In which Justin Bieber has a new album out, and so everyone just stands back and lets shim get on with it.

1. Nathan Evans, 220 Kid & Billen Ted – “Wellerman”

Two weeks at number one, with a comfortable lead. It’s been out for nine weeks already, though, so if it’s already peaked then it might find itself being hit with the downweighting rule next week. We’ll see.

3. Justin Bieber featuring Daniel Caesar & Giveon – “Peaches”
24. Justin Bieber featuring Khalid – “As I Am”

Bieber’s album “Justice” enters at number 2, which is his sixth top five album (admittedly, two of them are the regular and acoustic versions of “Believe”). Two of them reached number 1 – the main version of “Believe” in 2012, and last year’s “Changes”. It gets the maximum permitted three tracks into the chart – the two tracks above, and “Hold On”, which rebounds from 31 to a new peak of 10.

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Ah, so it’s that week. “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo has now been out for 11 weeks and so – since it passed its peak several weeks ago – it shifts to the lower streaming points for older records. This rule, designed to stop the top end of the chart being logjammed with older singles, goes unnoticed most of the time, because it normally affects records that were on their way down anyway. With number 1s, its more of a problem, since it has the absurd consequence of a song dropping direct from 1 to (in this week’s example) 18. Which is to say, you can see the strings a bit too obviously.

Anyway, that leaves the door open for…

1. Nathan Evans, 220 Kid & Billen Ted – “Wellerman”

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She’s not going without a fight.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

The midweeks had Olivia Rodrigo being dethroned by “Wellerman”, but in the end she hangs on for a ninth week – by a margin equivalent to 742 sales. This surely has to be the end, right?

“Wellerman” has spent seven weeks now hovering between 2 and 3. It finally gets a proper video this week, which is, um… well, it’s so obviously thrown together that you have to wonder why it took seven weeks to appear. Covid issues, maybe. “The Business” by Tiesto climbs 4-3, which is his highest position since 2014. And the big release of this week…

4. Drake – “What’s Next”
6. Drake featuring Rick Ross – “Lemon Pepper Freestyle”
10. Drake featuring Lil Baby – “Wants and Needs”

That’s all three of the tracks from his EP “Scary Hours 2”. I struggle to get worked up about Drake, to be honest, but there’s no doubt that he’s still in the peak phase of his career. The two B-sides are somewhat more interesting than some of his singles have been, but this is very much a relative thing.

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Well, this is quiet.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

Eight weeks. As mentioned last week, it’s the longest run at number 1 since the tail end of 2019, when “Dance Monkey” managed 11 weeks. And once again, it’s a long way down to the highest new entry. In the meantime, there’s just a bit of position-switching among the established hits. “Friday” by Riton x Nightcrawlers climbs 7-5, and “Goosebumps” by Travis Scott & HVME climbs 9-8. “Your Love (9pm)” by ATB, Topic & A7S climbs 15-12. “Up” by Cardi B is up one place to 16, “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee up 1 place to 17. We hit a peak of excitement at number 19, which “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max climbing a whole six places – which is still only the peak that her spring 2020 single “Kings & Queens” reached.

20. Joel Corry x RAYE x David Guetta – “Bed”

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It’s not budging.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”

That’s seven weeks. So it’s time to start paying attention to the records. Two records managed six weeks last year: Ariana Grande’s “Positions” and Joel Corry & MNEK’s “Head & Heart”. “Drivers License” now overtakes them both. The next step is a big challenge, though – “Dance Monkey” by Tones & I, which lasted 11 weeks at number 1 in 2019. I don’t see Rodrigo making it that long – she’s had one close call already. But we’ll see.

