This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
The month-long deadlock at the top of the Official UK Singles chart is finally broken this week as a much-needed injection of new musical blood causes a shake-up at Number One.
The departure of Jason Derulo from the top means that for the first time since the end of April there is a British performer at the top of British charts - two to be precise although we'll come to that fascinating detail in a moment. First the track in question: Not Letting Go, a breezy and appropriately summery rap/dance hit which duly becomes the sixth Number One hit single in the already stellar career of Tinie Tempah. The track is the first single from what is set to be his third studio album, one which will arrive almost three years after his last offering Demonstration. Not that the rapper has been resting on his laurels since then of course, and indeed he topped the charts twice in 2014 with guest roles on singles by DVBBS/Borgeous and Cheryl Cole. This actually means Not Letting Go gives him an impressive hat-trick - his third chart hit in a row to storm to the very top of the charts.
However, this is nothing compared to what this single means for his co-star, one Jess Glynne. Her presence on the Tinie Tempah single means that in the space of just 18 months she has managed the extraordinary feat of appearing on Number One hits by three different acts - Clean Bandit and Route 94 the other two. Add in her own solo hit Hold My Hand back in April and she is in the curious but by no means unique position of having topped the charts four times with a different combination of performers each time. Still two less than the man she accompanies today, of course, Tinie Tempah having topped the charts once solo and now five times in combination with others. Oh yes, and there is the small matter of the fact that the last British star to top the British charts back in April was Jess Gly… oh, you are way ahead of me already.
As you might expect the streaming market is some way off the pace compared to the sales one and indeed the Top 8 most listened to singles this week are all well-established hit records. The one exception is the track which storms to Number 2 on the singles chart this week after reaching as far as Number 46 last week thanks to its already well established streaming audience. The full sales release of Are You With Me by Lost Frequencies is enough to propel it to the runners-up slot and indeed given its presence near the top end of both sales and streams charts it can consider itself unlucky not to have presented Tinie Tempah with more of a challenge in the race for Number One. Nonetheless, it is still an impressive debut for the Belgian producer even if Are You With Me is once more a single which has seen its British release delayed for some time - the track already an established chart hit in other territories around the world. The record itself is another of those chilled out club records that borrows copiously from the work of another artist, the track featuring at its core the sped up refrain from the song of the same name by country singer Easton Corbin which originally appeared on his 2012 album All Over The Road.
It wouldn't truly be midsummer without a genuine party rap hit in the charts and the undisputed master of the genre Flo Rida duly delivers. His second Top 10 single of the year, I Don't Like It I Love It shoots to Number 7 in a blizzard of funk guitars, whistles and the small matter of Robin Thicke and Verdine White on guest vocals. Ground-breaking and earth-shattering stuff it is not but for the soundtrack to your next pool party, you really need to look no further. Flo Rida can now boast 13 Top 10 hits to his name since he first hit the British charts in 2008. Oh yes, and remember Jess Glynne and her four Number One hits in as many different incarnations? Flo Rida is another of the few chart acts who can better that, with every one of his five Number Ones to date having featured a different artist credit.
James Bay's Hold Back The River has been one of the singles chart ever-presents almost since the start of this year, the track climbing back up to Number 25 in what is its 25th straight week as a Top 40 hit single. It is now all but forgotten that the track actually had a brief chart run last year too, hitting Number 18 at the start of December in a four-week chart run. What was even less appreciated was that it was by no means his first chart single, that honour falling to Let It Go which was released in September and which crept to Number 62. Since then the hit single in waiting has been in and out of the chart at regular intervals but after now being officially promoted as the next single from his Chaos And The Calm album does it finally reach the Top 40, rocketing to Number 17 on what it by a fun coincidence also its 17th week as a Top 100 single.
The X Factor series may well have been the making of any number of pop acts over the years, but not all of them get lucky. Big things were expected of the 8-piece boy band Stereo Kicks who were thrown together by the producers for the 2014 series, their name being decided by a poll on the show's website. Despite finishing in fifth place in the competition no label has until now been interested in the group, forcing them to effectively self-release their debut hit single. On the one hand the Number 31 arrival of Love Me So is something of a let-down, but then again this has been achieved without any major label support or full mainstream airplay. Full credit then to their army of online fans who have remained loyal since the end of the series, but it is hard not to view their chances of further career progress as something of an uphill struggle.
The final weekend in June naturally marks the annual Glastonbury music festival and although the cut off point for this particular chart is too early to see the full sales impact of the television coverage of the festival, one act did appear early enough to have reaped the benefits. Florence & The Machine were never booked as headliners but stepped up to close Friday night on the pyramid stage following the accident which ruled Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters out of contention. The exposure has been enough to propel the album How Big How Blue How Beautiful back to the top of charts although its hit single Ship To Wreck is not so lucky, dipping to Number 52 this week.
As the world gears up for Global Release Day next month we are now set for a number of ends of era over the next few weeks - such as the one that arrives next weekend. This week will be the last ever Sunday-Saturday sales survey period for the UK charts and the singles and albums countdown I will tell you about next weekend the last one ever to be published on a Sunday. Excuse me, I may have something in my eye.