You’d have thought that by 2020 we’d have had a number one single by someone born this century. But as it turns out, this is the first one…

1. Billie Eilish – “No Time To Die”

This is the new Bond theme, which certainly helps to get mainstream attention. But that’s never been enough to get a number one hit in itself. In fact, this is only the second Bond theme to reach number one. (The other was Sam Smith’s “Writing on the Wall”.) Besides, in the streaming era, it’s not enough to get your record noticed; you need people to keep listening to it.

Billie Eilish came very close to having a number one last year. “Bad Guy” reached number 2, “Everything I Wanted” got to 3. At first glance she’s not an obvious choice for a Bond theme, but the song itself is a pretty straight take on the format. If nothing else, Billie EIlish does trade in melodrama, and that’s very much Bond theme territory.

She has three tracks in the top 40 this week, with “Everything I Ever Wanted” at 9 and “Bad Guy” still hanging around at 17. (It dropped out of the top 40 back in September but had a resurgence at the start of the year.)

“Roses” by Saint Jhn climbs 8-7, and “Intentions” by Justin Bieber featuring Quavo climbs 14-10. (More of Justin in a bit.) “Lonely” by Joel Corry climbs 16-14.

20. Sam Smith – “To Die For”

Bit of a slow start considering that it’s been heavily promoted, and came out in a quiet week. I really, really don’t like the production on his voice on this.

“Say So” by Doja Cat climbs 25-21.

29. Justin Bieber featuring Post Malone & Clever – “Forever”

No video for this; it’s an album track from his album “Changes”, which enters at number 1 (by a tiny margin, equivalent to 144 sales). It’s his second number 1, following 2012’s “Believe”. He’s only released one other studio album since then – 2015’s “Purpose”, which got to 2. Bieber already has two regular singles out – “Intentions”, which is at 10, and “Yummy”, which is at 12. I’d hazard a guess that this album track gets his third slot on the basis of Post Malone as a high profile guest. Clever is a rapper from Alabama, and this is his first appearance on the singles chart.

35. B Young – “Wine”

Finally, in a quiet week on the singles chart, we’ve got this. B Young had two top 20 hits in 2018 (“Jumanji” and “079Me”), but his only 2019 single missed the top 40. So this is a step back in the right direction for him.

On the album chart, I’ve already covered Justin Bieber at number 1.

3. Tame Impala – “The Slow Rush”

It’s been five years since the last Tame Impala album, but that one got to number 3, so it’s not a huge surprise that this does as well. In fact, it was number 1 in the midweeks – and it’s only about 1,200 copies behind Bieber at the end of the week. The single feels like it could have been promoted more effectively.

5. New Hope Club – “New Hope Club”

Another album where I’m a little surprised they weren’t able to make more of the single. This lot were signed to the Vamps’ label for a while, and they don’t seem like they ought to be tailored to the album market – but that’s where they seem to have ended up. It’s their debut album, though it includes tracks that were released as singles back in 2018.

11. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie – “Artist 2.0”

Last year’s album only got to 23, so this is a step up.

22. David Gray – “White Ladder”

This is billed as a 20th anniversary reissue, but “White Ladder” was actually self-released in 1998 – it just didn’t chart until it was reissued on ATO Records two years later. It was only number one for 2 weeks (both of which were in 2001), but it hung around in the top 10 for 40 weeks and in the top 40 for 124. It currently ranks as the 11th best-selling album of the 21st century, with over 3 million copies sold.

26. Ash – “Teenage Wildlife – 25 Years Of Ash”

I’m not sure “teenage” and “25 years of” are words that sit well together in a retrospective title. Still, the early Ash singles from the mid 90s are fantastic. And that’s it for this week, aside from a bunch of re-entries prompted by the Brit Awards, which will all be gone next week.