Taylor Swift stays at number one in the singles chart. Olivia Rodrigo completes a hat-trick of number one albums.

After entering the chart at number one last week, Taylor Swift holds off a strong challenge from three Olivia Rodrigo songs to remain at number one with I Knew It I Knew You. She remains the only artist to have two chart-topping singles in 2026.

In the midweek updates, Olivia Rodrigo led the way with Stupid Song, although she insists on using all lower-case letters. However, a late rally by Taylor Swift means it enters at number two.

There have been many other “song songs” in the charts over the years. They include the instrumental Heartsong by Gordon Giltrap as well as This Is Not A Love Song (Public Image Ltd) and This Is Not A Song (The Frank And Walters).

As someone who spends part of my working life teaching children about when to use capital letters, I find the recent trend of artists styling their song titles entirely in lower case infuriating. On the other hand, it does give me the opportunity to say that Olivia Rodrigo’s stupid song is at number two. 

Time for a slight diversion. Back in the days of the printing press, compositors had to select each letter individually from a rack and set it up for printing. Capital letters were on a higher shelf than small letters, hence the term “upper case”. They were, literally, chosen from the upper case of letters. The lower case letters were more common, so were easier to reach. Who said these commentaries were not educational?

Anyway, back to Olivia Rodrigo. She is also at number three with The Cure while her previous number one,Drop Dead, rebounds eight places to number five.

The Olivia Rodrigo dominated top three means that Olivia Dean, alongside Sam Fender, falls to number four with Rein Me In. It brings an end to a sixteen-week run in the top two. It has been in the top ten since last November, apart from two weeks over Christmas, and this week it completes a full year in the top forty, having been one of the few non-Christmas songs to survive the annual onslaught of festive tunes (and other noises).

K-Pop act Le Sserafin make their top forty debut at number 22 with Iconic By Mistake. They are joined by fellow K-Popsters Illit and Katseye. The latter act have had three previous top forty entries, two of them this year. Regular readers will know that I am not much of a fan of K-Pop, but this offering is truly dreadful.

For the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, FIFA chose Colombian singer Shakira to record the official anthem Waka Waka (This Time For Africa). Little did we know that this would appear perfectly logical compared with many subsequent decisions by world football’s governing body. This year, Shakira is back, aided by Burna Boy, with a contribution to the official album for the 2026 World Cup in North America. Wales didn’t qualify for the tournament, but that hasn’t stopped them recording a song called Dai Dai. It is a new entry at number 28, giving Shakira a first hit as lead artist since 2014. It’s not quite as good as Waka Waka, but at least it brings something fresh to the chart. Waka Waka returns to the chart at number 37, its first top forty appearance since its original run in 2010.

While Shakira’s World Cup[ anthem is only in the top forty for a second time, another football anthem has been appearing regularly for thirty years, in which time the years of hurt (for the England men’s team) have doubled to 60. That song is, of course, Three Lions by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds. This week it enters the top forty for a tenth year at number 35.

The reason for Olivia Rodrigo’s dominance of the top places in the singles chart is, unsurprisingly, the release of a new album. Equally predictably, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love goes straight to the top of the chart by a wide margin with total “sales” of over 100,000. All three of her studio albums have topped the chart, but this third set has first week “sales” almost as high as the two previous albums combined.

The Essential Michael Jackson remains at number two. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number four.

With his record-breaking run of Wembley dates under way, Harry Styles climbs back up to number three with Party All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. His previous two albums are also in the top forty. His two best number ones are in the singles chart. Aperture is a re-entry at number 25 while Sign Of The Times climbs to number 29.

Yorkshire indie band Embrace are at number five with their ninth studio album, Avalanche. It maintains their run of reaching the top ten with every album.

Earlier this year, Drake inflicted three albums on us. That put him one ahead of Bruce Springsteen and Guns ‘n’ Rose who had each released two albums on the same day. All three of those were established acts, but last week Canadian duo Angine de Poitrine released two albums with the uninspiring titles Vol I and Vol II. More accurately, they were both released physically for the first time having originally been released in 2024 and in April this year. Neither of them charted on their initial release but this week Vol I is at number 23 and Vol II is four places higher.

Jonathan Coe is one of my favourite novelists with The Rotters Club probably being the work I enjoyed the most. It includes a wonderfully pretentious review of a Yes album, written by one of the characters for his school magazine. The fact that the novel is based in the 1970s, when booth Coe and I were in our teens, shows just how long Yes have been together. They released their first album in 1969. They are at number 42 with their 24th studio album Aurora, narrowly missing out on a 22nd top forty album.

Sonny Fodera gets his first top forty album with Can We Do It All Again at number twenty.