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.
It is one of those records. Ariana Grande's hit runs away with the chart race, eclipsing practically the whole of the rest of the market. That was possibly bad news if you were a former girl group star about to relaunch your career after four years away. Timing is everything in this business after all.
Well who knew Ariana Grande had such a potty mouth on her? More to the point, who knew she chews up and spits out men like Taylor Swift at a boy band audition? A surprise release becomes a surprise Number One. Warning: this column also contains Fanditry.
Britain remains in thrall to a singer and an actor performing together at the top of the singles pile. A deceased performer once more enjoys the biggest new hit of the week thanks to his celebrity mates. But the biggest splash is made by a veteran opera star, dragging classical music to the top of the albums chart for the first time in two decades.
She's maintained a poker face throughout the whole of the decade so far. Absent from the top of the charts since 2010, Lady Gaga this week turns Hollywood acclaim back into singles chart success. Our Number One single is from the biggest movie of the moment, and it drags a professional actor along for the ride for the first time in almost 17 years. Nothing Shallow about this hit record. Plus, movie hits abound in the Top 10 and there are decidedly mixed fortunes for former X Factor winners of all vintages.
