Archives: 2025

Push the button. The reset button. Christmas is over, the new year has arrived, and as far as the charts are concerned we start from scratch all over again. Even if that does mean Gracie Abrams resumes after a festive interruption.

Diamonds are a girls' best friend - and Elton's too it seems. An album of hits he released as long ago as 2017 gives him a ninth No.1 album as it seems we are starting the year by celebrating the elderly. There's stuff taking place on the singles chart too. One of the biggest hits of 2013 is back in town as well.

Eight - EIGHT! - weeks and counting for Gracie at No.1. Although this was the tightest race yet amongst 2025s big three. Something has to change eventually, as the future big hits keep piling up at the door.

Praise be, we have a brand new No.1 single. But what a messy way we went about it all. Plus, nobody makes a monkey out of Robbie Williams as he equals a quite fascinating chart record.

No mess-ying about, Lola Young is Queen of the charts once more. The Top 5 may be stuck in place, but there's plenty of other hustle below. Central Cee has the biggest album of the week but makes the fatal mistake of annoying Aitch. Fight boys, fight.

This week's Chart Watch comes to you out of a sense of duty, as all the good stuff takes place next week. But Gaga goes Top 10 after only four days on release, and since when did the UK care about the Grammy awards so much?

Be my Valentine, Official UK Singles chart. Bring me roses in the form of Lola Young still at No.1, lillies in the form of a quite astonishingly busy Top 10, a a box of chocolates in the form of Alex Warren's far from Ordinary highest new entry.

Tweety Bird is top of the charts. Time to stop Not Liking it, because Kendrick Lamar's angry takedown of Drake is - to general surprise all around - the No.1 single of the week. Also we discover that Sabrina Carpenter can do absolutely anything. Except make Dolly Parton say the Oedipal compound.

In Brits week it seems only right to have a British man with a No.1 album. And one which posts a six figure sale to boot. Meanwhile the singles chart remains in thrall to tracks release last year - and earlier.

Cheer up Chappell, it finally happened. After FIVE YEARS in the making Pink Pony Club is a No.1 single. Plus the Brits bounce takes effect. If you look really, really hard that is.

Lady Gaga dominates all on the albums chart, but she still cannot hold a carrot to Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club on the singles chart. Plus, let's not beat about the bush. Doechii is somehow the big breakout star of 2025.

Official Charts gave the media a choice of images of Alex Warren celebrating his first-ever No.1 single. I've not used the one of him sitting on the toilet. Thank me later.

OK, OK I went with the toilet picture. On your own heads be it. But Alex Warren gets to crap on the rest of the market from a huge height with the biggest weekly sale of the year so far. Even if there is precious little else new.

Something out of the Ordinary is another year-to-date sales high for Alex Warren's No.1 single. Meanwhile Ariana spits out some bonus tracks and peppers the chart with more hits for her tally. And has Drake really landed his biggest hit for two years? It appears so.

Elton John proudly shows off his collection. Stop that now, his collection of ten No.1 albums awards. He's top of one chart, Alex Warren the other. But Ed Sheeran's new single sounds like a sneeze and somehow just isn't as big as his other ones. Yet.

It is a week for the ages. A particularly notable chart record that has stood for almost 18 years is shattered. And it is hard to see it ever being broken again. Lava Chicken anyone?

"Give me your money" demands Taylor Swift of her fans. And they do so on command, every single time. In a week of nothing else taking place, Tortured Poets Department is back on top of the pile.

Seven straight weeks Alex Warren has been No.1 on the Official UK Singles chart. So he's showing off his gong once more as he heads for double figures. Meanwhile the great Lorde comeback is on, and are The Stereophonics really one of the greatest album acts of all time? The stats say yes.

When Pink Floyd took enough drugs to decide that playing the Pompeii amphitheatre was a good idea, did they imagine people would still be buying records of it 53 years later? Yet here we are, and here they are with a No.1 album. Alex Warren is officially the new Elvis. In a chart record sense, anyway. 

I've run out of inspiration for pictures to make Alex Warren's ninth week at No.1. And Official Charts haven't sent out an image of Sleep Token celebrating their chart-topping album. So here is a banana instead.

Don't be fooled, Skye Newman may look like she is having a poo in this grab from her video, but she is actually celebrating the highest new entry of the week and her proper chart breakthrough. Meanwhile Alex Warren is 10-up and looks like he is sticking around.

Alex Warren is sat on the toilet again, celebrating an extraordinary 11th week at No.1. We'd also feature a picture of the artist with the highest new entry of the week. But that also turns out to be Alex Warren. Totes awks.

Alex Warren. That man again. Making headlines for all the right reasons as he smashes records with the 12th week of his epic No.1 run - the first artist in the ACR era to cross that particular threshold. Find out what it all means inside.

For the first time since we were all small children and a more innocent age was upon us, we have a new single at the top of the charts. All hail Sabrina Carpenter, even if she is now nicking other people's acts.

I asked AI for an image representing the concept "ordinary" and this is what it came up with. Don't blame me, blame the machines. It is a roundabout way of saying that the song of that name is back at No.1 - albeit for what we can guarantee is the very last time.

Fred? Again? He takes a Victory Lap as this week's highest new entry, but it is Sabrina Carpenter who takes advantage of Alex Warren's long-overdue permanent eviction from the No.1 position. But are we just warming up for Lewis next week?

I let my guard down and he sneaked back without me looking. Lewis Capaldi moves from Glastonbury to the top of the charts again - but is his label still trying to game things? You'll be surprised.

