In a week that has seen a barrage of huge comeback singles from some of the world’s biggest female artists, the X Factor Finalists single, Hero, remains at the top for a second week, comfortably outselling everybody else largely thanks to its high physical sales. Beyoncé wins the diva battle, going in at No.2, whilst Girls Aloud complete the top three with The Promise.

 

The finalists of this year’s X Factor are still in control with their charity single Hero, raising money for the Help For Heroes campaign and The Poppy Appeal. The Mariah Carey cover has lost its top spot on iTunes during the week but the huge physical sales that the track is still generating have kept it comfortably in control, the song now passing the half a million sales mark after just two weeks on sale having shifted another 189,600 copies this week. It is certain to become the biggest selling single of 2008 by this time next week particularly as it has had another boost this weekend when the finalists performed the track with Mariah on the live X Factor show.

 

The much hyped diva battle got underway this week and four of the big female singers made promising starts by going straight into the top ten in yet another top ten of drama and high turnover. Former Destiny’s Child lead singer Beyoncé Knowles has had a huge solo career in the past six years since the release of her first single, 2002’s Work It Out, a No.7 UK hit. She has gone on to top the charts with 2003’s Crazy In Love, 2006’s Déjà Vu and 2007’s Beautiful Liar, a duet with Shakira. The superstar has also had three No.2 hits; 2003’s Bonnie & Clyde and Baby Boy and now her new single If I Were A Boy. The ballad, the first single to be taken from her upcoming third studio album, I Am Sasha Fierce, has gone straight in at No.2 on downloads alone, the dark horse of the battle coming out on top this week with most onlookers expecting Britney Spears or Leona Lewis to have the highest new entry. The song has received by far the most airplay of all of the tracks though so its high debut is perhaps not surprising, the mid-tempo ballad being suitable for most radio playlists. Whether the song can be a future UK No.1 depends on how quickly the physical sales of the X Factor single die down, but it certainly looks set to be one of the star’s biggest selling solo hits to date.

 

Girls Aloud’s former No.1 single, The Promise, is still selling enough to be No.1 on most weeks, as is much of the top ten in fact in a very high sales climate which saw the No.10 record, So What by Pink, sell 26,839 copies, enough to have been No.1 on certain weeks in the middle of 2008. The Promise falls another spot to No.3 this week. The second of the big female comebacks is Womanizer by Britney Spears. The first single from the US pop singer’s new album Circus, due out on December 1st, Womanizer has already been a No.1 single in her native America, her first there since her debut single Baby One More Time. Her last UK No.1 single was 2004’s Everytime but it looks unlikely that Womanizer will give her another. The song is seen as her true comeback after last year’s Gimme More, a No.3 UK hit this time last year, and it will be interesting to see how much higher this song can go. It is the star’s nineteenth UK top ten hit in total, the only three of her singles to miss out on the top ten were Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know (No.12, 2001), I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll (No.13, 2002) and Break The Ice (No.15, 2008). Completing the top five this week is X Factor 2006 victor Leona Lewis. Leona has had a stunning start to her career in comparison to most winner’s of the show. Her debut single A Moment Like This was her first No.1 whilst the 2007 follow up Bleeding Love was a worldwide No.1 hit, spending seven weeks at the top of the UK chart this time last year. Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand was a No.2 success earlier in the year and now Forgive Me, the first single from the deluxe edition of her multi million selling debut album Spirit, is her fourth successive top five hit, going straight in at No.5 following a simultaneous physical and digital release.

 

Infinity 2008 by Guru Josh Project is down two places at No.6, the updated dance anthem suffering a chart decline despite being physically released this week. Katy Perry’s second UK single, Hot ‘N’ Cold, is pushed down a place to No.7 despite the physical release of the single still two weeks away yet, currently scheduled for November 24th. The next new entry is the first solo top ten hit for former Mis-Teeq MC Alesha Dixon. The star, who was famous for her rapping in the female trio’s early noughties hits, rocketed back to fame in the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, which she won convincingly. Alesha launched a solo career originally in 2006 but the hotly tipped Lipstick failed to reach the top ten whilst Knockdown, the follow up, missed the top forty altogether. It will be a relief to the singer then that Strictly Come Dancing seems to have completely reignited her career. The Xenomania produced single, The Boy Does Nothing, goes straight in at No.8 this week, and with the physical release due on Monday it could well go higher.

 

The huge success of the new Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, continues to have a knock on effect on the soundtrack song, Another Way To Die by Jack White & Alicia Keys. It climbs a further place to a new peak of No.9 on its seventh week inside the top forty. Alicia’s last big hit was 2007’s No One, which peaked at No.6 but went on to spend six weeks inside the top ten and was a huge radio hit. This is Jack’s first solo success outside of his bands The White Stripes and The Raconteurs. Pink rounds off the top ten, diving from No.3 to No.10 this week with the former No.1 So What which is spending its sixth week inside the top ten now. This week’s top ten therefore features five British acts and five American acts.

 

The next new entry is Keeps Gettin’ Better, the new single from Christina Aguilera, another big US diva. The star, who launched her career in 1999 with Genie In A Bottle, last reached the UK top ten on her own with the No.2 2006 hit Ain’t No Other Man, missing the top ten with the follow up singles Hurt (No.11, 2006) and Candyman (No.17, 2007) despite both songs going on to become highly regarded singles and X Factor favourites. Her P Diddy duet Tell Me was the last UK top ten hit she featured on, a No.8 hit in late 2006. Keeps Gettin’ Better, a download only release, is one of the new tracks from her greatest hits album of the same name which is due out on Monday. It is a subtle electro track and about as far removed as can be from the 1940s influenced big band sound of her 2006 album Back To Basics.

