Heal The Part
K-Pop Demon Hunters cinema report: Wow, bits of it really do hit differently on the big screen. And there's no substitute for watching something as part of a communal experience. I can also confirm that "fit check for my napalm era" (a line from the previously-charted How It's Done) is everyone's favourite lyric of them all.
So in the aftermath of last weekend's movie experience it should come as no shock that all the songs from the hit movie's soundtrack continue to solidify their sales positions, even if chart placings don't necessarily reflect that. Huntr/Xs' Golden remains No.1 though by some distance. Posting its biggest sales week so far and with a lead of 50% over its closest competition, it is No.1 for the fourth time in five weeks and the third of its current run. The Saja Boys are also up in sales but don't quite make the encroaches they have previously done, Soda Pop slumping back (for now) to No.4 while Your Idol holds steady at No.6. There are four more songs from the movie soundtrack all starred-out of the Top 40. Meanwhile the Twice version of Takedown edges further upwards to No.27. Still glowin', still Golden all.
Love Livvy
KPDH may be the biggest but it for sure isn't the only story of the summer. Now clearly filling the role of breakout star of the summer, Olivia Dean enjoys what by any standards is an extraordinary week. Her latest hit Man I Need is now confirmed as her biggest hit single to date, soaring six places from its debut last week to rest at an impressive (if still distant) No.2. This is glorious to see in so many ways. The track skews all perceptions of what a smash hit single in 2025 is required to be. There are no dance remixes, no rapper-jump ons and no sops to prevailing musical trends. Man I Need is a slice of breezy neo-soul that manages the neat trick of sounding fresh and modern and yet as if it has also stepped out of the charts of 40 years ago.
After a false dawn last week the surely future star of the 2026 Brit Awards now does indeed have three simultaneous Top 10 hit singles. Nice To Each Other hits a new peak of its own of No.7 while her Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In climbs back to No.10 to return to the Top 10 after seven weeks away. Fender is the lead artist here, meaning Olivia Dean still has a third eligible chart hit in the bank. But this week that hit is Dive, which as we mentioned last week was a minor hit earlier in the summer but which has been starred-out for the last few weeks. It now re-takes its place in the best sellers at a new peak of No.31 at the expense of last week's No.38 hit Lady Lady.
I Said What I Said
The highest new entry of the week is a track whose intent was to mark the triumphant return of Doja Cat to the fray. The role of quirky genre-hopping female rap artist that she practically invented for herself at the start of the decade has since seen other contenders emerge. The likes of Latto and latterly Doechii to name but two have stepped in to challenge her crown as the Queen of the (multi-) genre, meaning she has her work cut out to remain relevant. In theory new single Jealous Type performs that role admirably, a glittering 80s throwback cut in which she shows off the full extent of her vocal range - both in singing and the crowd pleasing rap breaks which arrive just as the anticipation of it has become too much to bear. Her only issue is that the track itself hits many of the same beats as much of Sabrina Carpenter's current oeuvre. Jealous Type is a beautifully polished single that finds itself an emerald amongst rubies. The way the single behaved this week was telling, landing neatly inside the Top 10 on early sales flashes but eventually reduced to charting at a slightly lower than anticipated No.13. Although her solo comeback, you will note that this is Doja Cat's second No.13 hit of 2025, following in the footsteps of the Lisa track Born Again on which she featured back in February. It is her first solo hit since 2023 and even at No.13 her highest charting since No.1 single Paint The Town Red. Bitch please, the OG Tik Tok unearthed star is back with something that despite its flaws is still quite diverting. And even that previous smash started its life at No.20, so there's hope for the new hit yet.
No Country For Old Men
Now, this is where it gets awkward. If I was the kind of loser who peppered his writing with emojis we'd be hitting the :eyeroll: right now. A common thread of the summer has been Top 40s loaded with exciting new hits which sit alongside frustratingly popular catalogue items. No sooner have the Oasis oldies been swept away than they are replaced by nuggets from Coldplay's back catalogue. As their own summer tour reaches a climax the label have asked for some of the band's older material to be RUTHed* back into existence, that is relieved of ACR status despite their age.
That is why so many of you have clicked here this week to wonder what on earth vintage Coldplay hits Yellow and Viva La Vida are doing back in the Top 20, joining the already charted deep cut Sparks on the 2025 singles chart. Both songs are famous enough for everyone to know backwards. Yellow was their second chart single, the breakthrough single for Chris Martin et al which reached No.4 in July 2000. For the past year it has been seen sporadically hovering around the lower end of the Top 100 but now races to No.19 for its best chart showing since that original 2000 run. Viva La Vida dates from 2008, famously one of the first ever instant-grat downloads whereby advance purchasers of the album on which it featured gained the track as an early bonus. Ineligible to chart until the album arrived, this did not inhibit the lavish epic from becoming their first No.1 single and what we presumed at the time would be their artistic peak. Viva La Vida has maintained a semi-regular chart presence since early 2023 but is this week's No.20 single to land its highest chart placing since September 2008.
So yes, nice as it is to see classics back to be celebrated, these are classics with which everyone is overfamiliar and which have hardly been unavailable in this new era of digital streaming. And they are clogging up chart positions that could be occupied by more contemporary acts. Be assured though, the question about what (if anything) should be done about catalogue tracks on the contemporary singles chart is being asked. But I'm not sure there is anything close to a consensus about the answer.
Hotter Yet
Also escaping ACR, this time largely under its own steam is Chappell Roan's other major 2024 chart single Hot To Go. Last seen on the chart back in February it has languished as one of her lesser-streamed hits ever since but now re-debuts at No.28 in its highest chart position since it was felled by ACR from its peak of No.4 in November last year. It rejoins former No.1 singles The Subway (No.5) and Pink Pony Club (No.17) as her three permitted chart singles at the expense of last week's No.41 hit Good Luck Babe which thus exits the chart to bring to an end its unbroken 72 week run as a Top 75 hit.
Strut
Just in case you needed any more clues that this year is K-Pop's biggest ever as a genre, Stray Kids land their third chart hit and second Top 40 single as Ceremony bows in at No.37, hard(ish) on the heels of Chk Chk Boom reaching No.30 just over a year ago. Add this to the five hits from KPDH and Blackpink's Jump (down to No.29 this week) and there are now no fewer than seven K-Pop hit singles inside the Top 40.
Good Girls
And while we are speaking of catalogue tracks being resurfaced, Rihanna's new entry at No.40 with Breakin' Dishes does not herald a still much awaited comeback. This is a cut from her 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad album, rediscovered apparently after being used on Love Island USA and which has too been RUTHed out of ACR to be allowed to chart.
Finally, marvel if you will that an 18 year old Rihanna track can make the Top 40 but the latest offering from a solo Little Mix-er, Perrie's new single If He Wanted To He Would cannot. It is a mere No.44 this week. Her fourth chart single and third in a row to (at least for now) largely flop. I can’t work out what they were pitching for with this. It is either a Sam Fender track with a female vocal or a poor Taylor Swift knock-off. Or perhaps even both at the same time.
*RUTHed. For newcomers, an application of the "Kate Bush rule" introduced in the wake of the revival of Running Up That Hill. Songs older than three years are ineligible to be automatically removed from ACR status, but can be manually promoted at the discretion of Official Charts if contemporary popularity means it is merited. Unless it is a Christmas song, because to hell with them.
