This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

In spite of the abject failure of lead single Gimmie All Your Luvin', there was little doubt that the release of Madonna's latest album MDNA was going to be the biggest deals of the week. With what at first glance appears to be consummate ease, the album charges to the very top of the British charts, duplicating the success of every one of Madonna's regular studio albums for the last 18 years. Exactly how many Number One albums Madonna has had is still a matter of some debate, the status of the 1996 Evita soundtrack still a bone of some contention amongst chartwatchers. Therefore depending on your point of view MDNA is either her 11th or 12th Number One album in this country, a total which either puts her level with or just ahead of Elvis Presley as the most successful solo star in chart history.

The reign of Katy Perry at the top of the singles chart proves to be a brief one as after just a week she is dethroned by another big selling rival. The track in question is Turn Up The Music which after a wait of six years finally gives US R&B star Chris Brown his first ever Number One single in this country. Taken from his forthcoming fifth album Fortune, the single finally manages to eclipse the chart peak of his debut hit Run It from 2006 which peaked at Number 2, a placing which none of his subsequent chart entries have ever managed to equal until today.

Following lukewarm sales of his 2006 debut, British rapper Plan B reinvented himself as a soul singer for 2010 concept album The Defamation Of Strickland Banks and in the process transformed himself into a mainstream star. The album topped the charts and hits such as Stay Too Long and She Said were Top 10 smashes and airplay staples for months during that same year. Now two years on he is back, attempting to revert to type slightly and allowing people to rediscover him properly as a hip-hop star. So far so good, as brand new single Ill Manors charges into the Top 10 at Number 6 to become his second biggest hit single to date. The track shares its name with a forthcoming new film which stars Plan B himself and which features a soundtrack performed by the star himself, the songs set to form his third album which also shares the name.

Honourable mention should also be made of the Azealia Banks track 212 which has been steadily rising the charts for the past few weeks. Having been given its initial radio airplay as far back as September last year, the track was first made available at the start of December, but it did not make its first singles chart appearance until mid-January when it sneaked a week at Number 75. Since the start of March the track has finally started to take off and has been on a upward trajectory for the past five weeks. A further jump this time around means the single reaches its highest chart placing to date, rising six places to Number 14.

In otherwise quiet chart week, the lower end of the sales rankings is interesting merely for early indications of what is to take place in seven days time. Olly Murs' new single Oh My Goodness makes an early Top 40 appearance down at Number 28 as an album cut and appears to be heading for a Top 20 slot next time around. Anticipation for the release of the Carly Rae Jepsen single Call Me Maybe has reached such a fever pitch that there are no less than two spoiler cover versions propping up the Top 75 this week with a rendition by the search engine-fooling "Carly Rae Jepsen Tribute Team" at Number 49 and a take by cover version specialists Hit Masters at Number 72. Both will vanish in short order next week with the original by the Canadian star set for an inevitable debut at Number One in seven days time. And aren't we all looking forward to it...