Well, she’s slightly less dominant this week.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

Two weeks. The album “The Life of a Showgirl” also gets a second week at number 1. There’s a significant second week drop in streaming, but that still leaves her with a very comfortable lead on both charts. Obviously, the enormous physical album sales from her first week aren’t repeated, and she’s now working mainly on streaming numbers. But that’s still enough to beat the number 2, 3 and 4 albums combined.

On the singles chart, the other tracks from the album do tail off a little bit more. Last week she locked up the top three, but this time “Opalite” is at 4 and “Elizabeth Taylor” at 6. She’d still be swamping the chart if it wasn’t for the three-song rule.

12. HUNTR/X – “How It’s Done”

This had three weeks on the chart in July, and got as far as number 29 before getting overtaken by “Soda Pop” and disqualified under the three song rule. “Soda Pop” gets hit by the downweighting rule this week, and so “How It’s Done” escapes disqualification and re-enters.

25. Sienna Spiro – “Die on this Hill”

Chart debut. She’s twenty and apparently has a following from TikTok, but this is an original song and she really does have a good voice. And this track certainly isn’t here solely on the basis of her online following – she’s released seven previous singles, only one of which made the top 100. “Die On This Hill” seems to have activated some interest in her back catalogue, with two of those tracks appearing in the lower reaches.

37. Jisoo & Zayn – “Eyes Closed”

This is an odd combination. Jisoo is a member of Blackpink. Her only previous solo appearance on the top 40 was in 2023 when “Flower” reached number 38. Zayn Malik is… well, he was in One Direction. He basically stopped having hit singles after 2018, aside from a track in 2023 that got to number 36. So it’s a bit surprising to see him show up on a mainstream pop song like this in 2025. It’s a decent enough track, though.

This week’s climbers:

• “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” by Olivia Dean rebounds 12-8 in its third week to reach a new peak. She also has two other singles in the top 10: “Man I Need” at 2 and “Nice To Each Other” at 7. Even with the three song rule, the top 20 features three tracks from Taylor Swift, three from Olivia Dean (four if you count her guest appearance on a Sam Fender track), three from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, two from Sabrina Carpenter and two from Alex Warren. This doesn’t feel very healthy.
• “WGFT” by Gunna & Burna Boy climbs 28-22, overtaking a previous peak of 25 from a month ago.
• “Now or Never” by Tkandz & Cxsper climbs 30-28.
• “Phantom” by EsDeeKid & Rico Ace climbs 36-29.
• “Gabriela” by Katseye climbs to 38 after spending four weeks hovering between 39 and 40.
• “Dracula” by Tame Impala climbs 40-39.

There’s a re-entry at 40 for “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, of all things. That track has been out for 102 weeks. It was last in the chart in June, but it hasn’t fallen below 59 since leaving. Anyway, that means we have four tracks leaving the top 40:

• “Soda Pop” by the Saja Boys is disqualified under the 3-song rule. It had a 12-week run, peaking at 3.
• “Jealous Type” by Doja Cat re-entered at 30 two weeks ago on the back of the album release. It peaked at 13 on release week in September.
• “Camera” by Ed Sheeran entered at 16 and lasted four weeks.
• “Escapism” by Raye featuring 070 Shake had a three-week run as a re-entry, peaking at 24.

On the album chart, “The Life of a Showgirl” by Taylor Swift is still number 1.

3. Richard Ashcroft – “Lovin’ You”

This is his seventh solo album; they’ve all made the top 5.

29. EsDeeKid – “Rebel”

This actually entered at number 36 last week, climbing from the lower reaches – a very unusual thing to happen on the album charts. It includes the current single “Phantom”.

31. Calum Scott – “Avenoir”

He’s a Britain’s Got Talent alumnus, and this is his third album. The first one made number 4 on the back of the show, the second missed the top 40. The single above is, um, a remix of  Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, with the original vocals turned into a piano ballad. It works better than you might think, to be fair.