It’s another week with very few new entries, but at least this time it’s because nobody wants to go up against…

1. Harry Styles – “As It Was”

I see you’re the Weeknd now, Harry. Fair enough. This is the lead single from his third album, and his second solo number one. The first was his solo debut “Sign of the Times”, which was number one in its first week of release in 2017 – it dropped to 4 the following week, but to be fair, it hung around the top 10 for seven weeks total.

Arguably, his real biggest hit single is actually “Watermelon Sugar”, which only got as high as number 4, and only spent 11 weeks in the top 10, but spent 38 weeks in the top 40. It goes without saying that Harry Styles is by far the most successful of the One Direction members in terms of solo career at this point. Zayn Malik hasn’t had a hit single since 2018; his last two singles missed the top 40. Niall Horan continues to notch up mid-table hits but hasn’t been in the top 10 since 2017. Liam Payne hasn’t had a hit since 2018, and missed the top 40 with a single in 2020. And Louis Tomlinson hasn’t made the top 40 since 2017. If nothing else, that shows that Harry Styles’ chart positions long since ceased having anything to do with his One Direction membership.

His previous album “Fine Line” rebounds to number 6 on the album charts; it’s been in the album top 40 almost continually since its release at Christmas 2019. (As in, it dipped into the 40s in two weeks out of that time.)

18. Lil Tjay – “In My Head”

This is Lil Tjay’s first hit of any substance since “Calling My Phone” reached number 2 last February – the follow-up “Headshot” couldn’t get past 40, and two more singles missed the top 40 altogether. This one is pretty forgettable too; if anything’s helping it stand out, it’s the slowed-down sample from Iyaz’s “Replay”, a number 1 in 2010.

32. Shawn Mendes – “When You’re Gone”

Shawn Mendes hasn’t been in the top 40 since “Monster” in 2020, and that had Justin Bieber on it. To be fair, he had a hit on his own in the same year. But two other singles – “Summer of Love” and “It’ll be Okay” – have missed the top 40 since then, and since they’ve presumably tracks from his next album, that’s not a great sign.

37. Dylan Conrique – “Birthday Cake”

This is a charity single for the American Cancer Society, but since this isn’t America, it’s probably charting on its own merits as a ballad about the death of a friend’s mother. Conrique is best known as an actress; she was in the web series Chicken Girls and (when she was younger) the Nickelodeon series Henry Danger.

This week’s climbers, such as they are…

• “Run” by Becky Hill & Galantis climbs 22-21.
• “Light Switch” by Charlie Puth climbs 31-30 in its 8th week on the top 40. It debuted at 39 back at the end of January, it’s been in and out of the top 40 twice already, and it made number 31 for the first time at the end of February.
• “Melody” by Sigala climbs 34-33

The four records that leave the top 40 this week…

• “What Else Can I Do” by Diane Guerrero & Stephanie Beatriz, the late-arriving fourth Encanto single. It peaked at number 29, though it would have been higher in earlier weeks if it hadn’t been disqualified under the three-song rule.
• “ABCDEFU” by Gayle, the number 1 from January, finally leaves the chart after a long, slow dawdle down the chart. The downweighting rule hit it in February but could only push it down to number 20 – it spent four weeks just hovering between 36 and 38. Two further singles have come out since then, neither of which made the top 100, so right now she appears to be a legit one-hit wonder. There’s time, though.
• “Maybe” by Machine Gun Kelly & Bring Me The Horizon, which spent two weeks at number 39.
• “Chaotic” by Tate McRae, a promotional single which got a single week at number 36.

On the album chart…

1. The Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Unlimited Love”

That’s their twelfth studio album, and their fifth number one. Nothing surprising here – it’s been five years since the last album, but that got to number 2, and the three albums before that all reached number 1.

21. French The Kid – “Never Been Ordinary”

Debut album. He’s from Essex, but spent most of his teens in Toulouse.

22. The Wanted – “Most Wanted – The Greatest Hits”

This looks to be a delayed reaction to the death of Tom Parker a couple of weeks ago. The Wanted were active as a boy band between 2010 and 2013, and had ten top 10 hits in that time, including two number 1s. (“Chasing the Sun” isn’t one of them, but it did get to number 2.)

38. Meshuggah – “Immutable”

Swedish metal. This is their ninth studio album but only the second to chart in the UK; its predecessor, 2016’s “The Violent Sleep of Reason”, got to 32.