Not Happening
I just cannot even with the charts this week. So I'm not going to attempt to try. But if this column is notorious for anything over the past few months, it is the ability to tease a story about of barely nothing taking place.
The arrival in my inbox of the data for this weeks' Official UK Singles Chart caused me both an existential crisis and a near physical mischief. An upper end where nothing of any note takes place, at least not organically. And a lower end of the Top 40 that looks on the surface phenomenally busy with a raft of apparent new entries. Most of which aren't actually new in any sense at all.
But like a man tasked with retrieving a beach ball from some mudflats, let's wave in.
No Halting It
No.1 this week, just as it always seems to be, Rein Me In from Sam n Livvy. Now 44 weeks as a chart single, 43 as a Top 40 hit, 26 of those inside the Top 10, it is the nation's most consumed track for the fifth week in a row and the eighth in total. The longest-running No.1 single since Golden enjoyed a ten week total spell at the top last year. 2026 which began with a blizzard of different songs at the top of the charts has now reverted back to type.
However, although one week does not a trend make, the consumption of the single is off once more, down to a mere 56,000. That's its second dip in a row, although due to the circumstances discussed in last week's Chart Watch, only its first tick of the ACR clock. ACR now looks increasingly likely to be the only thing that brings Rein Me In's run to a close - although there is the OG pop princess Olivia to take into consideration. Watch this space.
But it is also ACR that has made the top end of the chart look slightly disjointed. Last week's runner-up single from Bella Kay slides 2-8 following said axe, leaving Tame Impala's Dracula to take second place. But with only 34,808 chart units to its name it is a very, very distant second. A reminder that the credits of that track are misleading, most of the plays for Dracula are coming via the JENNIE-featuring remix. Chart rules debar her from receiving a credit as the song was already a Top 40 hit when the new version was released.
The Top 3 is rounded off by Alex Warren's Fever Dream which now fully rebounds to the No.3 peak it first landed at six weeks ago. The enforced void near the summit also means new peaks for Sombr's Homewrecker (No.4) and Dominic Fike's Babydoll (No.5).
The Art Of Being There
Speaking of voids, Olivia Dean enjoys another chart double of sorts as her Art Of Loving album slips gently to No.1 once more, this now its 8th week in total at the top of the charts. It is the first time for nine weeks it has made it to the top, during which time it has never exited the Top 3. But this is entirely by default, caused by the inability of any of the new releases of the week to better its streaming and sales tally of just over 12,000 - Jack Savoretti's We Will Always Be The Way We Were hoves into view fully 1,000 sales in deficit.
Coach And Horses
The annual Coachella music festival in Colorado has been running more or less continuously since 1999, save for two fallow years at the start of the decade when the pandemic forced its cancellation. Normally its chart impact has been minimal over here, but this year - partly due to the whole of last weekend's Part 1 having been available on YouTube - has been a notable exception. Maybe I'm just following the right kind of people for a change, but my social feeds have been awash with clips and commentary about the headline acts.
Justin Bieber's performance attracted much press comment for its more bizarre quirks, such as his responding to requests for older tracks by streaming them from his laptop(!) But his proper performances have sent many of these racing back into the charts.
Hence we welcome back Beauty And A Beat which is the highest "new" entry of the week. A duet with Nicki Minaj (who was truly a thing back then), the single first peaked at No.16 back in 2012 but now reaches a new all-time peak as it winks back into life at No.11. It is quite a startling revival by any standards. Even at the time the track was considered a major departure from Bieber's usual teenage warblings and an attempt to propel his career forward with more adult appeal (a process which would actually take another four years). Beauty And A Beat's womp-womp-womp backwards masked synths, Max Martin and Zedd production and yes, the whole Nicki Minaj thing makes none more 2012. And if this proves to be more than a one off it will be just the latest in an extraordinary series of golden oldie revivals of late.
The more contemporary Daisies, a brief No.1 single last year, is back at No.15 while the still startlingly Yukon (No.12 last summer) is No.26 as his third and final permitted single as a primary artist.
Sabrina Carpenter, the Friday night headliner, also makes a comeback of her own, House Tour blasting its way back to No.20 after originally peaking at No.17 as an album cut last October. Mine is not to reason why.
Gnarlier Still
Hence of the six new Top 40 arrivals, only two are actually new hits. The biggest of these represents it seems the next stage in the growth of Katseye, the multi-national six piece American-based K-pop girl group. Those paying attention will note that their every release grows bigger. Viral smash that wasn't Gnarly made No.52, Gabriela made No.38 and more recently back in January Internet Girl made 24. If the pattern is to continue their fourth single should go Top 10, and it makes a very good start for now as Pinky Up nips smartly to a No.14 start. Like all the best K-pop tracks it has two "official" videos, a full storyboarded fast cut version and single shot "choreography" edition. The latter of which you can see below. A swerve from the more conventional pop sound of its predecessor, Pinky Up bears more than a passing resemblance to Blackpink's Jump - but given both tracks have made the Top 20 this may in itself be no bad thing.
Making perhaps less of a splash that it might have done, but give it time, the intriguing prospect of a collision between Lady Gaga and Doechii is No.32 Runway. This is taken from the soundtrack of the movie The Devil Wears Prada 2 in which it features prominently. No formal video or even visualiser for it yet alas, which is unfortunate. As I can't help but think it would make more sense with one.
