Well, back to a more typical level of turnover on the singles chart…

1. Jamie Miller – “Babydoll” 

Two weeks. It’s still growing, and quite rapidly – if nothing else, we do have a number 1 that’s outperforming “Rein Me In” by a mile, even before ACR downweighting. The song still does nothing for me, though.

13. Jade – “Angel Of My Dreams”

Apparently this has gone viral after being used as soundtrack for Kylie Jenner at the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. It reached number 7 on release two years ago as Jade’s solo debut single, but she struggled to follow it up, and it took another four singles before she got something into the top 40 again. I still think “Angel Of My Dreams” was fantastic – and the video remains completely insane – so it’s nice to see it get another shot.

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For once, a genuinely busy week on the singles chart. And if it’s largely the result of two album releases, at least they’re not obvious candidates to have that sort of impact.

1. Jamie Miller – “Babydoll”

This wasn’t in the script. This was supposed to be Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan’s week, with the single version of “Expectations” coming out, and a bunch of pre-ordered physical singles giving it a first-week boost. In the event, the top three turns out to be an unusually tight race and, even with the benefit of those physical singles, “Expectations” winds up third.

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One of those weeks where at least the album chart is doing something.

1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”

Three weeks. Taylor Swift is in the happy position of having fans who buy physical product in large numbers, and who are willing to wait for it to come out. So she shipped another 33,000 CDs last week, which would very nearly have been enough to get her to number 1 even before looking at her streaming points. And her streaming is substantial, but if she didn’t have those CDs, she’d be at number 8. The number one would be Jamie Miller’s “Babydoll” (and “Rein Me In” would once again be claiming to be the rightful number one on the basis of unadjusted streams).

15. Pink featuring Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me A Reason”

Apparently they’ve just rediscovered this over on TikTok. It is a good song, to be fair. It spent two weeks at number 2 in 2013, when it had the misfortune to be kept off number 1 by a one-week resurgence for PJ & Duncan’s “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble” after Ant & Dec performed it on their ITV show.

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Last week, Taylor Swift released the special edition of her last album and placed three tracks in the top 5, while nobody wanted to risk going up against her. This week, Drake releases the special edition of his album…

1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero” 

Two weeks. Apparently Taylor Swift really cares about maximising her time at number one, because a batch of around 11,000 pre-ordered CD singles were released to fans ahead of schedule this week when it looked like she might need them to hold on. In the event, she did need them – if they’d shipped in the release week, she would have been number 2 behind Sienna Spiro. Swift has form for this – she did the same thing to get herself two weeks at number 1 with “I Knew It, I Knew You”.

The two other new tracks don’t fare so well. Both of them fall below “The Fate of Ophelia”, which re-enters at number 17. “Babylon” drops from number 4 to number 28; “Cleveland”, which was number 3 last week, vanishes entirely under the three song rule.

As for Drake, it turns out that he doesn’t even get the highest new entry.

16. Noah Kahan – “Draw You Out”

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In which Taylor Swift releases the special edition of her last album and everyone else stays out of her way.

1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero”
3. Taylor Swift – “Cleveland”
4. Taylor Swift – “Babylon”

These are from the special edition of “The Life of a Showgirl”, which duly returns to number 1 for a fifth week. There are four new tracks on the album, but the three song limit excludes “Pink Clouding”. “Patient Zero” is the official single. It’s decent enough for a midtempo Taylor Swift track that didn’t make the main album, though I could live without that bridge section.

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We don’t have much going on in terms of new entries, but at least we’ve got some tracks making progress up the chart.

1. Sienna Spiro – “Great Expectation”

Three weeks, though needless to say, it would still be behind “Rein Me In” if they were on a level playing field. She also has “Die On This Hill” just outside the top 10 as it comes up for its first anniversary in a couple of weeks, and “Pure” is still making progress, climbing to 28 this week.

29. Cloonee & Prospa featuring Tristan Henry – “Good Girl”

The follow-up to “Free Your Mind”, finally reaching the top 40 after two months of climbing from the lower reaches. The previous single was credited to Prospa & Cloonee, while this one is credited to Cloonee & Prospa. We can only imagine the delicate negotiations involved.

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Well, we do have a couple of new entries for actual new releases…

1. Sienna Spiro – “Great Expectations” 

Two weeks, although if the ACR rule wasn’t a thing, “Rein Me In” would still be way ahead of it. She still has three tracks in the top 40 – “Die On This Hill” climbs back to number 10 in its 36th week on the top 40, while “Pure” is clinging on at number 39. By current chart standards, “Great Expectations” is a relative newcomer at a mere eleven weeks on chart.

15. Adéla – “Nicole Kidman”

This is her second hit, following on from “Ain’t In LA”, which is currently at number 13. The parent album also got to number 2 last week. So Adéla seems to have managed a legitimate breakthrough in the 2026 market, and that’s tough. The video above is not remotely subtle, but the track’s actually pretty good, and I do think there’s more going on here than with someone like Tate McRae – though Adela tracks do also have a slight tendency to lapse into generic you-go-girl lyrics in verse 2.

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At last, turnover!

1. Sienna Spiro – “Great Expectation”

This has taken ten weeks to climb to number 1, which is positively sprightly by 2026 standards. Of course, there’s an asterisk here – if “Rein Me In” wasn’t subject to downweighting, it would be thrashing this track with a margin of more than a third. But you can make a fair case that the aim of that rule isn’t just to speed up the charts, it’s to attach less weight to tracks that are just hanging around on playlists.

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Well, the day has finally come. Last week, “Rein Me In” declined (and underperformed the market) for the third successive week. And so this week, it finally goes to ACR, ending its 23 weeks at number one, and relegating it to the gloomy depths of number 7. What exciting new music has this cleared the way for?

1. Ella Langley – “Choosin’ Texas” 

Oh. Right. Well, it’s not been number one before, I suppose. But it’s been on the top 40 for 31 weeks now, again without being relegated to ACR. She’s not a one-hit wonder – “Be Her” also charted a few weeks ago, and it’s currently at number 30. This is also the current US number one, though as a country song, international interest is not a given. The ponderous official video above doesn’t do it any favours either – if you’re going to talk over half the song, at least hire some people who can act.

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I know, this is getting predictable.

1. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – “Rein Me In”

Twenty-three weeks at number one. Sixty-two weeks on the top 40. But wait… at last, at long last, “Rein Me In” has fallen by more than the market average for three weeks in a row. This means that next week it goes to ACR, and its streaming points will be halved. And while it still has a huge lead over the number 2 single, it’s not that huge. If it had been on ACR this week, it would have been at number 6. So, barring a miracle, this is it.

9. Dolly Parton – “Jolene”
12. Dolly Parton – “9 to 5”
13. Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers – “Islands in the Stream” 

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