This week’s chart is laughably uneventful. Well, except for…

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”

Climbing from 3 to give Sabrina Carpenter her second number one, a mere three weeks after “Espresso” ended its five-week reign.

A bit of context: Sabrina Carpenter has been releasing singles since 2014. During years in the Disney orbit, she had negligible impact on charts anywhere. She had a number 19 hit in Norway in 2017. After she jumped from Disney she had a minor internaional hit with “Skin” in 2021, mainly because it was widely understood as an answer record to Olivia Rodrigo. And then somewhere around 2022 she seemed to get it to click, but even then, her UK peak was just inside the top 20. To go from that to two number 1s in a row is quite the step up.

(more…)

Have we wandered into the album chart or something?

1. Eminem – “Houdini”

Two weeks. Which is surprising in itself from a man in his fifties who ought to be a legacy act by this point. But it’s even more surprising when you realise that none of his other ten number ones made it past a single week.

3. Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”

Well, there you go – “Espresso” wasn’t a one-off, and Sabrina Carpenter is a star now. Remember, she’d never made it past number 19 until “Espresso” became a number one. In fact, “Espresso” is still there at number 2, so she has a majority of the top 3.

“Please Please Please” is an interesting choice of follow-up single – technically I suppose it counts as a ballad, of a sort? I like it, but I doubt she could have got a hit out of it before “Espresso”. She has a persona that only really makes sense that you accept the premise that she’s a star – which is obviously a lot easier once the public agree with her.

(more…)

Now here’s someone I wouldn’t have predicted having a number 1 hit in 2024.

1. Eminem – “Houdini”
38. Eminem – “Without Me”

This is the lead single from his upcoming album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)”, which seems to be some sort of weird meta thing about his past career and old Slim Shady persona. This track is, fairly obviously, a riff on “Without Me”, even though the hook is from the Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra” (number 2 in 1982). “Without Me” itself re-enters at 38, which is an unusual case of a spillover hit. His greatest hits album is back in the top 10 as well.

Whether the whole album is throwback stuff or whether this is set-up for something else… who knows. It’s Eminem’s 11th UK number 1, spanning a period of 25 years. For those wondering, the other 10 are: “The Real Slim Shady” (2000), “Stan” (2000), “Without Me” (2002), “Lose Yourself” (2002), “Just Lose It” (2004), “Like Toy Soldiers” (2005), a guest appearance on Akon’s “Smack That” (2006), “The Monster” (2013), “River” (2017) and “Godzilla” (2020). Basically, Eminem’s imperial phase is long behind him but, unusually for someone at this point in his career, he can still pull out a number 1 single or at least a big hit from each new album. In fact, the streams on this are huge – equivalent to over 100,000 sales, which is the biggest we’ve had in a year.

(more…)

It’s a quiet week on the singles chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

That’s five weeks. The top three are all non-movers, with Billie Eilish’s “Lunch” at 2, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” at 3.

4. Central Cee featuring Lil Baby – “Band4Band”

The highest new entry by quite some margin, though it feels like autopilot stuff to me. Number 4 is way above average for Central Cee, though. It’s his highest position since Sprinter reached number 1 last year, and that gave equal billing to Dave; as sole lead artist, it’s his biggest hit since “Doja” reached number 2 in 2022. By most people’s standards that wouldn’t be so long ago, but Central Cee is quite prolific – this is his fourth top 40 hit of the year (none of the others got above 18).

(more…)

Well, Billie Eilish has an album out, and nobody’s going up against that. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to number one…

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

That’s four weeks, in the face of a major release. Her biggest British hit by a mile.

2. Billie Eilish – “Lunch”
7. Billie Eilish – “Chihiro”
9. Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”

Three tracks from her album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” – officially her third album, though her 2018 EP “Don’t Smile at Me” also qualified for the album chart. All three official albums have gone to number one, so this is not a surprise in the slightest. For what it’s worth, the first album hung around a lot longer than the second, but both had very respectable chart runs.

(more…)

This is the Eurovision chart, in an unusually controversial year for the show. But we’ll get to that.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

That’s three weeks, and by a very small margin. It may not be entirely coincidental that her CD single was released on Thursday, just in time for its fan sales to boost her total.

2. Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen – “I Had Some Help”

This is the lead single from Post Malone’s next album. He’s tacking to country – isn’t everyone? – but fans will be pleased to hear that there are still traces of annoying vocal processing. Mostly, though, it’s a perfectly fine  track for country radio. It’s better than I was expecting. Morgan Wallen is a big name in country, but his only previous appearance on the UK singles chart was with “Last Night”, an American number 1 that got to 28 here.

(more…)

Well, this is a chart with a theme, isn’t it?

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

Two weeks, and still doing very well. The Taylor Swift tracks are on their way down the chart, which means that Hozier returns to number 2, but the obvious challenger is Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, which is up to 3.

10. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
11. Kendrick Lamar – “Euphoria”
17. Drake – “Family Matters”
28. Kendrick Lamar – “Meet The Grahams”

That’s on top of Drake’s “Push Ups” at number 30, and “Like That” by Future & Metro Boomin featuring Kendrick Lamar at number 20 (back up ten places – it doesn’t count towards his three song limit because he’s only a guest).

(more…)

It’s mostly a quiet week on the singles chart, but hey, we’ve got a new number one!

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

By a razor thin margin – the equivalent of 484 sales – but it’s still number one. I’m not hugely surprised that Taylor Swift only managed a single week, since “Fortnight” isn’t the most instant thing she’s ever released. I’m more surprised that it’s Sabrina Carpenter who replaces her, rather than Hozier returning to the top. The song itself is perfectly good; it’s the sort of thing you can see Dua Lipa having a big hit with. But Sabrina Carpenter has never got above number 19 before, and while she’s not a one-hit wonder, this is miles bigger than anything else she’s released. We’ll see if she can follow it up – her persona might be the sort of thing that only makes sense once she becomes a star.

(more…)

Well, this is not going to surprise anyone.

1. Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone – “Fortnight”
3. Taylor Swift – “The Tortured Poets Department”
4. Taylor Swift – “Down Bad”

That’s the maximum three tracks from “The Tortured Poets Department”, which enters the album chart at number 1. Taylor Swift hasn’t missed number 1 with a studio album since 2010 – and yes, that’s counting the “Taylor’s Version” releases. She doesn’t manage a clean sweep of the top 3, with Hozier hanging in at number 2.

“Fortnight” is both the official single and the opening track, and so gets the most streams. It’s only her  fourth number one single – more a sign of bad luck than anything else, since she’s had five number 2s. Her other number 1s are “Look What You Made Me Do” (2017), “Anti-Hero” (2022) and “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version)” (2023). Post Malone gets a featured artist credit, even though he’s more noticeable in the video than on the record – finally giving him a second number 1 to follow “Rockstar” (2017).

(more…)

So before you ask: the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, so that means Taylor Swift doesn’t show up until next week’s chart. In the meantime, we’ve got quite a busy week – and mostly decent new entries on the singles chart, too.

1. Hozier – “Too Sweet”

Two weeks. I don’t fancy his chances for a third, but you never know.

6. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

Well, that’s interesting. Sabrina Carpenter has three previous hit singles to her name – “Skin”, the questionable answer record to “Driver’s Licence”, which got to number 28 in 2021; “Nonsense”, which managed a week at number 32 in 2023; and “Feather”, which made it to number 19 at the start of the year. And, to be fair, it stuck around for a few weeks. Still, it’s not exactly a track record to suggest that the first single from her sixth album would be a top ten hit. This is a big step up in her singles chart performance.

(more…)