This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
First Justin Bieber. Then Shawn Mendes. Now it is the turn of Aubrey Drake Graham, rather better known under his middle name alone to become the third Canadian performer in as many months to take his place at the top of the Official UK Singles chart.
He does so with One Dance, the most commercial half of a brace of singles that he released with little fanfare in the middle of the chart survey a week ago. Charting last week at Number 21 on the basis of those handful of days sales, the single's first full week of availability sees it soar past the rest of the competition to allow him to complete a quite extraordinary Canuck treble. This isn't quite unprecedented, after all three Canadian acts topped the charts in 2014 although they were all three of them rather lower profile - Keisza, Magic! and DVBBS. The class of 2016 consist of two established superstars and one more up and comer, making this a far more notable achievement.
It is Drake's second Number One single in Britain albeit his first as the lead act. His only previous visit to the summit was as the guest act on Rihanna's What's My Name in the first weeks of 2011 and indeed this comes just six weeks after he peaked at Number 2 on Rihanna's last hit single Work. Coming along for the ride on the single are Nigerian performer WizKid and British singer Kyla, the latter thus the first female performer of any kind to top the British charts in 2016.
The only other single to break into the Top 10 this week is Cake By The Ocean by DNCE, the group who just happen to number former Disney star Joe Jonas amongst their members. It is easily the biggest British chart hit of his career, his only other Top 40 entry coming eight years ago during the original Camp Rock era when the Jonas Brothers reached Number 13 with SOS in June 2008. Younger brother Nick Jonas has already bettered this of course, hitting Number 2 with Jealous exactly a year ago this week. His latest single Close with Tove Lo on co-vocals climbs 79-50.
Last week the latest series of The Voice UK stuttered to a close, the show's last on the BBC before it makes an unprecedented jump to the commercial channel ITV next year. With the added attention being paid to the final it is little surprise that it is responsible for two of the bigger chart moves of the week. What is rather more curious is that the biggest is that of the invited guest. Meghan Trainor's performance of No on the show, along with a similar one on Graham Norton over the same weekend finally lit a rocket under her brand new single. In its sixth week on sale it jumps 23-11 and is on the verge of becoming her fourth Top 10 hit single, this despite the dramatic change in musical style which saw her ditch do-wop stylings for a more conventional R&B sound.
The other The Voice UK-related single to chart this week is inevitably that of the winner. Right from the start of the competition the focus of the producers appeared to be as much about extending second chances as it was unearthing the unknown. Hence the presence in early series of former members of Five Star and former child talent show winner Toni Warne (who made it all the way to the finals of the first series). For this series however reality TV finally ate itself with the crowning of Kevin Simm as winner. He first came to public attention in late 2001 as one of the candidates on the very first Popstars series which tracked the creation of the group who formed Hear'Say. Simm was one of the runners up and a member of the five final rejects who formed their own group Liberty X. The group would enjoy a career far greater than that of the series winners, clocking up seven Top 10 hits between 2002 and 2005 including Number One hit Just A Little.
Simm's victory on the competition saw his coronation single fly immediately to the top of the sales rankings, but just like last year's winner Stevie McCrorie his success had the lifespan of a mayfly. The inability of TV talent shows to generate a mass of short term streams in the same way it does sales does not help of course, but nonetheless All You Good Friends debuts at a rather limp Number 24 to ensure the talent show exits the BBC with little more than a whimper.
Keep an eye on Desire from Years & Years which jumps 46-27 to make a Top 40 debut this week. Originally released as the group's debut hit single it originally peaked at Number 22 in December 2014. This re-release adds a guest vocal from the apparently ubiquitous Tove Lo although she suffers the same fate as Sean Paul on the Sia single Cheap Thrills, remaining uncredited by the singles chart which has simply added the remixed version to the chart history of the original.
An intriguing battle on the Official UK Album chart (for all the wrong reasons, as we'll see in a moment) saw American folk-rockers The Lumineers land their very first Number One album with second release Cleopatra, leaving Adele trailing in second place. They got lucky though. Their total sale of 10,892 copies (just over 1,000 of which were credited to streams) ensures this is the second lowest selling Number One album of the 21st century to date. Only Rihanna's Talk That Talk in August 2012 sold less.
Low sales overall ensures that plenty of headlines are likely to be grabbed by turn of the millennium stars All Saints whose latest greatly heralded reunion sees new album Red Flag debut at Number 3. It is the second time the group have reunited for a new record since their original 2001 split. Their 2006 reformation produced the album Studio 1 which was a disappointment and could only reach Number 40. Red Flag in contrast rockets them into the Top 10 for the first time since their second album Saints And Sinners topped the listings in October 2000. The album was preceded by a single One Strike but tellingly this has so far come nowhere near the published charts, reaching a new high this week of Number 115. Their audience remains firmly that of a decade and a half ago.
One place below at Number 4 is Aled Jones whose album One Voice apparently saw demand outstrip supply last week, restricting its chart potential. This two place climb is a result of that situation being corrected and the series of cross-generational duets with himself further consolidates its position as his highest charting musical release for over 30 years.
