You are reading the famous weekly guide to the Official UK Charts. The longest-running British music column online.
Read about this week's Top 40 charts and the stories behind the biggest new hit singles. Plus browse the complete 26-year archive, a resource of over 1300 articles documenting over a quarter of a century of popular music history.
You may have never heard anything like it before, but perhaps that is part of its appeal. Lil Nas X might easily have had a hit single under his own steam, but the addition of Billy Ray Cyrus to the mix has given Old Town Road an exciting new dimension. It is just one of a terrific series of breaking hits this week. Even if nothing can shift the Number One.
The most unexpected breakout star of the year more than lives up expectations. Which is the kind of thing she'd write a song about. Billie Eilish is the artist of the week, a massive Number One album that shatters all kinds of age records, and she nearly fights her way to the top of the singles chart as well. Don't be scared, I'll walk you through this.
A week when most things are on the up, except for the singles at the very top which remain where they have been for weeks. First, though we have to contemplate a man and his dogs, and the unerring way he finds his way to the top of the album charts. Be it in the 1990s or the 2010s.
We have Englishmen born to Italian parentage at the top of both singles and albums charts this week, all thanks to Senors Capaldi and Savoretti. Meanwhile, a lack of any big new entries does at least mean room for other hits to breathe. And if you've been longing for the Lizzo single to reach the Top 40, this is where your patience is finally rewarded.
