Stormzy, Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy on course for first UK Number 1 single of 2020 with Own It

There has to be an industry watchdog too. As for this above. If it was on paper, it wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on.

Okay, I get that comments aren't appearing on Disqus today, but they are on the articles, so you clearly must've missed my replies to Akyovbashiev & Coolocelot regarding the Mariah situation.

I completely agree that 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' having views not counted when they should've been is unfair, but don't call us out for it as there's nothing in our power we can do other than comment our frustrations (which again, along with expressing our disagreement with ACR, we already have done!).

Anyway, there's not much point doing it on this article, since this would be counting towards next week's chart where no Christmas songs would be charting anyway!

Also... "blindly commenting on their latest gumph", when we actually work hard to put our reviews together, that's very untrue!

Besides, this whole issue might be down to Amazon & YouTube! We can't just go straight in & blame OCC, if they at least take a look into what's happened here.

ACR needs to stop and get Mariah to #1 in UK next year.the rules is annoying

That wasn't a swipe aimed at you - this needs to be addressed and it isn't been and it's deliberate. They have time to post their latest update this week but not fix the fallacy that is last week's chart.

It isn't. YouTube's statistics are publicly available (please look at the Twitter feeds I suggested). If you value the charts (which you seem to from all your posts), then it seems we are actually in agreement. Official Charts have been contacted constantly since Friday and are ignoring the messages. The evidence is there for all to see.

Yeah, regardless of any potential bias from Amazon this past week, ACR needs to go! :/

I have read them all. I wasn't calling you out for it but perhaps all of us should be posting these comments to this site to show that we can't be fooled by manipulation and lies. Ellie Goulding was not the UK's #1 last week and the youtube statistics and info given prove it beyond all doubt.

Ah, fair enough! Glad we've at least cleared that up.

I think I did already look at the @MariahUKupdates one, since another commenter posted it on last week's singles chart article.

So it's definitely not YouTube, given that they've reported 4.69 million views for the week according to their charts page: https://charts.youtube.com/charts/TopSongs/gb?hl=en-gb

Some commenters are suggesting that Amazon are being bias towards 'River', since when listeners ask Alexa to "play Christmas music", it often has Ellie's cover as the first song on the playlist. I don't have this streaming service, but at the same time, I wouldn't exactly be surprised either! :/

Oh yeah, there's no doubt that 'River' wasn't the most popular song of the past week. As I've been saying all along, get rid of ACR & we never would've had this issue in the first place!

The only thing I can hope is that this whole situation taking up a lot of the threads will at least attract OCC's attention, if it hasn't done so already.

But the issue isn't even ACR in this case (although I agree with you), it's the missing streams and this phantom video. Even their own composite charts expose their mistruths

Definitely, but it's clear to anyone that Amazon and her record comapny aimed to buy this week's chart. I couldn't work out how to email you privately via here, so I've tried Facebook!

Yeah, there's absolutely no question that 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' would've been #1 without ACR, but interestingly, we shouldn't forget about 'Last Christmas' either!

That's at #3 in the latest chart, but it broke the all-time streaming record with 17.1 million of them for the tracking week.

I know you sent me a few more messages about previous charts on Messenger, but I think I'm going to sign off & check those out tomorrow now. :)

I don't think it was even in the top 10 to be honest...when do you see a song with no promotion and no new impetus move 8-11-1. It's never happened. There is a reason for that.

Wham would also be a deserving number one BUT this record they speak of is blitzed by Mariah's numbers. Hers are 20 million plus when the youtube streams which have been deliberately omitted are added.

I was perplexed on Friday when I looked at the composite charts. I saw Mariah was 1 on streaming and Wham sat at 2, despite Wham creating a new record. Then I saw it was audio streams only. Not video. Mariah has only ever set the streaming records - never Wham - I was surprised at first - then I realised once I saw the numbers why this was. Hers had been omitted. Look at the breakdown from MariahUKupdates - you'll see how the numbers fit. OCC has still published NO numbers from last week and neither has Music Week. It was the same all last week - it has never been so quiet when it comes to midweeks - there is a reason for that. Rigging. Pure and simple. Please everyone, I ask you - look at the evidence. It is more than compelling - it is conclusive.

I'm sure there's just enough evidence so that you could start making up conspiracies about how the OCC hates Mariah and how Amazon have bought their way to a #1 single and what not, and please, don't get me wrong for a second, I am pretty outraged myself at the gross mistake they've let and are continuing to let slide; but please try and look at this objectively. What benefit does the Official Charts Company have of preventing Mariah Carey from getting an official #1?

