Ed Sheeran set for another Official Chart double, Liam Payne & Rita Ora heading for Top 5 debut
Ed Sheeran could land the Official Chart double once again this week, as ÷ and Perfect lead the way on today’s Official Singles and Albums Charts Update.
The singer-songwriter has achieved the double nine times since ÷’s release in March 2016, more weeks than any other artist this decade - though he is facing challenges from some big new releases on both charts this week…
Official Singles Chart Update
Behind Ed’s Perfect, his collaboration with Eminem, River, holds firm at Number 2. Ed is currently tied with Justin Bieber for most weeks spent at Number 1 and 2 at the same time, with 13 non-consecutive weeks.
Rita Ora’s Anywhere is enjoying a renewed boost in the new year, up one to Number 3, while For You, her new collaboration with Liam Payne from the Fifty Shades Freed movie, is on course to be this week’s highest new entry at Number 4. Clean Bandit and Julia Michaels’ I Miss You complete the Top 5 at 5.
New entries and high climbers
Elsewhere in the Top 10, Bruno Mars’ latest single Finesse is at Number 9, boosted by a new remix featuring Cardi B, and just outside the top flight is I Know You, Craig David’s latest single with Bastille, up four places to 11.
Justin Timberlake’s comeback single Filthy is on track for the Top 20 at Number 13, one slot ahead of Jax Jones’ Breathe featuring Ina Wroldsen, up ten spots to Number 14.
MORE: The Top 40 biggest songs of 2017 on the Official Chart
The Greatest Showman continues to captivate fans in the cinema, leading to three of the soundtrack’s songs being in today’s Update Top 40. The Golden Globe winning This Is Me by Keala Settle and the Greatest Showman Ensemble has improved on Friday’s placing of 28 to Number 18, The Greatest Show by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zac Efron and Zendaya rises 17 to Number 23, and Zac Efron & Zendaya’s Rewrite the Stars could debut in the Top 40 at Number 28.
Finally, Camila Cabello’s Never Be The Same rockets seven slots to Number 30, and Kendrick Lamar and Sza’s All The Stars from the Black Panther soundtrack digs its claws into Number 38.
View the Official Singles Chart Update Top 100 in full
Official Albums Chart Update
The Greatest Showman is Ed Sheeran’s greatest threat on this week’s chart as the soundtrack climbs two places to Number 2 on today’s Official Chart Update. The Motion Picture Cast Recording is just 800 combined sales behind Ed, and could snag the top spot come Friday.
Pete Tong scored a Number 1 album with Classic House last February, nine weeks after it was first released. His latest album with Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra, Ibiza Classics, is enjoying a similar resurgence, and could reach a new peak of Number 12 this week.
MORE: 2017's Official Top 40 biggest albums of the year revealed
Elsewhere, Phil Collins’ retrospective Take A Look At Me Now is on course for a Top 40 comeback, currently at Number 21, and Tears for Fears greatest hits collection Rule The World is up seven to Number 22. Finally, David Bowie’s Legacy is set to return to the Top 40 at Number 33 as the two-year anniversary of his death approaches.
View the Official Albums Chart Update Top 100 in full
Image: Rex/Shutterstock
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Brian Quinn
Just goes to show how streaming has ruined the UK Charts. Allowing all singles from albums to chart is ludicrous.
T
TaylorJM
The UK chart now only allow 3 songs from an artist in the charts at one time,(unless as a featured artist) even if they had the best selling Top 4+ songs that week, plus songs get punished with the new streaming ratio, if they have been in the charts for like 10 weeks - 300:1 instead of 150:1
Piran
For as much as I think '÷' is a good album, I really hope that the soundtrack to 'The Greatest Showman' can overtake it by Friday.
'Perfect' being #1 is fine, but I'd like 'River' to pass it soon!
I love seeing Rita Ora have two songs in the Top 5, as well as the strong debuts for 'Finesse [Remix]' & 'Filthy'! :)
Foxes
I hope that '÷' is the #1 album come Friday. After listening to some of the tracks on 'The Greatest Showman' I really wasn't impressed with any of them, and even though my original prediction of 18 weeks for '÷' has been proven wrong (though I thought it'd be proven wrong by it spending less weeks at #1, not more!), I'm now really hoping that '÷' can beat, or at least match, the 23 weeks spent at #1 by Adele's '21' and become the longest-running #1 album of the decade.
