In which a Canadian manages to lose a popularity contest with an American in 2025.

1. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”

The Superbowl half time show has never been a big deal in the UK before, but apparently this is a special year for some reason. “Not Like Us” reached number 6 on release last May and hung around for a decent amount of time – it had thirteen weeks in the top 40. It re-entered at 27 two weeks ago after the Grammys and climbed to 2 last week. Meanwhile, “Luther” climbs 10-4 and “All the Stars” climbs 11-5, so Kendrick has the maximum three tracks in the top 10.

Kendrick’s previous UK peak was number 4, shared by “Squabble Up” last year and, um, Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” from 2015. (“Luther” also climbs to that position this week.) The enduring popularity of “Not Like Us” would probably be galling for Drake at the best of times, but as it happens, he has a new album out this week. I’m sure we’ll be seeing the singles from that momentarily, right?

9. Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”
10. Sabrina Carpenter – “Busy Woman”

Ah. Well, okay, first we have the deluxe edition of Sabrina Carpenter’s album “Short ‘n’ Sweet”, which duly returns to number 1 for a third week. Not that it’s ever actually gone away – it’s been in the top 5 without interruption since August. “Busy Woman” is one of the new tracks. “Please Please Please” re-enters because of a new version featuring Dolly Parton – it was always a song with obvious country aspects, which are played up more in this version. However, the chart is treating it as simply an extra version of the same song, and so it registers here as a re-entry. It was previously a five-week number 1 last summer. Even with “Busy Woman” counted, she’s only had five top ten hits – but boy, they stick around.

Her third track is ‘Bed Chem”, which rebounds 25-18 this week.

19. Drake – “Nokia”
21. Drake – “Gimme a Hug”
22. PartyNextDoor & Drake – “CN Tower”

The maximum three songs from their joint album “Some Sexy Songs 4 U”. Which enters the album chart at … um, number 3. Sabrina Carpenter beat it by a 75% margin with an album that’s been out since last summer. Obviously number 3 isn’t awful or anything, but it’s the lowest position for a Drake album, including a collaboration, since 2019 (when “Care Package” got to number 4). The reviews haven’t exactly been glowing either.

The credit rules are a bit odd on this one: most of the tracks are credited jointly to both artists, but some are credited exclusively to one or the other. You’ll note that it’s two of the Drake solo tracks that attract the most interest (the other one happens to be the opening track on the album, and it’s really boring). PartyNextDoor is not a particularly big name in UK chart terms, with his only previously top 40 hits being collaborations with much higher profiles artists: Rihanna, Drake, Major Lazer, and Zayn from One Direction. However, because the album as a whole is co-credited, the three-song limit is being applied to tracks from the whole album.

Number 3 is easily the highest position that PartyNextDoor has reached on the UK album chart – his previous peak was number 7 with “Partymobile” in 2020, but last year’s album limped to number 26.

23. AJ Tracey & Jorja Smith – “Crush”

Yeah, this is vastly better. AJ Tracey hasn’t had a hit since 2021, and we haven’t seen Jorja Smith since 2023, despite both of them releasing several singles last year. But this deserves to be here. The sample is a Brandy album track from 2002, “Love Wouldn’t Count Me Out”.

This week’s climbers:

• “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan climbs 4-3, which is a new peak.
• “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar & SZA climbs 10-4, beating its number 5 entry point as an album track in December.
• “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar & SZA climbs 11-5, which matches its peak on release in 2018. It’s maybe worth noting here how much of the top 10 is filled with back catalogue. “Not Like Us” came out last year; “Pink Pony Club” was first released in 2020; “All the Stars” dates from 2018; “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone has been out for over a year; and “Please Please Please” departed the chart last October. (I’ll give “Luther” a pass because it would have been hanging around without interruption from its release if it hadn’t been for Christmas.)
• “30 for 30” by SZA featuring Kendrick Lamar climbs 39-33. Kendrick gets to have four tracks on the chart because he’s only the featured artist on this one, and he’s not credited on the parent album.

The six tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Burning Down” by Alex Warren re-entered at 34 last week.
• “GBP” by Cenral Cee featuring 21 Savage peaked at 6 and lasted a month.
• “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan re-entered at 32 last week.
• “Like Him” by Tyler, The Creator featuring Lola Young re-entered at 38 last week.
• “Espresso” and “Taste” by Sabrina Carpenter, which were at 33 and 40 last week but are both disqualified by the three-song rule.

On the album chart:

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Short N’ Sweet”

We’ve covered that.

2. The Manic Street Preachers – “Critical Thinking”

Yes, this beat Drake too. Manic Street Preachers studio albums consistently place in the top 5; three of their last four albums reached number 2. (The other one got to number 1.) So no real surprises here.

3. PartyNextDoor & Drake – “Some Sexy Song 4 U”

Again, we’ve covered this.

4. The Wombats – “Oh The Ocean”

Drake did have a comfortable margin over this, though – he outsold it by nearly 2 to 1. Their last abum was a number 1 in 2022, but this is in line with their other albums from 2011 onwards. The single above is actually rather good.

8. Louis Dunford – “Be Lucky”

London singer-songwriter, debut album. His mother is actress Linda Robson from Birds of a Feather and Loose Women.

22. Punk Rock Factory – “All Hands on Deck”

Punk covers band. It’s their first album to chart, after two self-released albums that didn’t chart.

30. M Huncho – “U2opia”

Because he also released an album called “Utopia” in 2015, you see. He released four top 10 albums in 2020-2023, but that came to a screeching halt last year when “36 Hours”, a collab with Potter Payper, landed at number 28. Apparently it wasn’t a fluke.