All you have to do to get your answer is look over to the US and the Billboard Hot 100 - they've gotten a lot of praise and good press, since Mariah went #1 over there. For a local case - last year, when '3 Lions' went #1, that was, once again, a very celebrated moment, all of this resulting in good press for the OCC. Why would they lose out on that for a supposed pay check from Amazon? (That is assuming Amazon, the multi-billion dollar corporation, cares so much about a UK chart placement, that they rig them. The playlisting issue is largely independent from the OCC and until they change the rules regarding how they count passive streams, it's Amazon's game to play, unfortunately. Plus, let's not forget how much playlists also help Mariah and Wham - obviously not to same extent, but still.)

I can agree, all of this seems very dodgy, especially the issue with the video streaming chart. Not to mention, this Wham! streaming record which has been mentioned so many times by them, that would actually belong to Mariah if the numbers were right. Let's not forget, however, Mariah released about three new videos this week alone - their data could've easily been messed up, mistakes happen every once in a while, it's inevitable. They do have to be corrected though, and I will be the first one to call them out if they fail to address this properly, but not due to rigging, instead due to the failure of correcting an enormous mistake. Again, no one gains much from rigging Ellie Goulding to #1.

Finally, I can guarantee you, if they were to actually rig the chart, they wouldn't leave behind small puzzle pieces like the mistake on the video streaming chart, or anything like that - we wouldn't know.

Also, to address a point you made lower down about mids missing: the reason why official sales figures from OCC/Music Week have not been published (and why there haven't been any midweeks this week, and likely won't be next week), is more likely than not due to the fact that it is, as we all know, holiday season. Music Week aren't actually working this week, I'm pretty sure, and OCC don't publicly announce these numbers themselves anyway.

Let me address your reply point by point, but before I do, may I ask you, have you looked at the evidence from YouTube from the links I posted? Also, did you go on the Kworb media monitoring platform last week? Mariah Carey had multi-million views on YouTube last week. A mistake is a mistake (it happens, see my post re Gallup in 1994) but to ignore it, suggests something else.

This is not a conspiracy theory - the evidence is there if you look at it. Anyone's opinion of Mariah Carey is irrelevant as this is about the integrity of the charts. The first question is why was ACR introduced? What was the OCCs reasoning? We can only presume to limit the impact of all Christmas songs on the charts? The benefit of not being open and transparent...well given the fact that Amazon have been involved in some very dodgy practices this week, I think you have your answer. Someone benefits.

Playlists are part of the charts (and chart manipulation) nowadays due to the industry using streaming to pretend that music sells in the way it used to (which is why the charts are a joke generally) but it's a level playing field (apart from ACR - which is an ill-thought out way of addressing older songs staying at the top of the chart for a long time due to playlist compilation). Look at the figures on the Twitter IDs I sent - see it for yourself, then please re-comment.

I agree with you - if they address the mistake. But they haven't. Gallup did it overnight in 1994. It's been three days. That is when it looks like rigging. Have a look at the evidence - they have literally left a breadcrumb trail. I am not a naive child without evidence to back up my claims - something stinks and it stinks chronically. Often rigging (or anything else untoward) leaves behind evidence - why are criminals eventually prosecuted? That's how the world works.

I don't need music industry practices explained to me. I know the figures aren't updated as much at this time of year. I worked in the industry for three years - for Sony in both the US and UK, Warner Brothers, Universal and for PR companies - I am well aware of the Christmas break. This Christmas break still has left them time to post their updates for this week, no?!

Have a look at the evidence, then come back to me and also ask why has there not been a response to this. I will happily send it to you. It is there in plain sight. If there is nothing being hidden and there was no mistake (the evidence conclusively proves there was) then why hasn't it been addressed?

This will probably be something for Sony to take up for the good of the industry. But it's an absolute joke. Another poster on here just copied the OCC's policy of "transparency". It makes for ironic reading to say the least. If they really were interested in transparency, all of this would have been addressed. Three days later, nothing.

I... think you might not be thoroughly reading what I've written out. First of all, yes, I have seen absolutely all of the evidence you're pointing to, plus more. I've seen the complete sales data for the song, I've seen the Kworb listings and I've seen the official YouTube data provided. All of these are pointing to the OCC having made a huge mistake in their chart compilation last week, which, again, I pointed out in my original post.

Next up, ACR was not introduced solely to prevent Christmas songs from going high up or even #1. The 3-year-old rule serves that purpose, but ACR as a whole was put in place because of Ed Sheeran and his immense chart back in 2017 - when he had his entire album in the top 20. It was also introduced as a way to minimize the amount of old songs hovering around in the upper parts of the chart and allow fresh new music to peak higher - it was not a deliberate attempt to stop holiday songs, or Mariah specifically, from getting to the top. And again, I doubt Amazon has anything to gain from shooting a song up the UK charts - if they did, they'd have already done it last year, when they also had an exclusive, Katy Perry's 'Cozy Little Christmas'.

