An Explanation. Of Sorts.
For much of its long and storied history the singles chart has been shaped by an ever-evolving and largely self-selecting section of the public. Teens, youth, children. A love of popular music generally coincided with your first experience of disposable income, be it pocket money or funds from a Saturday job. And if you were keen enough, you invested it in the latest chart sounds. As people grew older they largely turned to buying albums or found other things to spend money on instead. Leaving the singles chart to be the domain of the next generation growing up in turn.
That's a sweeping generalisation I know, but by and large it remained the basis of the market, even surviving technological changes. The two notable market downturns of the early 90s and mid 00s both coincided with a messy transition to different formats, only for the market to recover and go on to hit brand new heights every time.
But then along came streaming, a sea change in the way we, all of us, consume music. As the market grows and matures has shown that all the old assumptions can be discarded - including the old model stated above. Because you don't grow out of streaming songs, streaming the artists you love and the hits you are familiar with. But that means the singles chart now has to accommodate and reflect the tastes of a far wider demographic than it ever did before. New bands, new acts, fresh sounds that appeal to the newest generation of music fans now find it harder than ever to cut through and gain visibility. Because they are competing with the established tastes of, well, everyone else.
There's also the phenomenon that has been bubbling in the background for some time but which has dramatically come to the fore in the last couple of years - the fact that the very biggest hits just don't fade away like they used to. In countless interviews over the last ten years or so I've leaned on the point that streaming exposed to the rest of the world something that those of us in radio knew for a long time. People do not tire of their favourite songs in a hurry, and as far as the classics are concerned pretty much at all. Canny programmers exploit this and watch the ratings rise. You don't turn on Heart FM for a song you haven't heard in forever or which you don't know the words to. You tune in because you know every song is a familiar banger. A radio station on which you are quite likely to hear Dancing Queen within a few hours will get large ratings, because everyone listening loves Dancing Queen and so (to borrow an expression) will Turn Up The Feel Good at every opportunity.
These two factors conspire to ensure that 2026 has been characterised by some pretty notable chart evergreens. I mentioned Alex Warren's Ordinary in passing a few weeks ago, noting that but for a week at Christmas it would actually have set new records for a Top 40 stay. It is easy to mentally tune it out, but this week the former No.1 rises the charts once more to a 16-week high of No.19, pretty much its median chart position for most of 2026, where since Christmas it has been as high as No.13 and only once dipped out of the Top 30. All of these being false positions of course, the single long a casualty of ACR. As I write this it still sits just outside the daily Top 20 most-played songs on Spotify. A song released in February 2025, that had an extended run at No.1 a few weeks later is still consistently among the most played songs nationwide.
Consider too the juggernaut of the other Olivia Dean smash, another sure wedding favourite Man I Need which this week celebrates its first birthday on the singles chart. As noted many times on these pages this year, its continuing popularity has meant that in a world free of ACR it would have occupied the top of the charts on many occasions and indeed prevented Rein Me In from reaching its record breaking tally quite as quickly as it did. It is another song that just shows no sign of burning out - it is an ACR-suppressed No.13 this week and would still be Top 3 without.
Both of these songs will have had their appeal amongst pop fans to start with. Neither would have managed quite the high-level chart runs they did at first without the clicks and ears of those keen to hear something new. But they have almost certainly fallen away, replaced instead by an older cohort who find the songs to be both pleasant background listening and also ones they will turn the volume up to hear because they are so well loved.
And so, to bring this behemoth of a point to its final conclusion, those still searching for an explanation for the lasting appeal of Rein Me In may find it in the above. It is another song whose appeal has outgrown its original audience, extending across a larger cross section of the public and of which nobody is yet prepared to tire. It is still No.1 by the way. Now here for your enjoyment in Week 21 of its cultural domination. This is its 60th consecutive week as a Top 40 single, its 43rd in total in the Top 10. Me, I'm just thrilled I can still find something new to learn about it. Until this week I had not registered it has a sax solo in the middle.
Be assured that while the tastes of older consumers may get stuck in a rut, there is ample evidence that those who still for now represent the bulk of chart streamers do have evolving and shifting tastes. Of the poster children of the last couple of years - Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan there is presently (almost) no sign.
Movin' On
The Top 3 is rounded off by the bridesmaids of the season. Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy, now having transcended the football tournament it was released to celebrate, holds steady at No.2 for a fourth week locked in place. Meanwhile just behind Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas returns to its chart peak of No.3 after a week away. The big Ariana Grande surge has not survived the second week of the album's release.
