Sam Fender and Olivia Dean reach ten weeks at number one. There is a three-way battle at the top of the albums chart.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets another week at number one this week, finishing well clear of all rivals. Its current run has now lasted two weeks, bringing its total up to ten weeks. It is the third song to spend at least ten weeks at number one since the beginning of last year. The other two songs both remain in the top forty. This is, surely, the first time we have had three songs in the top forty which have spent at least ten weeks at number one in their current chart run.

Rein Me In is the joint longest-running number one by a male/female duo, matching Rihanna and Jay-Z's Umbrella in the wet summer of 2007. It is the longest-running chart-topper by a British female artist.

Tame Impala’s Dracula is back up to number two. Olivia Rodrigo is at number three with Drop Dead.

One of the songs to have spent at least ten weeks at number one recently is Alex Warren’s Ordinary. That climbed to the top in March last year and stayed there for twelve weeks. After Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild toppled Ordinary for a week, it returned to the top for a thirteenth and final week. It remains in the top forty today and would be even higher if it had not been moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio for most of that time. 

In recent weeks Fever Dream has provided Alex Warren with another major hit single. It currently sits at number five. This week, another new Warren song is in the chart as Fine Place To Die enters at number twenty. Both songs are said to be on his forthcoming album. However, there is currently no title or release date for the album.

Madonna’s last top forty hit as a lead artist was Living For Love in 2015. Sabrina Carpenter, on the other hand, has had fifteen top forty hits as the lead artist (including four number ones), plus one hit playing second fiddle to Taylor Swift. The two have now joined forces to record Bring Your Love with Madonna getting top billing. The song is a new entry at number 29, providing Madonna with a 70th top forty hit.

The latest song to benefit from appearing on a soundtrack is Chemical Brothers’ Go. It originally appeared on their 2015 album Born In The Echoes and it reached number 46 as a single. It has now been used in the film Apex and is at number 22. Chemical Brothers’ last top forty single was The Salmon Dance in 2007.

Two Los Angeles acts make their UK top forty debut. Stella Lefty, a singer-songwriter from , is at number 38 with Boston. Perhaps she will now move to Boston and release a song called LA. Temper City, from Israel but now based in LA, are at number 35 with Self Aware.

The race for the top of the albums chart was a three-way battle between two new releases and a much older album.

When Kneecap released their album Fine Art in 2024, they were a little-known hip-hop trio from Ireland. Even so, the album came close to reaching the top forty. Then, in April 2025, they expressed support for Palestine but, more controversially, also made some inflammatory remarks about Israel. This caused outrage in certain sections of the UK press who managed to unearth some earlier controversial comments made by members of the band.

All the controversy meant that Kneecap’s set at Glastonbury attracted a rather higher attendance than might have been anticipated when they were booked. It also meant that there would be a lot more interest in their third album when it was released. That release came last week in the form of Fenian.

The second new album to be in contention for the top spot was the latest solo album from former Spice Girl Melanie C. Her first solo set, Reason, reached number five in 2003. However, all of her subsequent releases have performed significantly less well with three of them not even making the top forty. The trend has gone into reverse more recently with Version Of Me reaching number 25 in 2016 before Melanie C went to number eight four years later. She is now back with Sweat. A top three finish would not only be her first; it would also be the highest peak for any former Spice Girl.

The third contender was not a new album by any stretch of the imagination. The Essential Michael Jackson was released in 2005 when it reached number two behind James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam. It then spent seven weeks at number one following Jackson’s death in 2009. As a result of the critically-unacclaimed Jackson biopic, it is now back at the top. Kneecap are at number two with Melanie C in third place.

Noah Kahan's The Great Divide falls to number four after seven days at the summit. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving holds onto its top five place at number five. Two other Michael Jackson albums are in the top ten. Thriller is at number six, two places ahead of Bad. Billie Jean is at number four in the singles chart. Beat It climbs twelve places to number ten and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough climbs to number fifteen. I Want You Back is a re-entry at number 33. The song, a number two hit in 1970, is credited to The Jackson 5 which means that it doesn't fall victim to the rule limiting an artist to three singles in the chart simultaneously.

Melanie C is not the only female singer-songwriter to get her best performing album for many  years. Tori Amos reached number fourteen with her much-praised debut Little Earthquakes in 1992. The follow-up, Under The Pink, topped the chart in 1994 and was followed bu two more top ten albums. Subsequent releases have not achieved the same success with one of them only just scraping into the top 100. She now gets a fifteenth top forty album with In Times Of Dragons at number thirteen, matching the peak of 2014’s Unrepentant Geraldines. That was her highest peak position since her third album, From The Choirgirl Hotel, reached number six in 1998.

Nigerian rapper Asake is at number 27 with M$ney. In the latest episode of Multi-hyphenate Watch, the Official Charts Company has used the term to describe Asake even though all his achievements are within the music industry.

Texan country singer Kacey Musgraves is at number seven with Middle Of Nowhere. Ohio Duo The Black Keys land at number 33 with Peaches!