Welcome to James Masterton's Chart Watch UK – your essential weekly deep dive into the Official UK Charts!
As the longest-running British music column online, we bring you the ultimate guide to this week's Top 40, unraveling the stories behind the biggest new singles and chart-topping hits. Plus, explore our extensive archives, a treasure trove of nearly 1800 articles documenting three and a half decades of popular music history and expert analysis.
So is this the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end of the start. Or are we still just getting started? I lose track. Stranger Things have happened on the charts - not least a hit from 2024 winding up finally at the very top of the 2026 charts.
We're back for a new year. And so it appears are all the old hits from before. But that finally gives one lady in particular her chance to shine. RAYE tops the charts after a winter waiting in the wings. Get your exclamation marks ready!
Meet the new bosses, same as the old bosses. The No.1 single and album are the exact same records that were in this position last year. Who could have predicted? The traditional batshit final chart of the year delivers in exactly the same way it always does. Roll on Big Ben.
Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! And so it came to pass in the year of our Lord, 2025AD that the being known as Minogue, Kylie ascended to her rightful throne of the Queen of Christmas. Denied the festive chart-topper in 1988 she is finally there today. And back on the top the pile after a quite extraordinary 22 year wait. At least it wasn't bloody Wham again.
