Last week, Taylor Swift released the special edition of her last album and placed three tracks in the top 5, while nobody wanted to risk going up against her. This week, Drake releases the special edition of his album…

1. Taylor Swift – “Patient Zero” 

Two weeks. Apparently Taylor Swift really cares about maximising her time at number one, because a batch of around 11,000 pre-ordered CD singles were released to fans ahead of schedule this week when it looked like she might need them to hold on. In the event, she did need them – if they’d shipped in the release week, she would have been number 2 behind Sienna Spiro. Swift has form for this – she did the same thing to get herself two weeks at number 1 with “I Knew It, I Knew You”.

The two other new tracks don’t fare so well. Both of them fall below “The Fate of Ophelia”, which re-enters at number 17. “Babylon” drops from number 4 to number 28; “Cleveland”, which was number 3 last week, vanishes entirely under the three song rule.

As for Drake, it turns out that he doesn’t even get the highest new entry.

16. Noah Kahan – “Draw You Out”

This is from the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The video above is actually a live version recorded in a forest, but it’s more interesting than posting the visualiser for the studio version. Kahan has two other hits at the moment, not too far behind this one, and both from his last album. “Willing and Able” reaches a new peak of number 20 this week, and “Orbiter” is at number 23 (having peaked at 18).

22. Drake featuring Don Toliver – “Solar Eclipse”
27. Drake – “Quebec”
36. Drake featuring Don Toliver & Yebba – “Cold Shoulder”

There are four additional tracks on the special edition of “Habibti”, three of which chart, though with rather less impact Taylor Swift managed. All three of them have videos. “Solar Eclipse” is dreadful – not only is it Drake at his most phoned-in, it interpolates “Choosing Texas”. “Quebec” barely even counts as “phoned-in”. It’s more like he’s sent a telegram. “Cold Shoulder” is much more like it, but nothing I’m ever going to listen to again.

Don Toliver has had hits before, but not for a while – he was on Internet Money’s “Lemonade”, which reached number 1 in 2020, and before that he had a single that got to number 39 the previous year. To be fair, he had a couple of tracks just miss the top 40 earlier this year. Yebba is new – she’s the female vocalist on “Cold Shoulder”.

Quite why “Habibti” gets the deluxe edition, when it was the lowest-selling of the three albums that Drake released that week, is a bit of a mystery to me.

29. Kolter – “Hey Everybody (Back in the Dance)”

Debut hit. This has been hovering in the lower reaches for ten weeks but suddenly jumps 20 places to enter the top 40, for no immediately apparent reason. Johannes Kolter is a DJ from Germany who’s been around for a decade, and used to go by DJOKO. The vocal sample is from “Get On Up” by Jazzy Dee, which reached number 53 in 1983.

37. Gener8ion & Yung Lean – “Storm II”

Somehow this has finally charted on the back of the VMA performance rather than the original video from earlier in the year – perhaps because the video has a four minute prologue before it gets to the choreography which is the really memorable part of it.

Yung Lean is a Swedish rapper (who was 29 when they filmed this). Gener8ion is a French producer, Benoit Heltz, who also goes by Surkin. It’s the first UK hit for either of them.

40. Morrisson – “Cos of You”

Debut hit. This guy had a few singles just miss the top 40 in 2020-1 but hasn’t come near since then. He did release an album that scraped the top 30 in 2024, but for him to enter at number 40 on his first week with a six-minute track is surprising. The subject matter may explain the level of interest: it’s a diss track directed at, among others, Ellis “Rack5” Heather, who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Morrisson’s brother Stephen.

This week’s climbers:

• “Babydoll” by Jamie Miller climbs 6-3.
• “Stop the Wedding” by Ashe climbs 10-4.
• “My Body Isn’t Ready” by Sombr retunrs to its previous peak of 10.
• “Willing and Able” by Noah Kahan climbs 23-20.
• “Good Girl” by Cloonee & Prospa featuring Tristan Henry climbs 30-25.
• “Mi Chico” by DJ Goja, Jason Derulo & Melody climbs 36-30.

The eight tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Cleveland” by Taylor Swift, after a single week at number 3, because it’s disqualified under the three-song rule – however, we know it would have been somewhere below number 28.
• “Danceteria” by Madonna, after re-entering for a single week at number 22.
• “Animal” by Katseye, after a 10-week run peaking at number 10.
• “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn, which re-entered at 35 two weeks ago.
• “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, after a ten-week run that peaked at number 27.
• “Mr Brightside” by the Killers, which re-entered two weeks ago.
• “Free Your Mind” by Prospa & Cloonee, after a 25-week run that peaked at number 6; the current single, credited to Cloonee & Prospa for some reason, is at 25.
• “Dai Dai” by Shakira & Burna Boy peaked at number 2 and lasted a remarkable four months, despite being a World Cup tie-in single.

On the album chart:

1. Blossoms – “Songs From The Wedding Cake”

Their sixth studio album and their fifth number 1.

2. The Beatles – “Rubber Soul”

Deluxe reissue, obviously. It was number 1 for eight weeks on release in 1965. Really putting in the effort with those visualisers, guys!

5. Johnny Marr – “The Age of Everything”

His fifth solo album, all of which made the top 10. His all time peak is number 4.

13. Fat Dog – “Cancel Me (I’m Tired)”

Their second album, placing slightly above its predecessor.

20. Drake – “Habibti”

And that’s the deluxe edition, obviously. We’ve had the singles above. It reached number 7 on release in May.