What The Dickens
Sounding like a bewildering combination of Paloma Faith, Adele and Amy Winehouse, 20 year old Sienna Spiro first stepped from the world of viral TikTok videos and into the mainstream charts a few weeks shy of a year ago. Her debut single Die On This Hill was described on these pages as "…in a word, mesmerising. Her crystal clear vocals cut through a production which features little more than a piano and a slow building orchestral backing, carefully pitched to give this a quite epic feel. If these were ordinary times and the charts behaved properly then you would be nominating this as a contender to be Christmas No.1."
In the end it would peak at No.9 twice, once just before Christmas and once just after it. If these pages weren't an all-remembering archive, I would be able to pretend that I'd predicted this bold new talent would have a No.1 single to her name within the space of a year.
If only I had. Because 40-odd chart weeks later Sienna Ann Spiro has a No.1 hit single. The track in question is Great Expectation, officially the fourth single lifted from her debut album The Visitor. All the previous superlatives above still apply here. The song a breathtaking, compelling and powerful ballad led throughout by the voice which threatens throughout to crack with emotion as if she's living every note.
After a ten-week climb, the last six of which have been spent in the Top 10, Great Expectation takes full advantage of the current market vacancy, edging past Ella Langley at the death to take her to the top of the charts for the very first time. Aged just 20 (still) she is the youngest British female to have a No.1 single since Becky Hill in 2014 (and if we are being picky, the youngest solo credited female since Ella Henderson who landed a week earlier). If she ends up sweeping all before her at the Brits in February, just like fellow British starlets Raye and Olivia Dean before her, this time I won't have to pretend I called it before it all happened.
Yes, we are all slightly in love with her here at Chart Watch towers. Do you blame us? Speaking of Die On This Hill, her debut Top 40 hit continues to enjoy the steady second wind that has powered it since the release of her album. It climbs once more to No.11, now threatening to become a Top 10 hit itself for the third time in the space of a year.
This One For The Ladies
Sienna Spiro heads up an impressively female-laden upper end, only the presence of the very male Sam Fender prevents the entire Top 9 being occupied by female-performed hits. Ella Langley, Ultra Nate, Stella Lefty, Olivia Dean (twice), Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa and Dolly Parton make up the pan-generational sweep of ladies.
Wait, Dua Lipa? Yes, the virally inspired revival of Training Season has proven to be no one-off even after the supplies of its anniversary physical issue tailed off. The track rockets 11 places to No.7, just three places below the No.4 peak it scaled upon release in February 2024. Back then the song was received as a solid single but a small step down from the heights of Future Nostalgia — good, not great, was the general verdict. There's something quietly funny, then, in watching a song once filed as a minor comedown become the one everybody's delighted to have back, outlasting the initial "not quite as good as last time" reviews to become a proper enduring favourite in its own right.
Also keeping the male end of things up is Tame Impala who now has a second Top 10 single to his name to follow in the footsteps of Dracula. Loser appeared to have crashed into the class ceiling when it spent a fortnight at No.11 before dipping last week to No.12. So with this move its patience is finally rewarded.
Bring On The Undead
Before we leave the Top 10, another acknowledgement of the slightly false picture that it paints. The presence of not one but two ACR-ed Olivia Dean-performed hits still nonetheless hanging around and still technically the 1 and 2 most consumed singles of the week makes for some odd optics. Rein Me In actually rebounds to No.5 and indeed were it still at full strength would be No.1 by a margin of some 10,000 units. Meanwhile the apparently undead Man I Need is officially No.8 as it enjoys its longest run in the Top 10 (4 weeks) since April, a part of the countdown it has featured on for a total of 37 weeks now even if just ten of them were when it was at SCR status. Now approaching the anniversary of its one and only week at the top of the charts, it is technically the No.2 hit of the week still - and would be just a couple of thousand units behind the leader. Man I Need was the soundtrack to my Christmas last year, so for that reason I can't bring myself to play it again until the tinsel goes back up.
Motoring On
Tame Impala's hit is extraordinarily the only song in the Top 10 whose "weeks on chart" total remains in single digits. Meaning there surely at some point has to be room for some newer arrivals. They hopefully will come thanks to hits in the 20 that are motoring upwards, even if today's strong momentum is no guarantee of tomorrow's progression. But they are all magnificent pop hits too. Ain't In LA rockets 26-12 for Adela (helped not a little by the No.2 debut of its parent album Prima), My Body Isn't Ready hits a new peak of No.15 for Sombr and Ashe's attempts to Stop The Wedding see her move 23-16. Reasons to be cheerful 1, 2 and 3.
You all but take it as read that the singles charts at present will be a heady mix of new hits and virally revived oldies. Although the concept of the same songs coming around again and again is something new to get our heads around. The highest "new" entry of the week is Sure Thing by Miguel, the 2010 semi flop (which never even charted here) that was turned into a viral success well over three years ago when it reached No.4 in February 2023. The damn thing has caught on again my friends, returning to the Top 40 at No.27.
But then again, it is in a Top 30 region that is also graced by Sign Of The Times by Harry Styles (2017) and Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield (2004). 'Tis the season still to be a song recorded many years ago that the kids still love. And in the case of the latter, it too a track which enjoyed a viral revival earlier in the decade but which still is the soundtrack to the voices of an entire new audience.
Miley Oh Blimey
There is at least one definitely new song on the Top 40 though. Miley Cyrus' attempts to rebrand herself by using just her first name haven't so far been as effective as she might wish. The singles chart still uses her full family name to credit her. But her first release under her new identity at least brings her back to the fore. Bass Persuades sees her pivot once again, the electropop and semi-spoken hit straight out of the Lady Gaga playbook (it's bloody Poker Face rewritten!. Is this why it hasn’t quite been the instant smash her name value might suggest she was entitled to? No.31 is a start, but a slow one. And it is quite jarring to note that she hasn't had a Top 10 hit under her own steam since 2023's behemoth Flowers. Which of course sounded nothing like this hit - although curiously both are co-written by Michael Pollack. Who is also one of the co-composers of Great Expectation.
Old Singer Not Included
We already know Adela did not have the No.1 album of the week. That honour goes to Kasabian with their ninth album Act III, originally slated for release last spring but which was delayed until now thanks to the band realising that parts of it were a bit shit. I may be paraphrasing here of course. Whatever tweaks were needed, they worked. Leicester's finest now have their 8th No.1 record. Their self-titled 2004 debut their only studio release not to top the charts, although it did peak at No.4 on two entirely separate occasions in its first six months on release.
It seems kind of apposite that a British group should be No.1 in the same week that Official Charts announced a brand new property that will become part of the expanded First Look show on Radio One on Sundays. The Official Homegrown Albums Chart will strictly feature the biggest albums of the week released by British artists in the last 12 months. Such "local" charts are not unusual in other territories - ARIA in Australia has for some time now produced both singles and albums countdowns that are exclusive to native acts. With the music industry now operating on a global scale which means the only acts cutting through are frequently those with a global following and marketing spend to match, it only makes sense to apply filters to properly surface and highlight those local stars (homegrown, if you will) who might otherwise struggle for attention.
This Is The End
Here's a fun(!) fact to end with this week. Golden oldie mania that may or may not be down to an older demographic still awkwardly making up large numbers of streams means that of the singles between 76 and 100 this week there are four of them that are classic hits from the 1980s. Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac (No.79), Beat It by Michael Jackson (No.92), Purple Rain by Prince (No.94) and Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears For Fears (No.100). Every one of them at least 39 years old.
That's why I shout about a hot new British star being No.1. The alternative possibly doesn't bear thinking about.
