Another close race at the top of the singles chart is won once again by Sienna Spiro. Former Mercury Prize-winners Ezra Collective get their first number one album.

With no recent release making any impact near the top of the chart or threatening to be the new Rein Me In, there was another close race for number one in the singles chart. In Wednesday’s update the top four were separated by roughly 1,600 chart sales. I could have chosen to prepare a separate commentary for each possible top four. However, there are 24 different combinations, so I didn’t.

The leader in Wednesday’s update was Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation which climbed to the top last week and it was still there when the final calculations were made today (Friday). The 20-year-old Londoner had her first top forty hit last year with Die On This Hill. She had one further top forty hit in 2025 and, so far, has had a further four this year.

One of the factors determining what fraction of a sale is given to a stream of a song is the type of account held with a stream from a paid-for account having more value than one from a free, advertising-supported account. The numbers two, three and four on Wednesday were so close that their respective positions may well have been determined by what proportion of streams of each song were from a paid-for account.

Ella Langley’s one-week number one Choosin’ Texas is at number two.Hugel, Imarl Angel and Ultra Nate remain at number three with Movin’ To The Sun. Stella Lefty’s Boston remains at number four. Dua Lipa’s 2-25 hit Training Season climbs to number five, one place short of its original peak. This week’s top five singles have spent an average of five months in the top 100.

Nicole Kidman joins the list of people to have had a hit single and to be the title of a hit single joining the likes of Clint Eastwood. Adela’s song Nicole Kidman is a new entry at number fifteen.

TLC’s No Scrubs, a number three hit in 1999, re-enters at number 23.

British jazz group Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize in 2023 but were still deemed eligible for the BBC’s Sound Of 2025 list. Also in 2025 they won Group Of The Year at the Brit Awards. A number one album, however, eluded them with their best performer being a number seven peak with 2024’s Dance. No One’s Watching. That changes this week as their fourth studio album, Here Because Of Hope, sits proudly at the top of the chart. Ezra Collective are the first UK jazz act to have a number one studio album.

Most of the rest of the top five are albums that have been around for a while. The Essential Michael Jackson is at number two. Olivia Rodrigo is still at number three with You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. Sienna Spiro’s Visitor is at number four.

The announcement of new tour dates next year and the release of a documentary about last year’s reunion tour sees their albums getting a boost. The Time Flies compilation returns to the top five at number five while (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is at twelve. Definitely Maybe re-enters the top forty at number seventeen. Don't Look Back In Anger, the name of the documentary film, returns to the singles chart at number 30.

The list of break-up albums gets a new member this week with the release of Bloc Party’s Anatomy Of A Brief Romance. Singer and songwriter Kele Okereke has described it as an unusually personal album. Reviews of the album have not been great, but it still manages to enter at number six making it six top ten studio albums in seven releases for the band.

Roxanne Emery, recording as RØRY,  achieves a new high in the albums chart by entering at number eight with Bloodletting,

There is another album by someone who uses a single word pseudonym at number eleven. When he was born in Brighton, the man now known as Bonobo was given the name Simon Green.His first four albums all failed to chart but Distance In Static now makes it four top forty albums in a row. 

The fount of all knowledge that is Wikipedia describes Green Lung as “a stoner / doom metal band”, whatever that is. Their fourth album Necropolitan earns them a UK chart debut at number 25.