I must say, I'm surprised that Dame Shirley Bassey isn't doing a little bit better. I think she may have been hit quite hard by the lack of supermarket impulse buys, but I still expected at least 15k by this point!

Dame shirley def suffered with the lack of impulse buys and would have alot more sales if things were normal.

Sweet Melody has wound up being a sound salvation for Little Mix fans who may well have been disappointed about them missing #1. The biggest take away, along with the fact they still push close to 50k for albums which in the current climate is very impressive, is them being able to get the 3rd song from their album to be only their third top 3 single in the last 5 years. A huge triumph!

all goodness IMHO. It's a pity both albums were released on the same week. On one hand, that's probably what explains the huge sales...but on any other week, both had merit to hit the top.

How close are 25- 22 is confetti single looking to outdo Strip (LM5 equivalent)

Shirley seems to be performing okay to me. Her last album was six years ago and managed 8,282 in its first week, which this album looks set to beat despite the market decrease and lockdown (I agree that she'll be more affected than most).

That tweet is obviously a joke lol

This Little Mix vs Kylie Minogue battle feels like Buzzjacks El Clasico the way this thread has gone.

Sweet Melody has wound up being a sound salvation for Little Mix fans who may well have been disappointed about them missing #1. The biggest take away, along with the fact they still push close to 50k for albums which in the current climate is very impressive, is them being able to get the 3rd song from their album to be only their third top 3 single in the last 5 years. A huge triumph!

 

Very much this.

 

A month ago I felt like there was a lot more riding on a #1 album for the girls - especially as some people were calling them flops after a couple of singles not making the top 10. But there's been a massive resurgence for them lately, so it really doesn't matter. A smash hit single like Sweet Melody is much more beneficial to then than a #1 album.

I must say, I'm surprised that Dame Shirley Bassey isn't doing a little bit better. I think she may have been hit quite hard by the lack of supermarket impulse buys, but I still expected at least 15k by this point!

Clearly all the gays spent all their money buying all the different versions of Kylie and Little Mix this week that they didn't have any money left to spend on Shirley.

Kylie Minogue stubbed my little toe. :(

Didn't whoever made the chart rules up back in the day do exactly this though. As I recall The Cure released something like 21 formats of the Pictures Of You single, many other artists did something similar also but I always remember this being citied as the reason why no more than 5 formats would count to the singles charts from then on, later reduced to 4. Always makes me smile the gloves are off again nowadays..and good luck to whoever makes number 1

Physical singles were restricted to 5 formats in 1990 to end the situation where some singles were being released in a dozen or more formats. The amount of eligible formats is currently three for physical singles though now this is pretty much a redundant rule (even the unlimited amount of different versions on download matters little now). However for albums there has never been a similar rule.

Sales at the top end of the singles very low this week

That's it for this week's Friday Chart Prediction thread. It's certainly been a ride... but thank you for everyone who contributed and took us to 50+ pages!

 

Join us tomorrow in the Buzzjack Friday Chart Show Thread from 4pm. Can I just make it very clear: NO SPOILERS. Even if info leaks online, particularly regarding the outcome of the chart battle, do not share it on Buzzjack until it has been revealed by Radio 1. Any chart spoilers will be deleted.