Dean Queen
The rise of Olivia Dean was a long time in the making. A backing singer (failed) with Rudimental at the age of 17, she began the decade self-releasing songs on YouTube. These translated into a proper record deal with EMI, but little or no commercial success, her two EPs released in 2019 and 2020 sinking without trace. The first anyone heard of her was when Amazon Music gave her a rub, nominating her as their artist of the year in 2021 and asking her to record one of their Christmas exclusives. Her version skillfully avoided commercial traction. The Christmas Song was the first most people would have heard of her, her exposure on Alexa playlists pushing the track to No.19 that year.
She released her first full length album Messy in 2023, but again few people noticed. "It made a respectable debut at No.4 that summer, but that still only amounted to an initial sale of just over 7,000 chart units. No hit singles resulted, although its biggest track The Hardest Part has enjoyed constant low-level streaming success ever since.
But now - joyfully - 2025 is her year. Whatever magic was lacking before, whatever promotional fairy dust she was previously lacking is now hers in spades. Where EMI failed Capitol and Polydor (her new home) have succeeded. Suddenly, the British neo-soul singer is one of the UK's biggest and brightest stars. Meaning the release of her new album was always going to be an event.
Welcome then to Olivia Dean week. Her album The Art Of Loving debuts with suitable grace at the top of the charts in what is by any Q4 standards a very busy week for new releases (for reasons that will become obvious next time around). It shifts a grand total of over 52,000 chart units, around 20,000 of those thanks to streams. The others from purchases, both physical and digital. The album's opening week was the fifth biggest of the year behind Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, and Sam Fender, and the biggest for a British female artist since Adele in 2021. And easily knocking into a cocked hat the first week sale of her debut.
Just as I hinted last week, the album's arrival gives a useful fillip to her already impressive array of chart hits - and most significantly, finally gives the seductively gorgeous Man I Need the edge it needs to oust Golden and proudly take its place at the very top of the Official UK Singles chart.
Did I say it was gorgeous? Let's say that again loud and proudly. Because this is probably the most deserving No.1 single of a year when we've already had some great ones. Sounding like Corinne Bailey Rae's younger sister, she oozes her way through the beautifully seductive love song with a graceful effortlessness. After patiently waiting in the wings for five weeks, for most of those moving numbers that would have taken it to the top of the charts in half the chart weeks this year, the single finally achieves what you might call its destiny.
Man I Need achieves a colossal sale of 76,820, the highest for any No.1 single so far this year. Notably, she also sets a fascinating new benchmark, becoming the first female artist of any nationality to achieve her first No.1 single and No.1 album in the exact same week. Alan Jones in Music Week lists the only other artists to have pulled off this track - Men At Work, The Pretenders and Tubeway Army. Because there is no way I would have dug that stat up on my own.
But as this is Olivia Dean week there are of course more stories to tell. Her "other" hit single of the moment Nice To Each Other gets a boost of its own, hurtling to a new peak of No.4. And it is joined in the upper reaches by album cut So Easy (To Fall In Love) which debuts at No.9.
With this, she officially becomes the first British female since Adele to land three simultaneous Top 10 hits as a lead artist (or solo).
Gasp
Some small sympathies then for Golden which is prevented from enjoying a record-setting ninth week at No.1. With a sale of its own of nearly 66,000 that still makes it the biggest No.2 single of the year so far. Its reset ACR clock has now ticked once, it won't contend for No.1 next week (for what will hopefully be obvious reasons), but what will happen after that?
Intrigue around next week's No.1 single therefore centres on the battle of two women. Ms Dean, and the lady we shall not mention until the end of this week's piece. The Top 3 is rounded out by RAYE's Where Is My Husband, which fair play has a second large week in it and climbs a place to a brand new peak. Meanwhile, the three-year-old Escapism continues its own comeback, rising now to No.24 following its ACR reset a week ago.
First To Break
The highest new entry of the week goes to another female soloist - Canada's Tate McRae who lands nearly at No.6 with new single Tit For Tat. It becomes her fourth Top 10 single of 2025, and funnily enough for now her second No.6 hit in a row, hard on the heels of Just Keep Watching which scaled the peak back in June. A non-album single for now, most of the interest in it centres around whether it is intended as a response to former beau Kid Laroi's track A Cold Play. I care little.
Currently reduced to a bit of a footnote for a change, Sabrina Carpenter at least does something newsworthy as the hits from her Short N' Sweet album play the chart hokey cokey with each other. Taking over as her third chart eligible hit is album cut House Tour which is the third-highest "new" entry at No.17, trailing Tears at No.10 and When Did You Get Hot at No.11.
More Stars To Gaze At
From the upbeat guitar pop draw comes the latest hit single from Myles Smith. Stay (If You Wanna Dance) is brand new at No.32, which if you enjoyed the Tate McRae coincidence, means you will love the way that this is indeed his second straight single to debut at this position, hard on the heels of Gold which scaled the same peak back in June. This new hit has the potential to be another slow burner - but let us not forget that after next week the number of charts we have left before the singles countdown becomes swamped with festive hits is down to single figures. This is the time of year when we speculate not what might become a hit right now, but what might end up a hit in January. And it is the October and November releases which are primed to line up for this.
Pussy
As big as Olivia Dean is, she is very much a British interest, so the biggest international album this will almost certainly turn out to be Doja Cat's Vie which debuts here at mere No.5. It still manages to emit a further hit single, Gorgeous landing inside the Top 40 at No.34. The already charting Jealous Type is a few steps ahead, enjoying a boost back up to No.30.
But the other notable album to come out this week is the debut solo release of Perrie Edwards (ex of Little Mix) whose mononymic eponymous album rues its enormous bad luck to come out at exactly the wrong time and enters at No.3 - matching the entry point of her bandmate Jade a fortnight ago.
Beautiful Benchmark
We should finish (almost) with one fun stat, a feat that people on various forums have been tracking. Benson Boone's long-running Beautiful Things is this week's No.36 in what is now its 89th consecutive week as a Top 100 single. This is the first time it has been at No.36 in the whole of that time. It means the track has now spent at least a week on almost every single rung of the Top 40. Only positions 15, 17, 29, 34 and 37 have eluded it. No other single in chart history has reached 35 out of 40 different chart positions.
But let's be honest here, this is the calm before the storm isn't it? Or at least an anticipated storm. Reaction to Taylor Swift's new album appears to have been muted outside of her very vocal fanbase. Life Of A Showgirl is guaranteed to be next week's No.1 album. But will she get a No.1 single out of it too?
