Welcome to James Masterton's Chart Watch UK – your essential weekly deep dive into the Official UK Charts!
As the longest-running British music column online, we bring you the ultimate guide to this week's Top 40, unraveling the stories behind the biggest new singles and chart-topping hits. Plus, explore our extensive archives, a treasure trove of nearly 1800 articles documenting three and a half decades of popular music history and expert analysis.
It is Olivia Rodrigo's week! So here she is pretending not to be so sad for a girl so in love. Except for the one fly in the ointment - Taylor Swift finding 40,000 CD singles down the back of the sofa and nicking a second week at No.1 that she has no bloody business having otherwise. Girl fight!
Fun fact: Taylor Swift is such a consummate pro that she shot a whole series of poses with No.1 award, just so they can be used when appropriate. Like today when her Toy Story 5 soundtrack contribution hands her a seventh - seventh! - No.1 hit.
83 years old and not looking a day over 78, Sir Paul McCartney has the No.1 album of the week and takes back over as the oldest man ever to do so. Plus he's thumbs aloft in the picture, so all is well with the world. Meanwhile, we have a new No.1 single, at least for the moment. Please all try to contain yourselves.
"Boys are no longer as shit as they used to be" delcares Maisie Peters (after a fashion). Her third album is her second No.1 in a row. But this was also supposed to be Olivia Rodrigo's week, but this time it isn't. And yet there's still no Cure for the No.1 run of Rein Me In.
