somewhat outdated in the streaming era, it can still do enough to promote a song sufficiently to get it into the chart. Such is the case with Sabrina Carpenter’s Such A Funny Way  from her Man’s Best Friend album. This week it enters the chart for the first time at number 37. It is still behind her former number one Manchild which re-enters at number 36.

After having a number two hit in 2022 with Boy’s A Liar, Pinkpantheress has struggled to achieve consistent success. She had two top forty hits last year, but neither of them advanced into the top twenty. She is now having another go with Stateside which is a new entry at number 40.

Among the notable re-entries is Alex Warren’s Ordinary at number thirteen. It spent thirteen weeks at number one last year and was named as the biggest song of the year last week. It had a record run of 39 weeks in the top twenty before being forced out by festive songs. Because it went on to ACR many months before December, its streams are still being counted at the harsher conversion rate.

Sonny Fodera, DOD and Poppy Baskcomb reached number 30 in November with Think About Us. Now that most of the Christmas songs are gone, it is back at number 24. EsDeeKid’s 4 Raws also hits a new peak by re-entering at number 23. The rather ludicrous rumours that the Liverpudlian rapper was actually American actor Timothee Chalamet should have been consigned to the bin this week with their apparent joint appearance to perform together.

While debate continues over whether AI-generated songs should be allowed to qualify for the chart Haven and Kaitlin Aragon’s I Run enters the top ten for the first time at number ten.

Four of the Christmas songs in last week’s chart have survived for another week. The highest placed is Wham’s last Christmas which topped the chart again last week. It is now down to number 21.

And so to the exception to the three-year rule. While this was largely done to downplay the impact of Christmas songs (that worked well, didn’t it?), it could be seen as unfair to songs that saw an increase in streams for other reasons. The most glaring example, and the one that led the OCC to change their rules, was Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. The increase in streams for the song after it was used in Netflix drama Stranger Things would have been enough to see it go to number one in 2022. This was so obviously absurd that the OCC changed the rules so that older songs could be reset in certain circumstances. As a result, the song deservedly topped the chart the following week. The same rule change has allowed a reset for Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now. The song spent three wells at number one in 1988. Almost four decades on, it is at number 29.

Running Up That Hill returned to the chart last year when the final season of Stranger Things (or, rather, the first batch thereof) was released. It is back at number sixteen. I’ve never seen Stranger Things, but anything that gets Kate Bush back in the chart has at least something going for it.

The turn of the year has always been a quiet period for album releases, and this year is no exception. The release schedule for the rest of the month is fairly thin. This means that new entries will be very limited for the next few weeks, and that the chart will often be topped by an album from last year.

The first beneficiary is Olivia Dean, one of the biggest stars of 2025. At the beginning of the year, she had one hit single to her name, dating from 2021. She had a top five album in 2023 but it had no long-term impact on the chart. By the end of 2025, she had notched up a further four top forty singles, all of them reaching the top ten. One of them, Man I Need spent a week at number one. Therefore, by the time she released her second album, The Art Of Loving, in September expectations were high. It duly went to number one and spent the rest of the year in the top five, including a further week at the top in December. It is now back for a third week at the summit.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend is at number two. Taylor Swift is still at number three with The Life Of A Showgirl. The top five is completed by two hits collections, from Fleetwood Mac at number four and The Weeknd at five.

Michael Buble’s Christmas album is still in the top forty, at number 29.

Over the festive period, Channel 5 showed a programme attempting to compare Abba and Queen. The concept was rather odd and the choice of criteria totally arbitrary, but it was still an entertaining programme. This week Abba Gold climbs to number twelve and Queen’s Greatest Hits is up to number 30.