This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
Well, this is nice. After two weeks locked at Number 2 behind what appeared to be an immovable force of nature, the gentlest and most lovely reggae pop record of the year fulfils what was always assumed to be its destiny. Number One on the Official UK Singles chart this week is Cheerleader by OMI. It may have taken a little longer than anticipated, but we got there in the end.
The singer's rise to the top comes after an extraordinary three-way battle which raged throughout the week and which was only decided by a late surge over the weekend for the victor. In fact, Cheerleader is the third single since the rule changes last year to have its chart-topping fate decided primarily by the number of people who chose to listen to it. Wiz Khalifa's See You Again remains the most-purchased single of the moment but this time around lost out in the streaming stakes - the difference enough to ensure it surrendered its chart crown.
The highest new entry of the week is a single which appeared to have edged in front in the chart race, at least at the start of the week but which eventually faded and had to be content with a Number 3 entry. Canadian starlet Carly Rae Jepsen has to date been rather unfairly branded a one-hit wonder (despite three Top 40 hits to her name) but she is undoubtedly defined by her 2012 megahit Call Me Maybe which became a cultural reference point three years ago, sold a million copies and firmly established itself as one of the defining pop record of the decade. Now she is back with another bubbly pop hit which has benefitted from a carefully planned build up, a huge level of public demand and not to mention the video which features not only Tom Hanks lip-synching to the single but also a cameo appearance by her personal cheerleader Justin Bieber at the end. Yes, with I Really Like You the former Canadian Idol star is back in some style and with the first single from her forthcoming third album is manifestly no one hit wonder. Number 3 is an accurate reflection of her sales form, however, as only the 21st most streamed track of the week, it is clear the single was never really going to contend to be top of the charts.
Two other new singles land in the Top 10 this week. Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Hudson's Trouble finally overcomes the hurdle that its own slow build in the streaming market had placed in its way and leaps 13-7 to finally land a chart placing that reflects its sales popularity as well. It is the Australian rapper's fifth Top 10 hit single albeit her first as a lead artist since Black Widow reached Number 4 almost exactly a year ago. For her Oscar-winning co-star, however, it is far and away her biggest ever chart hit. Before now Jennifer Hudson's best chart performance had been her 2008 single Spotlight as featured on her first post-American Idol debut album and which reached Number 11.
Brand new at Number 10 is Cool by Alesso featuring Roy English. Technically speaking it is the fourth Top 10 hit single in a row for the Swedish EDM producer, hard on the heels of January hit Heroes (We Could Be) which featured Tove Lo on guest vocals, his co-credited remix of OneRepublic's If I Lose Myself a year earlier and his guest role on Calvin Harris' Under Control which saw him credited with a Number One single at the end of 2013. Singer Roy English is, despite his name, an up and coming American singer and whose career to date has seen him be part of a series of frustrating near misses and label drops. Cool is his own song, originally written and conceived as a lavish orchestral arrangement before being treated to a more chart-friendly club sound and the result is this enormously popular hit single.
Also on the bounce on the singles chart, Skrillex & Diplo's Where Are U Now (climbing 32-18) which has the added cachet of a guest vocal from Justin Bieber [yeah, like that's going to mean anything for it, right?], Meaghan Trainor's Dear Future Husband climbing 25-20 to give her a third Top 20 hit but perhaps most notably of all I'm An Albatroz from AronChupa, better known as Swedish footballer Aron Ekberg. A product of his side career as an EDM producer and performer, the hit single has already been a huge smash in Northern Europe and arrives here as a popular viral hit, its minimalistic production and distorted vocal from his sister Nora making the two and a half minute track one of the more intriguing records of the moment. It is Number 25 for now but surely destined for more.
The Official UK Album chart remains as barkingly fluid as ever, subject to random outside factors and the buying power of the fans of veteran acts whose music remains largely irrelevant to the mainstream. So it is that 90s legends Blur have their sixth Number One album with their first release in 12 years as their much-awaited comeback The Magic Whip outsells the rest of the market by some comfortable margin. Just behind is Taylor Swift's 1989, surging 10-2 not on the basis of any direct promotion by the singer or notable TV appearances - just the fact that Google Play were selling it for buttons during the week. Would have been rude not to buy it really.