I'd absolutely love for 'River' to pass 'Perfect' eventually, but it is looking more and more uncertain for the track. It's now beginning to lose its grip as Spotify's most played track. It still has a rather large lead over 'rockstar' and 'Barking', but nothing incredible, and when all 3 versions of 'Perfect' are combined they almost definitely beat it. 'Perfect Duet' and 'Perfect' combined come extremely close, and even though 'Perfect Symphony' has been outside of the Top 200 for quite a while now, I can't imagine it streaming less than the 4,000 extra daily streams needed to push 'Perfect' above 'River'.
Over on iTunes 'River' has fared quite well, spending its entire life inside the Top 2, and the #1 single on iTunes, 'For You', simply isn't streaming enough to be a major threat (it's currently at #82 on Spotify). However, when all 3 versions of 'Perfect' are combined they blast away all competition over there.
This is why I feel like remixes should chart separately. I know that you don't agree, but 'Perfect Duet' would be in the 8 - 12 range on the main chart, 'Perfect' would be in the 17 - 23 range and 'Perfect Symphony' would be lucky to even make the Top 40, but when you combine them all together 'Perfect' comes out with a huge lead. Last week it finished with a lead of over 17,000 combined sales over 'River'!
Piran
The advantage that Ed has is streaming, but I think that 'The Greatest Showman' will accumulate enough sales to pass it & then Camila will take the #1 the following week. That'd be cool if that could happen in the UK, as that would be identical to my albums chart if I did one! :D
If Ed did pass Adele to get the longest #1 album of the decade, what would've been the last album to spend longer at the top?
I don't know if it's declined in performance for three consecutive weeks (it probably has), but I would say that 'Perfect' has gone back to the 300:1 streaming to sales ratio & even then it has the lead which is incredible!
What do you think the next #1 will be then? I think 'River' can get it within the next couple of weeks, given it roughly matched all three versions of 'Perfect' combined on Spotify today & it's nearly took the top spot on iTunes back from 'For You'.
Foxes
It will definitely be close between 'The Greatest Showman' and '÷', but I'm still holding out hope for the latter!
After a lot of searching, it seems like the last album to spend longer at #1 would be 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Simon & Garfunkel way back in 1970 - 1971! The album spent a total of 33 weeks at the top. So it seems like, if '÷' does beat '21', not only will it become the longest running #1 album of the decade, but nearly for the past five decades!
In a similar manner, 'Shape of You' wasn't just the biggest selling single of 2017, nor was it just the biggest selling single of the 2010s. It's actually the biggest selling single of the 21st century so far, both in the UK and globally! Though, I don't think the same applies in the US.
'Perfect' isn't currently on the 300:1 ratio. The week after 'Perfect Duet' released it sold 85,000, then it dropped to 53,000 the next week, then jumped back up to 75,000 the next week as 'Perfect Symphony' was released. I don't believe it was even on the ratio before any of the remixes were released, as the ratio was manually reset when the track was released as a single and it continually climbed the charts after that.
'River' could definitely be the next #1 if it doesn't fall too much over the next few weeks, but excluding that I think it could possibly be 'Barking' if it picks up on sales. It's streaming very well. Though I think that the most likely scenario if 'River' fails to get to #1 is that it'll be a brand new track that gets there next, either a song that hasn't been released yet or a song that's not a hit yet.
Piran
Yeah, 800 copies apart is going to make it one of the closest races on the albums chart in a while! :)
That's incredible that Ed could have the longest #1 album in nearly 50 years if he passes Adele, but considering he has the record for the fastest selling album by a male artist of all-time & given the impact that each track has had, I wouldn't even be that surprised.
'Shape Of You' was definitely the #1 song of 2017 in the US & considering it got 12 weeks at #1 on the weekly charts (& 34 in the Top 10), it could very well be the song of the decade there too!
'Barking' being #3 on Spotify did come as a bit of a surprise, but it appears that 'Man's Not Hot' has peaked this week & 'Anywhere' has definitely lost its chance of reaching #1 in the future.
Where do you think 'Havana' will be in the week after this coming one? I think the album boost will definitely be enough to keep it in the Top 5 & potentially Top 3 again given how consistent it is across all metrics (although it is starting to struggle on sales a little).
Foxes
I think that 'Shape of You' may be the biggest single of the decade so far in the US, I just don't think it's the biggest song of the century so far over there like it is in the UK and globally.
