This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

I have to confess that if pressed, I would not have called this. Despite finally overhauling the Lukas Graham track at the top of the live iTunes charts towards the end of the week, Mike Posner's I Took A Pill In Ibiza seemed just too far behind in the race, and crucially lagging behind when it came to streaming totals. If it was ever going to climb to the top of the Official UK Singles chart, it was going to need one more week of pushing.

Yet here we are. Britain this week has a brand new Number One single as the American singer-songwriter finally takes his due place at the summit of the singles chart although in the end the race could hardly have been narrower. As has been widely reported, Posner's margin of victory was the small matter of 261 combined sales, the closest chart race in fact since the closest we have come to a modern era dead heat in August 2007 when Timabaland's The Way I Are bested Foundations by Kate Nash by the small matter of 16 copies. Just a few purchases more, or a handful of playlist additions and the result could have been so very different.

As Lukas Graham inevitably fall away then, so must others rise to replace them. Waiting in the wings for their chance still are Zara Larsson (Lush Life reaching a new peak of Number 3) and Fifth Harmony who rocket 11-4 with Work From Home and thus land their second UK Top 10 hit single.

There are a couple of more curious moves at the lower end of the Top 10. No less than seven weeks after it first appeared to have peaked at Number 9, Light It Up by Major Lazer and Nyla rises 10-7 to achieve a brand new chart peak. Meanwhile Stitches from Shawn Mendes arrests what appeared to be a terminal decline and returns to the Top 10 with a 12-8 rise, although this one is more comfortably explained by the single being one of the most high profile beneficiaries of a flash sale at iTunes which saw a raft of tracks discounted to 59p during the middle of the week and so receiving corresponding sales boosts.

Lower down the Top 10 upward progress continues to be made by G-Eazy's Me Myself & I (17-13), Twenty One Pilots' Stressed Out (15-14) and Sia's Cheap Thrills (20-16). Below them all is the highest charting new arrival of the week, Dangerous Woman which returns Ariana Grande to the singles chart for the first time since Focus reached Number 10 back in November last year. Whilst that single was originally touted as the lead release from her upcoming third album it has apparently now been ditched in favour of this new release which is officially the title track of the collection slated for release in May. Dangerous Woman (the single) is for now the fifth Top 10 hit single of the former TV star's chart career but seems destined for higher in fairly short order.

Speaking of children's TV stars turned pop princesses, Selena Gomez has the fastest mover of the week as her Hands To Myself rises 32-21. Meanwhile as if to prove the interonnectedness of all things, there is a Top 40 debut this week for Cake By The Ocean as performed by DNCE, the new rock outfit led by Joe Jonas. Their first ever chart hit in this country, the single rises 42-26 this week.

It will inevitably sell in shedloads when it is finally released, but the slow build towards Zayn Malik's solo debut continues this week. Hard on the heels of Number One single Pillowtalk in February came the instant gratification release It's You whose standalone sales saw it reach Number 48 briefly a fortnight ago. This week the former One Direction star dropped another cut from the album resulting in Like I Would becoming his third chart hit in the space of seven weeks as it charts at Number 30 to begin its chart run as officially the album's second single release. Mind Of Mine is still a week away from release, hitting stores and online services this coming Friday (25th March).

Mind Of Mine is probably a good bet to be the next Number One album. For now in the wake of her nationwide tour there is just no shifting Adele's "25" from its present berth at the top of the charts as it notches up week Number 11 at the very top. As if to prove however that nothing is forever, we should note with some relief that as Love Yourself dives 7-11 on the singles chart, this is the first week since early September not to feature a Justin Bieber performance somewhere in the Top 10 of the Official UK Singles chart.