British female R&B/Soul singer Estelle’s duet with Kanye West, American Boy, has stayed at No.1 in the UK for a second week this week following a boost from its physical release. Flo Rida’s Low and Duffy’s Mercy complete the top 3.

 

Like many No.1 singles these days, American Boy is expected to keep the No.1 spot for a few weeks yet and join the increasing list of long running chart toppers that has recently added Rihanna, Leona Lewis, Basshunter and Duffy. Whether it can match the five weeks achieved by her two predecessors remains to be seen. Her second album Shine is out on Monday. US rappers Flo Rida and T-Pain have made a slow but steady rise up the chart in the last few weeks moving 40-22-12-9-7-6-2 in its seven weeks inside the top 40. Its boost this week comes from two places; firstly the physical single was released last Monday and secondly it features on the soundtrack to the hit film ‘Step Up 2 The Streets’.

 

What is perhaps more interesting is how the genre that dominated the UK chart last year is failing to do so thus far in 2008. R&B/Hip Hop Singles featuring American artists from Sean Kingston, Timbaland (twice), Kanye West, Rihanna feat Jay-Z and Beyonce & Shakira all topped the chart last year with only one week wonders from McFly and Robyn penetrating this domination of the genre having 22 out of 24 weeks at No.1 between April and September. Since Sean Kingston left No.1 though Estelle is the closest connection to an American R&B No.1 as it features Kanye West.

 

Duffy slides to No.3 after seven weeks in the top 3 with Mercy, the first five of those at No.1. After debuting at No.23 last week after the radio edit had only been on sale on iTunes for a couple of days, Sam Sparro soars into the top five at No.4 this week. It bodes well for the coming weeks as the song is still a download only release. Madonna adds to her tally of UK top five hits this week as 4 Minutes gains some momentum to lift her new single, a collaboration with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, up a couple of places to No.5. The single is still three weeks away from a physical release, due on 21st April, so the challenge now is for the single to stay around the upper echelons of the UK chart for that length of time.

 

Leona Lewis has been in the news all week for becoming the first British female to top the US chart since Kim Wilde in 1987 with Bleeding Love. However, her current UK single Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand slides three places to No.6 this week followed by Nickelback who finally leave the top five with Rockstar which dips to No.7. American singer Chris Brown soars nine places to No.8 with his new single With You following its physical release. It is the second UK top ten single for the young singer following his debut No.2 single Run It in 2006. One Republic’s Stop & Stare dips five places to No.9 after six weeks in the top ten while Alphabeat’s Fascination gets a second wind jumping back up three places to No.10 having plummeted from No.6 to No.13 last week. Their next single is confirmed as 10,000 Nights Of Thunder and is due out in late May. They are the only Danish act in the UK top ten this week and are joined by just three Brits this week, a Canadian act, four American acts and one Australian based in America (Sam Sparro).

 

The eight songs immediately outside the top ten are all falling but the first new entry to the top 40 this week comes from American R&B singer Usher. His new single Love In The Club features Young Jeezy and has already been a No.1 hit in the US. Usher is no stranger to UK chart toppers, scoring No.1 hits with You Make Me Wanna… (1998), Yeah! (2004) and Burn (2004). James Blunt scores the next new entry to the top 40 at No.20 this week with Carry You Home. Formerly one of the UK’s biggest stars and the last British singer to top the US charts (in 2006 with You’re Beautiful), he has dramatically fallen out of fashion recently with his second album All The Lost Souls selling only about a sixth of what his debut album Back To Bedlam sold, which is of course the biggest selling album of the decade in the UK. Though the first single 1973 got to No.4, the second single Same Mistake stalled at No.57 so a return to the top 20 will be welcome news for the singer, even if it is largely because of the ConcertLive promotion that has been used widely in the last few months by many acts for a one week boost. Don’t be surprised if the single plummets out of the top 40 next week.

