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.

1. Adele – “Easy on Me”

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.

So the 2022 charts kick off with a track from the soundtrack of Encanto, which was added to Disney Plus over Christmas. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” isn’t an obvious choice for a breakout hit, because it’s ensemble plot exposition, and doesn’t make a huge amount of sense outside the context of the film – but it’s catchy, and hey, who listens to lyrics anyway? Needless to say, it’s the debut hit single for all six (!) credited cast members.

14. Jessica Darrow – “Surface Pressure”

More Encanto. And… this is really good, actually. Seriously, it’s great. This does work as a standalone song, and the movie clip is kind of a music video to start with. Obviously, once again, it’s a chart debut.

30. Stephanie Beatriz & Olga Merediz – “The Family Madrigal”

Okayyyy. So we’re not quite back to normal just yet – here’s some more catchy exposition from Encanto. Stephanie Beatriz gets her second hit of the week, and Olga Merediz becomes the first Olga to have a top 40 hit in the UK.

32. Luude featuring Colin Day – “Down Under”

It’s a rather chaotic drum and bass version of the Men at Work number 1 from 1983. I’m guessing it started out as a remix of the original, but the vocal here is a re-recording by Men at Work frontman Colin Hay (who is now aged 68). Luude is an Australian producer, and this is his first UK hit.

35. Central Cee – “Daily Duppy”

GRM Daily churns out these “Daily Duppy” freestyles, but this is the first time one of them has made the top 40. It’s actually pretty good as these things go.

36. Years & Years and Galantis – “Sweet Talker”

This came out at the start of December and made no headway due to the Christmas glut. It’s… a bit of a mismatch between lyric and music, I think. It’s okay.

37. Tiesto & Ava Max – “The Motto”

Product placement for crypto? In a video with a half-hearted 1920s theme? I hate this record already. Also, “We ain’t gonna sleep all weekend”? That sounds awful.

This week’s climbers – or rather, mostly re-entries beating their previous peaks…

• “ABCDEFU” by Gayle climbs 14-2, predictably.
• “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender climbs 30-3.
• “Coming for You” by SwitchOTR featuring A1 and J1 re-enters at 5.
• “Peru” by Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran climbs 28-6.
• “Overseas” by D-Block Europe featuring Central Cee climbs 36-8, which matches its original peak from the start of December.
• “Do It To It” by Acraze featuring Cherish re-enters at 9. It previously peaked at 13 at the end of November.
• “Make You Smile” by D-Block Europe featuring A J Tracey re-enters at 15, having previously peaked at 15.
• “I Wish” by Joel Corry featuring Mabel re-enters at 17. Its previous peak was number 19 in November.
• “Ghost” by Justin Bieber re-enters at 21. It got to 29 before the Christmas rush.
• “Where Are You Now” by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott re-enters at 23; it spent a single week at number 39 just before the Christmas invasion.

On the album chart, “=” by Ed Sheeran is still number 1 for a third week in total; it’s now spent ten weeks in the top 3. There are no new entries on the album chart. None.