Let's Start Over
We all knew this was coming. It happens every year and this one is (mostly) no different. Just as the two holiday charts over the festive period defy analysis, so too as it happens does the first one immediately after. The circumstances are straightforward. Just as streaming of holiday favourites drops off the proverbial cliff, so they exit the live singles charts en-masse, replaced instead by the existing contemporary hits which literally out of nowhere become visible again. "Last week" positions are largely irrelevant. This is the new year reset, the point at which it all begins again.
Because we are now firmly within an era where instant success isn't always possible to engineer and where the biggest hits grow from careful nurturing, the traditional flood of new year arrivals has also slowed to a trickle. If the charts of early January largely resemble the charts of early December, it is simply because everyone is for now sticking with what they know and enjoying the embrace of the familiar. And who are we to disagree?
Disappointingly however we are for now denied the sight of a surprise new No.1 for the new year. Instead, it is left to Gracie Abrams to take over once more. After three weeks away That's So True returns to the top of the Official UK Singles chart for what is now its sixth week in total at the top. This isn't actually as common as you might think. That's So True is only the third single in the last ten years to resume its pre-Christmas place at the head of the charts. The only others were Justin Bieber's Love Yourself in 2016 (which actually returned to the top on the final chart of 2015) and Adele's Easy On Me in 2022 which climbed back to the new year summit after making way for four weeks. But in the pre-streaming era there were countless examples of former No.1 hits making a new year return to the top. Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars in 2015, Impossible by James Arthur in 2013, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga in 2010, Gotta Get Through This by Daniel Bedingfield in 2002 and Perfect Day by Various Artists in 1998 all did it in the last quarter of a century ago.
So let's take nothing away from Gracie Abrams. Yes, the song is back at No.1 almost by default - just as Last Christmas was there by default for the last three weeks - but the most popular song at the start of November is still the most popular song at the start of January at least for now. And it does mean we get to feature its long delayed video here for the first time since it landed in the middle of December.
So What Else?
This means we are now left speculating what will be the first NEW No.1 single of the new year. It could still be Rose and Bruno Mars' APT which is back to its No.2 peak this week after nine weeks away. Or it could still be this blog's favourite Messy by Lola Young which pleasingly bounds to No.3 to eclipse the No.7 peak it scaled on the Christmas chart. Also making waves after pretty much invisibly gaining in popularity over the holiday period is The Days from Chrystal which makes the Top 10 for the first time with a climb to No.5.
This time last year we were all about the rise of Teddy Swims. We begin 2025 by noting the continuing love for the big voiced soul man. He has side by side Top 10 hits this week as The Door blasts back to No.6 (one place below its previous November peak) and Bad Dreams surges to No.7 (it too just a place behind its own previous chart peak).
The first chart of the new year marks a reset in more ways than one. Continuing a deliberate policy that has existed for the past five years, the usual rules on ACR eligibility are thrown out of the window in an acknowledgement that the past few weeks of chart activity do not resemble normal circumstances. Those labels who wish to keep tracks live are able to freely nominate singles for a bypass of ACR restrictions. This has notably happened to Die With A Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga - a song released in August lest we forget. Having peaked at No.2 in mid-October it fell victim to ACR two weeks later and spent the pre-holiday period scuttling around the Top 20. Returned - at least for now - to full strength the single surges back to No.8 to return to the Top 10 after a 10 week absence.
That's the same privilege that has been extended to Somedays by Sonny Fodera and friends. A No.5 hit in October, it fell to ACR in early November but now returns to No.9 after a grace period reset.
Not Easy Being Green
Also making a chart comeback are the three Wicked-related hits. Defying Gravity by Cynthia Evrio and Ariana Grande rebounds to No.10 - reflecting in all fairness the kind of chart position it would have occupied throughout had the Christmas hits not got in the way. The two other hit singles from the movie - Popular and What Is This Feeling - resume work at 26 and 27 respectively.