 

The two Akon tracks both move into the top twenty this week. Dangerous, the former US top five hit and collaboration with Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall, is up five places to No.16 following its physical release whilst his own new single, Right Now, is up four places to No.19. I Hate This Part, the second single from Pussycat Dolls’ new album Doll Domination, jumps sixteen places to No.20, well on its way to becoming the seventh top ten single for the band. Use Somebody, the second single from Kings Of Leon’s Only By The Night, climbs five places to a new peak of No.25 this week whilst the physical release of 7 Things by Miley Cyrus propels the track up eleven places to No.26, the track’s second week inside the top 40 now.

 

Let Your Love Flow, by American country duo The Bellamy Brothers, was a No.7 hit back in 1976 and returns to the chart this week at No.30. This is due to its use on a Barclaycard commercial featuring an office worker going from his workplace to his home through a long flume that winds around a city. Superhuman, the current single from Chris Brown and Keri Hilson, is up another six places to No.32, now on its third week inside the top forty with the physical release due on November 17th. The next new entry to the top forty is Break Even, the third single from Irish trio The Script which debuts at No.34 this week. It is the follow up to the huge No.2 single The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. These two singles and their debut single We Cry are all taken from their eponymous debut album which reached No.1 recently. Will Young’s Grace, the second single from his current album Let It Go, is a new entry on downloads at No.35, following his performance of the track on last weekend’s X Factor. The song’s predecessor, Changes, was a No.10 hit a short while ago but many fans see Grace as the album’s standout track.

 

Two further singles join the back end of the top forty this week in a chart that has seen ten new songs enter, the weekly turnover gradually getting faster again. US rapper T.I. has already had a huge year in the US, currently No.1 and No.2 over there with Live Your Life and Whatever You Like respectively. Live Your Life, which features guest vocals from Barbadian superstar Rihanna enters at No.39 this week on a few hours worth of download sales, having been made available on Saturday. The track should shoot into the top five next week and give the rapper by far his biggest hit, his previous best in the UK being the 2006 Crystal Waters sampling No.22 hit Why You Wanna. He also featured on top five UK hits by Destiny’s Child and Justin Timberlake in 2006, Solider and My Love. Live Your Life samples the 2004 Europop hit Dragostea Din Tei by Romanian boy band O-Zone, that single reached No.3 here. Finally, London based pop-indie trio Scouting For Girls score the fifth top forty single from their eponymous debut No.1 album. I Wish I Was James Bond makes its first top forty appearance at No.40 this week, following up the singles It’s Not About You (No.31, 2007/No.38, 2008), She’s So Lovely (No.7, 2007), Elvis Ain’t Dead (No.8, 2007) and Heartbeat (No.10, 2008).

 

Continuing their sensational recent success, British girl group Girls Aloud go straight in at No.1 with their new album Out Of Control. It is their first No.1 studio album out of five attempts, although their 2006 hits album, The Sound Of Girls Aloud, was their first album chart topper. Pink’s Funhouse slides a place to No.2 after a week at the top and Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias’ Greatest Hits goes in at No.3 this week. It his third UK top three album after 2002’s Escape, which reached No.1, and last year’s No.3 success Insomniac. Razorlight’s Slipway Fires is the latest hyped release to miss No.1, going in at No.4 this week and following similar surprise non-chart toppers from Kaiser Chiefs and Snow Patrol. Snow Patrol’s A Hundred Million Suns slides three places to No.5 whilst Kings Of Leon dip two places to No.6 with Only By The Night. Celine Dion’s My Love: Essential Collection also slides two places to No.7 ahead of a new entry from Status Quo, Pictures – 40 Years Of Hits at No.8. AC/DC’s Black Ice drops six spots to No.9 and German dance collective Sash!’s Best Of stays strong, falling just a spot to No.10 this week on its third week inside the top ten.

 

Next week’s chart should see a third week at the top for the X Factor single Hero unless the physical sales drop significantly. Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Leona Lewis and Alesha Dixon all have further potential, Alesha and Beyoncé’s singles being released physically on Monday. Other physically released singles that could make an impact are due from Enya, Lemar, N-Force, New Kids On The Block, The Script and Simply Red, whilst high download entries are certain from The Killers comeback single Human and Duffy’s Rain On Your Parade, a new track from the deluxe edition of her Rockferry album. James Blunt also releases a new single digitally, the new track Love Love Love, and T.I. and Rihanna’s Live Your Life should climb from the bottom end to the top end of the top forty in seven days time. Girls Aloud will be looking for a second week at the top with Out Of Control but a series of big releases is likely to stop that from happening. New albums from Il Divo, Enya, Stereophonics, Christina Aguilera, Seal, The Smiths, Jason Donovan, Tony Christie and Fron Male Voice Choir should all at least have a minor impact in seven days time.

 

Thanks to Polyhex, EveryHit, ManicKangaroo and Play.com for various information and resources

FANTASTIC READ! :cheer: Should be exciting these next few weeks :w00t:

thanks Johnjo :D I agree, it's an excellent period for music at the moment and the huge sales just prove that!

Thanks Rich, that was a good read ^_^

thank you Jester :D

Excellent work Rich, give yourself a gold star :)

will do :P thanks Mark :D

Great read, expect Pudsey's Beautiful Dreamers and the Tartan Army to get a shoe in the top 40 by the end of Saturday :heehee: its Children In Need week :cheer:

thanks Martin :D I'll look out for that track :heehee:

It is the star’s nineteenth UK top ten hit in total, the only three of her singles to miss out on the top ten were Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know (No.12, 2001), I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll (No.13, 2002) and Break The Ice (No.15, 2008).

Those are all in my top 10 favourite Britney songs. :lol:

 

Whoa at #10 getting 26k, i was saving that for the sales topic :P

And who's that on your avatar? I'm sure i should know :heehee:

Great again :cheer: