Charts – 18 February 2022
This really does seem to be unshiftable.
Five weeks. It has peaked, but it’s still comfortably in the lead. As for the other two Encanto songs, “Surface Pressure” drops to 4, and “The Family Madrigal” rebounds 9-8 (which is still below its peak of 7).
2. Ed Sheeran – “The Joker and the Queen”
Not an obvious choice of single, this is the track from last year’s “=” album that Ed Sheeran performed at the Brit Awards, and then followed up with a new version featuring Taylor Swift. Even though that’s the version with the video, and it accounts for the vast majority of streams, for some reason the label hasn’t nominated it as the lead version – and so the song appears on the chart credited simply to Ed Sheeran as per the original album version.
Charts – 11 February 2021
Well, this just isn’t going anywhere, is it?”
There are still three Encanto songs in the top 10, with “Surface Pressure” climbing to 3, and “The Family Madrigal” hanging in there at 9.
5. ArrDee & Aitch – “War”
That matches the peak of ArrDee’s last single “Flowers”, and two of his other 2021 singles peaked at 6. He’s certainly consistent. Aitch gets his first hit of the year, and returns to the top 10 for the first time since spring 2020. It’s not bad at all, but I’ve heard better Aitch singles.
Charts – 4 February 2022
The Disney era continues.
Three weeks. The top 4 is static, which means “Surface Pressure” by Jessica Darrow gets a second week at number 4. And “The Family Madrigal” by Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz & The Cast of Encanto climbs 11-7, giving Disney three top ten hits. It’s not the first time that the top 10 has contained three songs from the same soundtrack, but you have to go back to the late 70s (Grease and Saturday Night Fever).
As for new entries… yeah, it’s quiet.
25. Central Cee – “Cold Shoulder”
Already on to his third hit single of 2022, and it’s only the start of February. In fact, if you count his appearance on “Overseas” by D-Block Europe it’s four – that song entered at 8 just before Christmas, returned to the top 10 after the festive glut, and finally reaches a new peak of number 6 this week. Central Cee’s own 2022 hits have all peaked outside the top 20, but boy there’s a lot of them.
Charts – 28 January 2022
It’s a very quiet week on the singles chart.
Two weeks, and currently on course for a third. We have one new entry in the … er, top 38.
9. Digga D & Still Brickin’ – “Pump 101”
The sort of drill record that would be very radio friendly if it weren’t for… well, pretty much all the lyrics. Which is partly because it’s not really drill; it’s close to being a cover of G-Unit’s “Stunt 101” (number 25 in 2003). It’s Digga D’s third top ten hit, and the debut hit for Still Brickin’, whose motivation for choosing that name eludes me. He’s a Liverpool rapper who seems to be pretty obscure – no bio on Genius, no other tracks on Spotify. Maybe he feels strongly about vaccine disinformation.
Charts – 21 January 2022
I love unexpected number ones.
1. Carolina Gaitan, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero & Stephanie Beatriz – “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Or “The Cast of Encanto“, if you prefer, but that’s the official credit. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a great song, but it’s an unlikely number one. It’s a song designed to advance the plot of a musical, and it doesn’t really make much sense if you haven’t seen the movie. And it’s a Disney song. Yes, “Let it Go” hung around the top 40 for ages, but it peaked at number 11.
Charts – 14 January 2022
Well, here we go. Now we’re getting back to regular business.
1. Gayle – “ABCDEFU”
This is one of the handful of non-Christmas songs that hung in there during the Christmas period when everything was swamped with Christmas records. As a result, it reaches number one on its ninth week, with the improbable track record of 40-14-2-5-5-6-14-2-1. Rather depressingly, this is the first number one not to feature any of Ed Sheeran, Elton John or Adele since last July (when Olivia Rodrigo was number 1).
Charts – 7 January 2022
The first post-Christmas chart is always… weird. Last week the chart was dominated by Christmas records, based on streams over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This week… all gone. The number one, Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s Christmas record, drops straight out of the top 100, and a veritable horde of songs flood in from the lower reaches to fill the space. Most of them are tracks that had been around before Christmas. But there are some genuine new entries here too – some new releases, some tracks that couldn’t make any headway until the holidays were over.
After a four week gap, “Easy On Me” returns to number one for its eighth week. To give you an idea of how insane this week’s chart is, it’s climbing from number 38. Anyway, time for our first new entry of 2022! Normal service is resumed!
4. Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero & Stephanie Beatriz – “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
Ah.
Charts – 31 December 2021
The final chart of 2021 covers the chart week 24-30 December – which means it includes both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Although the streams of Christmas songs generally fall off a cliff after Christmas itself, they do so well on the big day that this is another Christmas-dominated top 40. Next week, almost all of these Christmas records will vanish, and we’ll have a massive influx of new singles.
1. Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Merry Christmas”
Well, of course people weren’t going to keep buying the LadBaby version. That track exists to be bought as part of a charity campaign or just as part of a narrative – it doesn’t exist to be listened to, and so it places this week at number 29. To be fair to him, that’s better than he managed in the previous two years, when he dropped from number 1 straight out of the top 40.
The proper version of the song returns to number 1 for a third week, but given the festive angle (and the fact it’s been out a month already) I doubt it’ll manage a fourth.
28. Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran – “Peru”
This is an actual, regular new entry – it’s a new mix of a track that topped the specialist Afrobeat charts in November, but which hadn’t previously made the top 40.
Charts – 24 December 2021
If you liked the years of the X Factor winner’s single, you’ll love LadBaby!
1. LadBaby featuring Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Sausage Rolls for Everyone”
Mark Hoyle has had the Christmas number one for the last three years, with essentially the same joke: do a cover version of a well known song but change the lyrics to be about sausage rolls. By having a fourth Christmas number one, Hoyle has matched the record set by the Beatles, although of course they did it organically, in the days before the Christmas Number One was a big part of British popular culture (for reasons now lost in the mists of time to younger generations). Hoyle is doing it as a campaign record.
Charts – 17 December 2021
Just one more chart week to go before Christmas… which means this is a dead week. Not the Christmas chart yet, so too early for the records that want a shot at number one. But swamped with Christmas back catalogue, so nobody else is releasing new music against it.
1. Ed Sheeran & Elton John – “Merry Christmas”
Two weeks. This is starting to grow on me slightly, but I’ll be interested to see if it can really keep charting in future years. It heads up a completely static top 7.
25. D-Block Europe featuring AJ Tracey – “Make You Smile”
This is… an anomaly. It’s not even a single, but a track from the Home Alone 2 mixtape, climbing from last week’s 42. It’s obviously positioned well to capitalise after the Christmas tracks vanish in two weeks time. “Overseas” is at still at number 12.
