Well, what an interesting month. \u00a0I think this year we’ll\u00a0loosen up the format and go a bit more freeform, yes? \u00a0Alright.<\/p>\n
So. \u00a0We left off with the\u00a0Christmas chart, and with the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir\u00a0at number 1 with “A Bridge Over You”<\/a>. \u00a0Normal service was swiftly resumed as\u00a0“Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber<\/a><\/strong>, which had already been\u00a0number one for three weeks, returned to the top for a further three. \u00a0Admittedly, that’s during the\u00a0normal early-January dead season for new releases. \u00a0But since Bieber\u00a0also had the immediately preceding number one (“Sorry”), the NHS\u00a0Choir wind up as the sole week of respite in nine weeks of Justin Bieber.<\/p>\n Less predictably,\u00a0the NHS Choir single dropped like a stone after its week at number one, even by the standards of campaign singles. \u00a0The next week it was at\u00a0number 29, and the week after, it was outside the top 100. \u00a0Which kind of puts a damper on the claim that the single represented an outpouring of public love for the NHS, since by that logic,\u00a0the public apparently loves Justin Bieber nine times more. \u00a0Which doesn’t sound right.<\/p>\n At any rate, the\u00a0Bieber blockade finally broke last week,\u00a0and the first new number one of 2016\u00a0(at two weeks and counting) is\u00a0“Stitches” by Shawn Mendes<\/strong>,\u00a0completing a painfully slow climb from the lower reaches – it\u00a0first showed up in the top 75 back in October.<\/p>\n