Streaming figures being converted into sales is something I've always disagreed with and thought it's actually a bit weird, but until a new universal standard of counting streams is applied, this is what we're left with - and it's hardly an issue as it is. They're hardly a joke, however - this is how people consume music now, the only thing that's changed is that people don't pay per track, they pay a subscription for all tracks they want to hear. The industry's changing, the chart has to reflect that somehow, and this transition period's a bit awkward, but we're getting there. Again, I've seen all the figures you're referencing, I don't know why you think I haven't, because they don't change my stance on the issue regardless.

Properly addressing the mistake is something they might need time for - , it's New Years' tomorrow, cut the people some slack! Of course this is a huge issue, but I'm positive something could be done after the holidays. Again, I don't think I need to repeat this, but I'm absolutely on your side when it comes to how big of a mistake this is, and I will be calling for its correction. That being said, the fact that they were able to address a mistake in quick succession once, doesn't mean that's possible every time. For all we know, there could be an investigation currently going on.

You seem to be coming back to your 'hard evidence' a lot throughout your post, but all this evidence shows is that they messed up Mariah's video streams count. Yes, by a lot, roughly four million. I'm sure you've also seen the sales figures for Ellie and Mariah. Even with the additional four million streams being counted towards her, Mariah still doesn't edge out. She's #2. At that point, it's all down to ACR, which is an entirely different topic and I'm against that. Not much we can do about it, however, those have been the rules of the game for ages, and it's a much better solution than having songs wander around for ages and entire albums within the top 40 (the 3-year rule is still something I'm heavily against).

You want to blame Amazon for 'rigging' the charts? Go ahead. You want to blame the OCC for inventing rules meant to make charts a tad more interesting to follow and not as stagnant? Go right ahead. For me, the only thing they're to blame for is the miscounting of Mariah's streams, and if that's not addressed, then I will agree with you, something's off. Until then, I don't actually think I can change your mind, you seem pretty set on the idea that the charts have been purposefully manipulated by the OCC and Amazon, but I still beg you to take this as it actually is at the moment - a simple mistake that still could be addressed given time. And for all it's worth, a mistake that will not have cost Mariah a #1, given all the 'hard evidence'.

I'm not disputing that you didn't point it out. As for cutting them some slack - this isn't a small discrepancy and three days is sufficient - in the days of far less technology the issue was resolved almost immediately - it is genuine to question how it can take so long to even respond in any form in this day and age. If there is an investigation going on, then they should be transparent about it.

The streams solely for youtube last week topped 4.69m for one video. The other statistics showed upwards of 6 million streams - so it's likely the amount is somewhere in between there for the discrepancy. With the upper limit, AIWFCIY would have been comfortably #1.

Your point has raised a question in my mind - maybe you can answer it. The figure quoted was approximately 714000. Do we presume that these figures are for all other video streams (and no youtube streams are included) or include a few youtube streams? What about other video streaming sites? Also, I am right in saying video streams "sales" vary on the type of streaming service it is on? Looking at the stats that were on the data that was there, Ellie Goulding averaged about 540 streams for one sale, Wham 1,090 and Mariah over 1,100. I presume this is from varied streams sales. If we apply Mariah's average, if just for that one video the streams are missing, AIWFCIY is comfortably number one. Or is there something I am overlooking? And remember, to quote OCC, we don't need complex formulas/maths etc ;-)

At no point have I "blamed" anyone but let's be honest, we all know it stinks of manipulation. You only have to look at the figures to see that.

Seen as you've put "hard evidence" in inverted commas, is that a swipe at my message? I actually agree with a lot of your points but I am also aware of how things work sadly. This post has crossed with one I sent to Rob earlier but I don't actually think we disagree.

A mistake is acknowledged. I have not seen any acknowledgement and until I do, I cannot speak well of this whole situation, nor their approach. Had there not been a post about this week's early sales figures, then yes, cutting them some slack may be possible, but there's nothing. I won't write more as I'm just going to be repeating what I've already written.

Oh and regarding Christmas songs / ACR - that was one part I mentioned - further down I mentioned older songs. So maybe you have missed a few things I wrote too :)

After all, what we're trying to achieve here is to have the OCC correct their mistake - whether that takes a day or a week, the end goal is important. You're mostly right though, perhaps they should be more transparent about whether or not they're investigating the matter, as silence only worsens matters.