THAT's what he looks like! After over 30 years of making hits, Mark "MK" Kinchen steps out of the shadows for his first ever credited No.1 hit single. Chrystal did it too, but she's camera shy. There's no mention of Oasis inside though. Although that may be a lie.

Some life stirs on the singles chart, but we still have our first unchanged No.1 single for well over a month. Justin Bieber gets achingly cool, but the fastest moves are from a group that don't exist. Strange times we live in.

Surprise! Because nobody was expecting this, least of all Justin Bieber's label which doesn't have a scrap of promotional imagery for Daisies. But it is the week's No.1 single regardless. Plus Ozzy Osbourne pushes up daisies of his own, meaning we all get Paranoid all over again.

This is... a quite special moment. The most glowing of songs from the biggest smash hit streaming movie of the summer rises almost gracefully to the top of the charts. The first true cartoon pop group since Gorillaz to have a No.1 single. Almost like they were born to be.

Riding a train over the rest of the market, Chappell Roan becomes the first artist to top the charts twice in 2025. This time with a track released five minutes, rather than five years, ago. And it is magnificent.

Rumi is right to be startled. The Kpop Demon Hunters phenomenon simply cannot be stopped. And she and her Huntr/X colleague are back at No.1. Thank goodness, there might not be much to talk about otherwise.

Raise a glass Olivia Dean. In the space of a few months you have gone from perennial almost-there to one of the big breakout stars of the year. Side by side Top 10 hits and the highest new erntry of the week as well. Who needs a man under those circumstances?

Doja Cat is back, back baby with a new single that possibly doesn't quite make the splash its creators intended. When you are cleverer and more versatile than Sabrina Carpenter, why would you want to ape her? Meanwhile it is Olivia Dean's week. Even if No.1 is still way out of sight.

Sabrina Carpenter is as surprised as we are that her new album doesn't quite give her the chart domination of before. The second-highest opening week of the year, but a clean sweep of Top 3 singles for the second time in 12 months was just way beyond her. Also: more cartoons. Even if it is a golden oldie

Dead. Dance. Two words that don't generally go together, but then again so don't a lot of things in Lady Gaga's world. She has the "true" highest new entry with a suitably horror-themed video. But the big singles are all entrenched - and that means Huntr/X edging towards a 56 year old chart record.

Well hello there tiny Ed Sheeran. What's that Ed? You have a new album out? And it sold in large numbers? But far fewer people care about you than before? Hell, that's showbiz. And look on the bright side, you still matter more than the first Little Mix solo album. What were they thinking?

Warning: Lewis Capaldi has released his song again. Except that this time he hasn't, doing something to change the formula up a little. Does this mean he makes it to No.1? Spoiler: no. And neither does RAYE either.

Britain has a new Queen of (neo) soul. Olivia Dean steps forward to take her crown, with her first-ever No.1 single and album all at the same time. Which, believe it or not, makes her quite unique.

Never in the history of chart commentary have so many superlatives been flung at a record that has received such a lukewarm reaction. But that's The Life Of A Showgirl. Taylor Swift's commercial triumph that bizarrely appears to be anything but. All the numbers - and more - are inside.

You may not realise it, but this lady is now on the verge of becoming the biggest of big deals. And she has one of this week's big new entries. Meanwhile the reign of Taylor Swift continues almost unopposed. But there are still new demon hunting tracks to be discovered.

Three is once more the magic number. Three weeks for Taylor, three chart hits for Huntr/X (that's them over there again) and but for the presence of RAYE we would have just three different acts occupying rungs of the Top 10. Strange times we live in.

Dave. Dave? DAVE! Oh, there you are. Another new album, another huge sale. And doing things on the singles chart that puts you on a par with Stormzy. Plus, we need to talk about Lily.

It was a Thriller of a week. Golden spends at 10th week at No.1, Lily Allen is back in the Top 10 for the first time in over a decade. But despite the calendar being unkind to them, the Halloween hits make quite the splash. Including Michael Jackson's Thriller landing its highest chart position ever. Told you he's not like other guys.

Yeah, she's back again. Both Taylor Swift single and album are top of their respective piles once more for a fourth week. Everything is just stuck here until we pause for the Christmas hits - but that's not to say there aren't stories. Including the strange tale of the vanishing chart climber.

Yes, this is Olivia Dean again. No, she isn't No.1 again, although awkwardly the raw numbers suggest she should be. But the festive songs are closing in, and I've a feeling it isn't summer time any more.

Have a Wicked advent everyone, because indeed exactly one year on hits from the movie musical sequel are defying the gravity of the charts. But it still, alas, sucks to be Olivia Dean as she continues to be denied No.1 singles and albums because of rules and circumstances. And the full story of I Run can now be told.

Taylor Swift is being hunted down by both George and Mariah, but the final properly relevant chart of the year does at least see her set a new personal record for a No.1 hit. Meanwhile let it snow returning classics - but with a new recording is Kylie Top 10 bound once more?

We may have been here before. The song that was No.1 this week last year, and indeed this week two years ago, is once more No.1. And you all can guess what that is. But one week before the Christmas chart itself, none other than Kylie Minogue is manoeuvring into position to be a contender for the seasonal crown too.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! And so it came to pass in the year of our Lord, 2025AD that the being known as Minogue, Kylie ascended to her rightful throne of the Queen of Christmas. Denied the festive chart-topper in 1988 she is finally there today. And back on the top the pile after a quite extraordinary 22 year wait. At least it wasn't bloody Wham again.

Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses. The No.1 single and album are the exact same records that were in this position last year. Who could have predicted? The traditional batshit final chart of the year delivers in exactly the same way it always does. Roll on Big Ben.