The rest of the top 3 is static, with “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay & 6LACK at 2, and Nathan Evans’ “Wellerman” at 3. And it’s a long, long way down to the first new entry. “The Business” by Tiesto climbs 6-4, becoming his highest placing single since 2014. “Friday” by Riton x Nightcrawler featuring Mufasa & Hypeman climbs 10-7. Remarkably, “Save Your Tears” by the Weeknd continues to climb despite having been available as an album track for months, and now moves 13-11. “Latest Trends” by A1 & J1, which entered at 19 and climbed to 17 last week, gathers momentum by climbing to 12. “Your Love (9pm)” by ATB, Topic & A7S climbs 21-5. Cardi B’s “Up” climbs 22-17. Central Cee’s “Commitment Issues” climbs 23-18. “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals climbs 26-23. “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max climbs 29-25, which coincidentally leaves it one place above “Head & Heart”, still hanging in there months after it left number 1.

28. Ella Henderson & Tom Grennan – “Let’s Go Home Together”

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It’s the busiest week on the singles chart for ages. Serenely undisturbed by it all is…

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

…which remains number 1 for a sixth week. But it’s close this time.

2. Lil Tjay & 6LACK – “Calling My Phone”

This is the strongest challenge that “Drivers Licence” has had yet – it holds on, but by a margin equivalent to 1,700 sales. That’s beatable. It’s not an obvious challenger, either. Lil Tjay’s only previous appearance in the top 40 was as a guest on Pop Smoke’s “Mood Swings” (number 5 last year) – until now, his own singles have always missed the chart. 6LACK – it’s pronounced “black”, which would be more obvious if it was written in lower case – hasn’t had a hit single in the UK either, though he’s got an album into the top 20. It’s a surprising chart record (or lack thereof) considering that he’s been around for years and has several Grammy nominations under his belt.

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It’s 90s Eurodance chorus recycling week.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

Five weeks, without much difficulty.

5. Digga D & AJ Tracey – “Bringing It Back”

Easily the biggest hit to date for Digga D, who’s never previously got above 18. Of course, he’s working with AJ Tracey here, who had four straight top ten hits last year alone.

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Apparently nobody is up for releasing singles in the same week as the Fredo album.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”

Four weeks, and it’s still not even close. “Drivers License” has double the points of its nearest competition, and is still getting over 8 million streams a week. “Wellerman” by Nathan Evans featuring 220Kid & Billen Ted climbs 3-2, but it’s not likely to get any further against this sort of competition.

3. Fredo featuring Dave – “Money Talks”
18. Fredo featuring Pop Smoke & Young Adz – “Burner on Deck”
21. Fredo featuring Summer Walker – “Ready”

Three tracks from Fredo’s album “Money Can’t Buy Happiness”, which enters the album chart at number 2. That’s his highest position to date, but only just – his 2018 and 2019 releases both got to number 5. Fredo’s biggest hit single remains his appearance on Dave’s “Freaky Friday”, a number 1 in 2018; his previous best as a lead artist was number 13. It obviously helps “Money Talks” that Dave appears as a credited guest, and he’s an executive producer on the entire album to boot. Still, this seems like a step up in Fredo’s personal drawing power.

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We’re getting back to a normal number of new entries on the singles chart, as the post-Christmas promotional cycle gets back into the swing of things. Whether the records themselves are normal… well, that’s a separate matter.

1 Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

Three weeks, and it’s not even close – she beats the number 2 single by three to one. That number 2 track is “Without You” by The Kid Laroi, climbing from 5. And then…

3. Nathan Evans featuring 220Kid & Billen Ted – “Wellerman”

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As the charts settle back down to normal, the first new number one of the year is settling in for a residency.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers License”
32. Olivia Rodrigo – “All I Want”

Two weeks. “Drivers Licence” is – deservedly – an enormous hit, coming from nowhere to set new streaming records worldwide. Its streaming total this week was 13.7 million, not a record, but still the highest weekly figure in a couple of years. A couple of weeks ago Olivia Rodrigo was essentially unknown outside the Disney Channel demographic, which makes it all the more impressive. As a spillover, we have a surprise entry into the top 40 for “All I Want”, a track she wrote for Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. It wasn’t technically released as a single but it does have a video and it made the top 100 on streaming when it was released a year ago.