Rug Officially Pulled
He's back, everyone.
As comebacks go it was immaculate in the planning. The Friday afternoon "mystery artist" slot at Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage turned out to be none other than Lewis Capaldi, even if by the time he actually set foot on the premises enough hints had been dropped to ensure everyone who needed to know about it knew he would be appearing.
The moment was significant, for it was at Glastonbury precisely two years ago that four years in the spotlight finally took its toll, a Tourette's attack meant he was barely capable of singing by the end of his set, the singer announcing shortly afterwards that he was taking a break from public life.
Last Friday also just so happened to be the day the genial and always refreshingly self-aware Scotsman released his comeback single, a track that swiftly went from surprise drop to runaway chart leader. So it is that the rest of the market is blown away. Survive duly becomes Lewis Capaldi's sixth No.1 single on the Official UK Singles chart, his first since Wish You The Best topped the pile a little over two years ago. On the face of it the single hits the top with a colossal sale of well over 68,000, the fourth-highest weekly tally of the year so far and the highest opening week of any single released in 2025 to date. Runner up, Dior by MK and Chrystal, languishes well behind on a mere 42,000 units.
But it wouldn't be a Lewis Capaldi No.1 without there being some kind of twist. Not every one of his five previous No.1 singles have come through entirely organic means, not least his 2023 chart champion Pointless which in January that year bounced 15-1-12 after he "discovered" a batch of signed CDs which were flogged off on the cheap on his website. This very incident prompted the inclusion of the "Lewis Capaldi Rule" in the chart regulations, debarring signed physical copies from inclusion in the singles chart.
It won't shock you to learn that a similar story is behind the chart performance of Survive, a record which had begun the week with what indeed was a healthy enough lead but one which was by no means insurmountable. There was every chance that Dior would find itself in a position to nip in and nick the crown by the end of the week. Enter then our old friend, the physical drop. CD copies of Capaldi's single had already been made available for pre-order, slated for a July 11th release. Only for him to announce on Tuesday that they would be shipped out immediately - a shipping which meant that sales of all 25,000 of them could be posted to the charts in time for this week.
So the truth of the matter is that this is largely where Lewis Capaldi's huge chart led has come from. Precisely 25,415 of the track's huge chart sale has come via these "surprise" CD singles. Ironically Survive would still have been No.1 even without the physical drop, but its lead over Dior would have been a mere 500 units. Too damn close for comfort, especially if you are Universal Music wanting to tweak the nose of Sony.
This does mean the fate of next week's No.1 race will be intriguing. Like Sabrina Carpenter before him, Lewis Capaldi has been far too dependent on one-and-done paid purchases to grab a No.1 debut. And with those now out of the equation (unless he pulls yet another stunt) the prospects of Survive er, surviving are slimmer than they might have been. Capaldi has told Official Charts "I want to say a massive thank you to everybody who’s been streaming it, downloading it – it really means the world". Not a single mention you'll note of those who purchased his 99p disc.
Perhaps it is also worth noting that the song itself is, by Capaldi's own standards, vanishingly poor. Yes, it is a poignant lyric and the tale of his own personal woes over the last two years. But it is also the most tediously dull record to hit No.1 in what you might say is some considerable time. Lewis Capaldi is one of my favourite people in music, the most unlikely pop star of his generation in every conceivable way. And in Someone You Loved (the second-longest running Top 75 single ever and a re-entry at No.51 this week) he has gifted us one of the greatest songs about love and heartbreak of all time. But all he has done this week is gamed his way to ensuring the summer of 2025, at least as far as the top of the charts is concerned, continues to be awkwardly beige. We actually do need Dior to be No.1 next time around to properly rescue us from balladry.
Other Hits Are Available
That is of course an oblique reference to the still evergreen Ordinary which is back up a place at an ACR-suppressed No.8. If still on SCR it would have been No.2 behind Survive's full tally - and still some distance ahead of it without the physical sales taken into account.
Just for a change there's no room for anything else to enter the Top 10, although Ed Sheeran's Sapphire is back at its No.9 (to date) peak, after falling three places last week. Indeed most of the rest of the top end of the Top 40 is devoid of new entries, but that does mean room for more mid-table hits to climb more rungs. Pinkpantheress' Illegal is now looking dangerously like giving her a long overdue third Top 20 hit with a rise to No.22, while No Broke Boys from Disco Lines and Tinashe (No.23) and High On Me by Rossi and Jazzy (No.28) keep the flag flying for the "producers with famous women in tow" genre of dance music.
Demons!
Three of the most notable new entries inside the basement of the Top 40 are best described in terms of where they come from rather than who peforms them. Golden (No.31), Your Idol (No.34) and How It's Done (No.40) all come from the newly released soundtrack of the Netflix movie K-Pop: Demon Hunters whose plot features girl group Huntr/X battling their demonic musical rivals, the boy band Saja Boys. The hit singles come from a mix of both, Golden and How It's Done thus credited Huntr/X, and Your Idol credited to the Saja Boys - although the charts also list the voice actors of both "groups" as performers which makes things a little messy.
But who are we to argue? The ability of old media (radio, press etc.) to break and showcase music seems to be in terminal decline. Here's a shining example of new media bombarding the charts with songs its consumers have been inspired to listen to. Even if this may actually be a one off.
Kissy Face
There's a genuine K-pop star on the week's other new arrival. Hard on the heels of his Jelly Roll collaboration the apparently perpetually active Alex Warren is back with another duet. On My Mind sees him in duet with Blackpink's Rose, the scarily curve-free woman most famous for her partnership with Bruno Mars on APT. But here we are back to beige again, On My Mind another example of Alex Warren doing his only song, but this time with a female co-vocal that is so utterly devoid of personality it could quite literally be performed by anyone. Rose gives the track name value, but without reading the credits or watching the video you would actually be hard pressed to identify that it is her on the record.
Portaloo
We began by mentioning last week's Glastonbury festival and now must circle back around to it, given that as is traditional the albums market has to be seen in the context of the (mostly) annual televised jamboree. The ability of Glastonbury to move the needle when it comes to sales of the performers is perhaps less pronounced than it used to be, but there is still no escaping the fact that every significant movement this week can be linked to the festival in some way.
Leading the charge is Lorde, the Kiwi star's fourth album Virgin becoming her first ever No.1 album on these shores, this after she turned out to be the festival's first surprise performer early on the Friday afternoon. Rod Stewart's Legends slot appearance also neatly coincided with the release of his new hits collection Ultimate Hits which debuts nicely at No.5. But it is the female headliner who steals the show really, Olivia Rodrigo seeing both of her albums - GUTS and SOUR - take flying leaps back up the charts to positions 8 and 11 respectively.
We have to start as we began though, as Lewis Capaldi barges his way back onto the albums chart with his 2019 debut Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent returning at No.15 - its highest chart placing since May 2023, just prior to that notorious abandoned Glastonbury slot.