Also back in contention is Sabrina Carpenter's Bed Chem. For the longest time denied a chart placing by the primary artist rule it was actually phenomenally unfortunate in the timing of its eventual chart run. Its initial Top 10 run was rudely interrupted in mid-November not by ACR rules but by that strange week when three Kendrick Lamar hits arrived alongside the start of the Top 10 chart runs for Wham and Mariah Carey. This had the net effect of shunting Bed Chem out of the way, a position it was not able to recover from before the rest of the Christmas songs arrived. So this week it is back at No.11, once more where you would expect it to be. The lady who dominated 2014 continues to do so in the new year - Espresso is still No.15 and Taste is No.18. The two former No.1 hits just refuse to die. And of course Please Please Please is in the mix as well even if it is ineligible as her fourth-biggest hit of the moment.
The New Boys
With so many older hits staging comebacks you have to look very carefully for the actual green shoots. But they are there, both in the shape of new releases and tracks that underperformed before the holiday and which are now poised to become big in January. Leading the way is Pawsa's reworking of a hit from 35 years ago - Dirty Cash by The Adventures Of Stevie V. Retitled Dirty Cash (Money Talks) and as heard on the Netflix series Monsters the single appeared just outside the Top 40 at the end of November and now emerges from the chaos as a certified hit single as it begins 2025 at a new peak of No.20. The original version peaked at No.2 in May 1990.
My one pre-Christmas prediction that alas hasn't paid off was for KSI's Dirty to become massive. That hasn't reappeared in any true sense since its No.31 entry two weeks ago, registering at a mere No.88 this week, meaning his only real hit for now is the resuming Thick Of It which bounces back to No.22. But keep the faith.
The new year may well turn out to be a good one for Tyla's Push 2 Start, a hit which cannot hide behind Christmas songs as an excuse for underperforming since its November release. Previously unable to climb higher than No.74 the typically sultry single is now heading for hit status as it resumes life at a far more respectable No.33. Check it out, a track that is almost as immaculate as she is.
The Rest Are On The Way
Assuming promotional work ramps up properly there are more good things to come. Plenty of singles occupy rungs outside the Top 40 with an all-important "1" or "2" in their weeks on chart column. So let's keep an eye on BMF by SZA (No.44), Indigo by Sam Barber featuring Avery Anna (No.46) and even Filthy Rich (No.58) which may yet give Ella Henderson a follow up to last year's Top 10 hit Alibi. The track has been around for a good three months already and indeed had its own festive variant Filthy Richmas in circulation - so the fact that it only now has surfaced is quite fascinating.
Also keep an eye on Headlock by Imogen Heap. Originally a No.74 hit in 2006 its revival comes via Tik Tok (of course) and its appearance on the soundtrack of the game Mouthwashing. Could this new year be just as big a time of revivals as last year was?
The Memory Kinda Lingers
One unexpected sight on the new year singles chart is the continuing presence of some of the bigger Christmas songs. We are used to them vanishing in near complete totality, but the falling of the days this time around means this chart hoovers up streaming data from the 27th December onwards - way beyond peak holiday listening of course but clearly not far removed enough from the day itself to ensure all plays of the standards are snuffed out. So just like the nugget of poo that survives the first flush, we note Last Christmas diving 1-42, All I Want For Christmas Is You plunging 2-62 and Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree dipping 4-85. One year ago the Wham single fell 1-83 on a chart survey which of course began on December 29th.
The dates in 2025 do not fall kindly for end of December charts to make any kind of sense at all. The Christmas chart will land earlier than ever on Friday 19th and track sales and streams from December 12-18 which is slightly daft. We'll then have a post-Christmas chart on Boxing Day which tracks streams December 19-25 and a new year chart arriving on January 2 which may well also have a strong Christmas feel to it featuring data gathered from December 26 through to January 1. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The window for taking advantage of new year sales lulls on the singles chart may not exist so much any more, but the canny operator can still sneak things in under the radar on the albums chart. Step forward then Ed Sheeran who this week released a long overdue vinyl edition of his hitherto underperforming +-= Divide - Tour Collection hits collection. Originally peaking at No.5 when first release in October it climbs to No.1 this week for the first time ever in its 14th week on the chart - giving Sheeran his 8th No.1 album. Rumour has it he wants to make another smash hit pop album again. Be afraid, be very afraid.