'Barking' has also massively grown on me over the past couple of days, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it at #3 on Spotify. I hope that it can at least reach Top 5 eventually. :D 'Man's Not Hot' is falling fast now though. It went from peaks last week of #1 on iTunes and #3 on Spotify, to currently being #20 on iTunes and #14 on Spotify.
I don't know if 'Havana' can reach quite that high again because of the 300:1 ratio, but it should definitely go Top 10 again if it falls out this week. Last week it really should've been #3 as it was bigger than 'Man's Not Hot' on both the sales chat and streaming chart, but got pushed down to #5 because of the ratio. Without the ratio though I think it definitely would return to the Top 5 and maybe even the Top 3 when 'Camila' releases.
Piran
I'd take a look at Kworb to see it's cumulative sales, but it only appears to go back as far as August 2013.
'Barking' is growing on me too (it debuted at #6 on my bubbling under chart this week), but for it to definitely debut on my chart, it'll probably have to wait until 'The Greatest Showman' & 'Camila' have had their impacts on my chart.
So it appears that 'Man's Not Hot' may even be gone from the Top 10 entirely by next week. I think 'Havana' falling out of the Top 10 in the update was a bit of a surprise, given that it was already under the 300:1 ratio before all the Christmas songs dropped out & held up well this week.
That said, I'm also interested to see what happens to 'Never Be The Same' in the week that 'Camila' affects the charts. I think it'll be at least Top 30 & maybe even Top 20 if she discounts it or releases an official video before then.
Foxes
'Barking' definitely has a good chance of climbing into the Top 10 on my next chart, and it could quite possibly even hit the Top 5! Though, of course, it'll be gone from the Top 10 entirely the week after as 'Camila's tracks swamp my chart. :D
I was also really surprised to see that 'Havana' had dropped out of the Top 10 in the update considering how high it was last week even with the ratio.
If 'Man's Not Hot' does leave the Top 10 next week, I'm really hoping that 'Havana' is the one to replace it. I also hope that it helps 'Let You Down' climb further as I really expected it to climb to #6 or #5 after the Christmas songs dropped out, but instead it's just managed to reach the same peak it reached when tons of Christmas songs were in the chart.
I hope that 'Never Be The Same' is also impacted when 'Camila' is released. I just won't be happy unless that single can reach at least the Top 10 at some point during its life. Of course, if it could become Camila's 2nd #1 single then even better, but at the moment I'm just hoping for a Top 10.
Piran
Right now, I see 'Barking' definitely hitting my Top 40 before the end of the month (maybe as soon as in two weeks), but overall, I think it'll peak somewhere in the 20s for me.
I agree with you that 'Havana' would probably replace 'Man's Not Hot'. I'm still not even sure if 'Finesse' will even make the Top 10 on Friday, as while it seems to have stabilised on streaming, sales are continuing to fall for it fast.
Other songs I see potentially hitting the Top 10 in the future if streaming picks up are: 'Breathe', 'This Is Me' & maybe even 'Tip Toe'. What are your predictions for these songs, because I think all have potential to hit at least the Top 15?
By the way, I'm going to be posting my usual weekly chart review later than usual on Friday, possibly even Saturday, as I have an exam on that afternoon & then I'm probably meeting up with friends afterwards.
Foxes
Sorry for the late reply, I've had a few exams over the past couple of days so I've been pretty pre-occupied with those. I'm finished for now until May, though (at least when it comes to real, proper exams. I'm sure we'll have more than a few mocks before then), just in time for the release of 'Camila' (which comes out in just under 2 hours!!!!).
I think that 'Finesse' may be able to reach Top 10 tomorrow, but it'll definitely be low down if it does. I also think that 'Breathe', 'This Is Me' & 'Tip Toe' all have a good chance of hitting Top 10, but I can see at least 1 of them peaking just below it.
'Barking' should definitely beat its #8 peak tomorrow, as well. It's actually coming quite close to 'River' on Spotify, currently at #2 and only 60,000 streams away, and is climbing on iTunes, currently at #6, selling 54% of 'River'.
Another thing that I'm really liking is that 'River' is beating 'Perfect' on Spotify and iTunes, even when all versions are combined. It's not by a huge amount on either platform, but it is a definite lead. I think that we might have 'River' as the new #1 next week!