Movin' up to the Top 5 is Movin' To The Sun from Hugel and collaborators. Ultra Nate being one of them of course, the arrival of this track at No.4 means she has now matched her own previous chart best, scaled by Free way back in 1997. Lower down the Top 10, Sienna Spiro's Great Expectation makes a pleasing move to No.7, now taking over as her biggest hit to date.
But wait, check on your grandparents to make sure they don't have palpitations. We have a brand new entry inside the Top 10.
Speaking Of Grandmas
Madonna has released numerous albums since the turn of the century, but none have quite managed the impact that her recent Confessions II release has had. It is far too easy to dismiss her modern day work as that of a veteran star spinning her wheels and trying to stay relevant. But her latest album has sidestepped this by the simple means of being actually quite phenomenally good. Her greatest collection of pure pop works in some considerable time. The album has already spawned two Top 40 hits - Sabrina Carpenter duet Bring Your Love which reached No.29 in May and Danceteria which hit No.38 on the album's release last month. But now from its (digital) grooves comes the biggest one of all. A new remix of Love Sensation has added bonus vocals from none other than Kylie Minogue. Yes OK, this is largely driven by physicals as fans of both ladies snap the song up, but every single one counts. The new single smashes its way straight to No.8.
This is actually a moment to savour. Madonna has already had one Top 10 hit this decade, but she was one of a cast of many accompanying The Weekend on his No.10 hit Popular. To find her last Top 10 hit single as primary or solo artist, you have to scrape the archives as far back as 2009 when Celebration was a No.3 hit single. Kylie meanwhile isn't so far removed from her last Top 10 hit - she was No.1 at Christmas after all - but this is still now her third Top 10 hit single of the 2020s so far. Not bad going for a lady whose hit-making career appeared to be more or less over. Madonna is 67 and Kylie is 58 - so this is a duet between two women with a combined age of 125. And yet it is indeed the most thrilling pop record of the week. Amazing scenes.
Not Lefty Behind
A couple of ACR slides have freed up a couple of Top 10 slots for some songs that have been waiting in the weeks. The country revolution now continues with Stella Lefty's Boston (aka When You're Nice To Me) rising to a brand new peak of No.9. Her rise to fame means her background has come under scrutiny with accusations of being a nepo baby flung around - although this seems to be a new definition of the phrase that encompasses "having a rich Dad" - she being the daughter of Eric Lefkofsky the founder of Groupon. She has come from hard work at grass roots and hasn’t benefitted from doors being opened on her behalf. But then again she hasn't exactly had to cut her teeth as a starving musician either and could afford to take her time becoming famous. That was perhaps her family privilege.
Also rising to the Top 10 is On 2Nite from Silva Bumpa which lands at No.10 after fully seven weeks hurtling around the bottom end of the Top 20. It has already surpassed the No.15 peak of Get It On Tonite by Montell Jordan on which it is heavily based.
Senses Tingling
The continuing appeal of Spider Man: Brand New Day is having a hugely positive effect on its soundtrack songs. Tame Impala's Loser makes strong progress with a 27-14 jump, but it is now joined in the Top 40 by Oh Yeah by Steve Lacy, charging from the depths to make a published debut at No.23. It is the previously unregarded title track of his blink and you'll miss it third album which was released here last month to little fanfare and even fewer sales. But thanks to a movie the American star now has his biggest chart hit since 2022's No.8 smash Bad Habit.
I mentioned Sabrina Carpenter was currently nowhere near the charts, but that actually isn't true. Making a cute return is former No.1 single Espresso, released in a special second anniversary collectors edition, sales of which have pushed it back to No.26.
Be Heard
Ella Langley's domination of the US charts has not been confined to the epic (and ongoing) run of Choosin' Texas at the top. She has also been a longtime Top 10 resident with her 'other' hit single Be Her, one which until now has struggled to impress on these shores. Now properly promoted as a single it appears to now finally have a fire lit under it, climbing 42-28 this week to become a proper halo hit and her second Top 40 single.
Mais Oui
She isn't the only Top 10 artist with a 1-2 punch to her name this week either. Frenchman Hugel, he of Movin' To The Sun now finds himself with a second Top 40 hit of his own. His collaboration with countryman Solto on Jamaican (Bam Bam) rises to No.34 on its way to possibly greater heights. The original on which it is based - Bam Bam by Sister Nancy - dates from 1982 but its only chart run came in the last couple of years when it, twice over, reached the Top 40 of the old-old-school physical singles chart.
We should round off by keeping a regular eye on the prospects of what is a family race. Malcolm Todd rises to No.15 with Earrings this week, but he is now being hotly pursued by his sister Audrey Hobert whose Sue Me continues to edge upwards, now at a new peak of No.29.