 

Snoop Dogg’s new single Sensual Seduction was released simultaneously as a physical and digital single this week and was expected to do rather better than its entry point of No.24 by many people. The electro song is quite different to the usual rap songs of Snoop and has been a top ten hit in the US, New Zealand and Sweden already though perhaps the Swede’s were more appreciative of the Fyre Dept. remix that features one of their current biggest exports Robyn. His biggest UK hit is Signs, which hit No.2 in 2005 and featured Justin Timberlake. French singer Yael Naim joined the UK top 40 for a week at No.36 with New Soul a few weeks ago before disappearing from the top 75 altogether. However, with the combined effects of a physical release and its ongoing promotion as the song from the Apple Mac Airbook advertising campaign, it jumps to a new peak of No.30 this week. This is still considerably lower than its peaks in other countries, which include No.7 in the US, No.8 in Germany and No.2 in her native France.

 

T-Pain features on the No.2 single by Flo Rida and his own single Church, featuring Teddy Verseti, finally moves into the top 40 at No.35 this week after sitting just outside it for a few weeks. Britney Spears is back at No.36 with Break The Ice, the third single from her current album Blackout. She has two songs in the top 40 this week as her last single Piece Of Me is static at No.31 after thirteen weeks in the top 40 making it her longest serving chart hit since Sometimes in 1999. Leona Lewis has clearly picked up some sales from her blanket media coverage this week and the current US No.1 single, Bleeding Love, which has now sold over 850,000 copies in the UK, jumps back into the chart at No.38 this week at the expense of Footprints In The Sand which sits just outside the top 40 at No.41 this week. Finally, indie-pop trio Scouting For Girls return with their new single Heartbeat at No.40. Their last two singles, She’s So Lovely and Elvis Ain’t Dead both reached the top ten and this one looks certain to progress in the coming weeks.

 

No change at the top of the album chart this week as Duffy’s Rockferry stays at No.1 for a fourth week. The last albums to spend this long at No.1 were Leona Lewis’ Spirit and Take That’s Beautiful World, the last two Christmas chart toppers. The last non-Christmas No.1 album to stay for four weeks at the top was over two years ago when Arctic Monkeys’ debut album managed the same feat. Panic At The Disco continue to reap the rewards of their new sound and their second album Pretty.Odd. debuts at No.2 this week, fifteen places ahead of the peak of their debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Indie act Foals debut at No.3 with their first album Antidotes, while Spirit by Leona Lewis is a non-mover at No.4 this week.

 

One Republic slide a couple of places with Dreaming Out Loud down to No.5 this week while Nickelback are back up a place with All The Right Reasons. Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black – Deluxe Edition is also back up a place to No.8 this week. Two more new entries follow at No.8 and No.9 respectively. The Raconteurs return with Consolers Of The Lonely which has been released with little fanfare or promotion. Indie act Guillemots enter at No.9 with Red while Muse dive eight places to No.10 with live album HAARP.

 

Next week Estelle should ease to a third week at the top of the singles chart with American Boy with Sam Sparro and Madonna still looking to climb further up the top five. Big new physical singles are due from The Kooks and Mariah Carey who will both make the top 20 with ease and should make the top ten while other acts releasing singles physically tomorrow include Bullet For My Valentine, The Count & Sinden, Radiohead and Roisin Murphy. Also look out for Fragma’s Toca’s Miracle 2008 which is out on downloads on Monday and will hope to capitalise on its original chart topping success in 2000.

What is perhaps more interesting is how the genre that dominated the UK chart last year is failing to do so thus far in 2007.

 

Interesting considering that last year was 2007...

 

A great read as always!

Interesting considering that last year was 2007...

 

A great read as always!

 

:rofl: Really shouldn't have tried to write that after a ten hour shift at work yesterday

 

Cheers for the correction Paul, I'll change it

 

A nice read a thankyou for reminding me that Fragma are out for download now! Ive been waiting for a while :wub:

you're welcome Harve, hopefully Fragma will score their 4th UK top ten hit!

Great commentary and i like your descriptive piece about james blunt plus i found it funny when you said don't be suprised if it plummets out of the top 40 next week. Don't know why i know its not that funny but for me it did some reasons :D

Edited March 31, 200817 yr by Kid Justice 2008

cheers Rob :) glad you liked it