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May 9

Charts – 5 May 2017

Posted on Tuesday, May 9, 2017 by Paul in Music

Blimey, this is getting positively eventful.

1.  DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne – “I’m The One”

So after a long, long stretch of tedium, we’ve had four changes of number one in a row.  Okay, one of those was Ed Sheeran going back to the top, but it counts!  And this time it’s DJ Khaled, who’s had hit albums in America going back a decade.  His only previous appearance in the UK singles chart was “For Free”, which made number 25 last year.  That one had Drake on it, which is probably not a coincidence..

And this one also features the high profile guest stars – well, a couple, anyway.  Good old Justin Bieber reliably charts high these days.  Lil Wayne also gets his first number one (his previous best was number 3, which he’s reached as a guest a couple of times).   As for the other two, Chance the Rapper has had a couple of guest appearances before, reaching number 5 with Snakehips on “All My Friends” two years ago.  And Quavo was a guest on one of the Drake album tracks that swamped the chart a little while back.

It’s pretty inane, but there is something pleasingly minimal about the track.  The video, though, is the sort of thing that’s so generic that you wonder what the pitch looked like.  “You know that thing everyone does?  That.  Oh, and there’s a woman on a horse.”

4.  Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee – “Despacito”

We’ve been waiting almost twelve years for this moment, but “Gasolina” is no longer Daddy Yankee’s biggest hit.  Climbing 18 places, “Despacito” overtakes it.  Of course, the version getting all the airplay has Justin Bieber on it, so that’s effectively two Justin Bieber tracks in the top 5 – but he’s not officially credited because he’s only on the remix.  The midweeks have this going to number one, but they’ve been pretty unreliable in the streaming era.

12.  French Montana featuring Swae Lee – “Unforgettable”

Climbing 12.

13.  Rag’n’Bone Man – “Skin” 

Boy, this has taken its time.  Even on the current chart, you don’t normally find a record taking 14 weeks to get this far up the chart.  “Skin” entered at 35 in February, dropped straight out of the top 40, rebounded to climb up as far as 18, dropped out of the top 40 again, and then bounced straight back to climb 30-23-18-17-16-13.

17.  J Hus – “Did You See”

Up another 3.

24.  Future – “Mask Off”

Up another place, and it’s finally got a video now.  The song itself starts at about 1:30.

26.  Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato – “No Promises”

Up thirteen.

27.  Disciples – “On My Mind”

Up one.

31.  Charlie Puth – “Attention”

The lead single from his second album.  Bit of a slow start, considering he had a number one single from the last album (“Marvin Gaye”), but that’s nothing unusual these days.  It’s another track which was promoted via Snapchat filters, which seems to be a thing now.

The woman in the video is Samara Weaving, who was also in Home and Away.

34.  Kygo featuring Ellie Goulding – “First Time”

The previous Kygo single “It Ain’t Me” is still at 18, but it’s been out since March and there’s an album to promote.  In the bad old days they’d have deleted it to make way for the new single, but you can’t do that any more.

40.  Katy Perry featuring Migos – “Bon Appetit”

Not exactly an exercise in lyrical subtlety (“I’m spread like a buffet”?), but that’s the brand, I guess.  The 80s echoes in this thing are admittedly rather endearing.  Katy Perry is still just making the chart with her singles, but the imperial phase is clearly long behind us.

On the album chart (and ignoring some back catalogue re-entries)

  • “÷” by Ed Sheeran is still number 1, for the ninth week.
  • “Humanz” by Gorillaz is 2.  Their first album since 2011, and they’re still charting well.  Gorillaz’ only number one album remains “Demon Days” from 2005.  Single: “Saturnz Barz (Spirit House)”.  (It got to 87 on the singles chart.)
  • “Something Else” by the Cranberries at 18.  They re-formed in 2009 mostly for live shows, and this is the second album they’ve released since then.  It mainly consists of acoustic and orchestral covers of their own back catalogue.  Single: “Linger (Acoustic Version)”.
  • “Gargoyle” by Mark Lanegan at 22.  Exactly where the last album got to.  His solo peak is 21.  He’s quite consistent.  Single: “Beehive”.
  • “Places” by Lea Michele at 37.  She had a number 16 album back in 2014, when she was still in Glee.  Glee feels like a long time ago, doesn’t it?  Single: “Run To You”.

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