I Love It
And with one twang of knicker elastic the streak is broken. After 31 consecutive weeks with not one single British artist at the top of the charts, we finally have a homegrown champion. And of all the people it could have been, who could have predicted it would be Charli XCX.
I've done the Charli rant several times before so it doesn't really merit repeating in full here. Suffice to say that for well over ten years she has been a strange enigma, the critical darling whose fawning press was at odds with her actual popular or commercial appeal. Even her Wikipedia writeup cannot skirt around the issue, noting the critical acclaim that greeted her debut album True Romance in 2013 but also its ultimate No.85 peak on the UK albums chart.
And this was in truth a cycle that continued, album after album would come and go (mainly go) while proper hit singles were alarmingly thin on the ground. But she would get breathless praise in the Guardian and that appeared to be all that mattered. Full credit to her then for somehow turning it all around. Jokes about how she was hitless stopped being relevant when Speed Drive became a Top 10 hit last summer. And then came the BRAT album earlier this year, lauded of course like all the others were only to then catch fire at streaming like nothing she had ever made before. Twin singles 360 and Apple were charging nicely up the charts and as we noted on these pages a couple of weeks ago she had a virality she had never had before.
And now Charli XCX is back at the top of the charts for the first time in 12 years. The track in question is GUESS, one of a handful of cuts added to a special edition of BRAT - songs which stood on their own merits but which didn't quite fit the aesthetic of the main work. But the version of the song that tops the charts this week is itself a remake, a new version which adds some suitable superstar vocals from Billie Eilish in a manner which is transformative in more ways than one.
On its own GUESS is provocative enough, Charli enquiring of a nameless seductee if they want to know about her underwear or or perhaps move it out the way. The identity of that person is ambiguous, right up to the moment Billie Eilish both metaphorically (and physically if you follow the video) drives a truck through the situation. "Charli likes boys but she knows I'd hit it" she notes, before turning the already rude song into an unabashed appreciation of each other's tuppences.
That fact alone makes it deliciously absorbing. Billie Eilish hits such as Lunch and Birds Of A Feather were already quite blatantly sapphic, but the fact she's now jumping on other people's songs to properly gay them up is enormously entertaining. But we should not overlook that the track itself is compelling, a mostly rapped electropop revival track that - granted - is indeed a world away from the Charli XCX hits we've been told we should be loving right now. But it is the No.1 single we actually all needed after Sabrina's sugar-coated reign of terror.
As I hinted above GUESS is Charli XCX's second No.1 single. Her first came way back in 2012 when she made her debut with I Don't Care (I Love It), the track credited to Icona Pop who covered Charli's original demo and invited her to contribute co-vocals on their version. For her part Billie Eilish tops the charts for the third time in her career, one week shy of a year after she was last at the top of the charts with What Was I Made For. GUESS is notably the first time she has reached No.1 with a single that wasn't recorded for a movie soundtrack.
To circle round to the top, Charli XCX is indeed the first British act this year to hit No.1. And given the last two No.1 singles by UK acts in 2023 were by Wham and The Beatles she is effectively the first chart-topping British act with more than 50% of their members still alive since Kenya Grace was No.1 with Strangers in October last year.
We Like Birds
All of this also means we are in what must surely be the unique position of having a No.1 single by two duetting artists who each have solo Top 10 hits as well. Billie's own Birds Of A Feather is No.4 while Charli XCX finally reaches the Top 10 with Apple as it shoots to No.8, leaving previous leader 360 trailing in its wake at No.11. Incidentally without GUESS arriving at the top we would have had a static Top 5, all of last week's chart leaders merely move down a place to make way for the pant-waving classic.
An Obvious Move
Also new to the Top 10 is Jordan Adetunki who sees the mesmerising Kehlani finally hit the heights with a climb to No.9 after an eight-week chart run. The final piece of the jigsaw is a jump-on which is straight out of the "they didn’t, did they?" draw as none other than US singer Kehlani herself pops up to add her own verse. It is a little on the nose, but it works wonderfully. Alas, she doesn't get a credit on the already charting single, but it is her first Top 40 hit single since her own Nights Like These reached No.25 in January 2019.
The Resurrection Of Pubehead
Another move of note, 'Nsync's Bye Bye Bye continues to make hay in the sunshine from its movie soundtrack revival and rockets up to No.12. It is an odd contrast with the current solo fortunes of the man who performs most of the vocals on the track - Justin Timberlake only able to struggle to No.29 with Selfish earlier this year.
Bubble hits watch: Jimin's Who crashes to No.25 while Jade's Angel Of My Dreams isn't sinking quite as fast, but is still this week only No.18 a fortnight after its debut.
New Boys
Sonny Fodera missed the Top 40 with his last single Mind Still but rights that wrong this time around with Somedays. Featuring Jazzy and D.O.D. on co-vocals the track makes good on its initial promise and is No.31 on its second week on the chart. Its target is the No.7 peak of last autumn's smash Asking.
There's a UK chart debut this week for Indian rapper Hanumankind, 31 year old Sooraj Cherukat having developed a love of the genre thanks to growing up in Texas. His single Big Dawgs is grabbing attention thanks to the high-octane video which sees him performing while atop a wall of death. Is that behind its first week debut at No.35?
No Luck Required Here
Chappell Roan's Good Luck Babe may have slipped slightly on the singles chart (although it is still No.3) but she enjoys a rather startling triumph elsewhere as her album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess (on which, I will never tire of noting, the single does not appear) rises to No.1 after almost a year. It was first released in September last year (when it reportedly sold 405 copies in that first week, did not reach the published Top 75 charts until four months ago and has finally hit the top (after the release of a vinyl edition) after an 18-week climb. In a world where new albums debut with their biggest sale and then slowly slip from sight, for a record to do something as old school as this and make a slow and steady climb to the summit is something quite extraordinary. Although this pales in comparison to David Gray's White Ladder which made it to the top of the albums chart for the first time in August 2001 following a 66 week climb.
Chappell Roan's other two hit singles of the moment (both of which do feature on the album) both surge to new peaks. Hot To Go is No.15 while Red Wine Supernova ticks up to No.32.
Lonely Road by Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll goes down this week to No.72. I hate this place sometimes.