On your next point... I'm not actually sure where you're pulling the 6 million figure from. Unless you have some new insider information, all official sources (ie Kworb and YouTube) show Mariah having just about 4 million streams missing - which wouldn't be enough to get her to #1. That's just YT, but... I doubt she's gotten another 2 million from, like, Apple Music or Tidal, or whatever other services offer music videos.
(Also, keep in mind, the daily Kworb figures you might be seeing are doubled - Kworb shows daily YouTube figures for the previous two days as of recently)

I'm not swiping at you at any point, I'm simply trying to convince you to ditch the toxic mindset of 'the chart is rigged and manipulated', since I'm 99% positive it's not. I do agree that it's a horrific mistake, and, as I mentioned on another post, I will actually lose respect and stop following these charts if they do not acknowledge this in any way. But to claim that someone intentionally dethroned Mariah from #1, that's a bit ridiculous.

Other than that detail, though, I think we actually see eye to eye on the matter.

Hi again. Yes I agree re end goal - but with such a long period of silence, I am suspicious. The technology is available to clear this up very quickly (regardless of time of year). Hence my cynicism (whether founded or not).

Re: the 6 million views, they were the initial stats that the Mariah fans pulled from the youtube stats. They actually only covered 5 of the 7 days of the chart week (from the data I saw, the missing two days would make it 8.6m views which seems incredibly high). But this is it - if those 714,000 that have been counted are from youtube, it seems odd that another 3.8m on youtube would go astray AND there would not be one other video streaming view from other platforms at all. Piran and I have been discussing this off of here, as there are many questions.

Re: the 4.69m views on youtube. For me, what is interesting is what that includes. There are four AIWFCIY vevo Mariah Carey official videos. The new video had already close to 29m views come Christmas Day evening and I think I read somewhere that 15m of those were from the US (that needs checking). If that's the case, that 4.69m just for that new video in the UK as video streams seems plausible (I think only Germany had more Spotify streams than the UK other than the US if we use that as a yardstick for comparison - not scientific). So my question here is then: What does this 4.69m figure include? and then...Does it include just the new video or all eligible ones on youtube?

OK fair enough re toxic mindset, but would you say, if there is no acknowledgement of this that this is far from a toxic mindset, but actually the truth? When I make these statements, it is not being toxic. I think the whole thing stinks. That's the toxicity! :-) A discrepancy/mistake/error fine whatever, but to ignore it, is certainly a fix. I will agree with you to allow time. OK? :-) Point noted re you losing respect!

I think we do too!

If you want, I can send over the many questions to you. Is there a way of doing private messages on here? I really have absolutely no idea.

I've seen the screenshot which suggests Mariah is missing out on 6m views, and I too noticed there were two days missing - again, I can't know for sure, but I can only assume that data was pulled from Kworb, and the data for each day covers two days - in which case, as you mentioned, 4 million missing streams would be about right. And while I don't think that would be enough for her to go #1, it is still incredibly odd, since the video position, credited to Jukebox Heaven, only amounts to ~840,000 streams. My theory was that there's probably more miscredited versions below the top 100; another possibility is that the OCC, for some reason, are not counting some of the new videos she dropped this week - in any case, something's missing, as simply adding up her two chart positions still leaves about 2.5m - 3m streams missing.

The YouTube views figures, at least the ones coming from YouTube themselves, and subsequently from Kworb, would have to include all official videos of 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' - meaning the original one, the new one, and all the ones in between, although those would have negligible impact, I imagine. Kworb does, in fact, list Mariah Carey with 15m views in the US, but that's with all videos combined - I have no idea if there's data for the breakdown of each video.

If they don't acknowledge this at any point soon, then I would absolutely agree it's very suspicious - they have been called out a lot, we have to remember though that this is a very low-key scandal, and the people calling them out are a minority. I completely understand why you think the way you do, still, I'm glad you've agreed to give them time, I'm still very optimistic that once the new year rolls in and everyone's back at work, this will be properly sorted out. Until then, only thing we can do is have our hopes up!

I don't think there's private messages here on Disqus, unfortunately - Twitter works for me, I don't have Facebook unfortunately; or you can e-mail me, whichever one works for you!

Hi - nothing unfortunate about not having Facebook :-) Sure. What's your email? Happy New Year if we don't speak before!

Happy New Year! My email's my username, at Gmail.

Happy New Year Akyovbashiev! :)

I actually think it's the "three songs per artist" rule that was implemented as a result of Ed Sheeran taking up the entire Top 20 with '÷' back in March 2017.

ACR was introduced more because of 'One Dance's run at the top, where it got 15 consecutive weeks at #1 despite only being big on streaming (mainly Spotify), with very little sales or airplay & no YouTube!

Hello Piran!
I think "Own It" will be #1 on Friday, no questions about it.
Really excited seeing "Pump It Up" in the top 10 and everything returning to normal after the christmas takeover.
Can't wait to see the other debuts and re-entries (maybe some stuff from 2019 will re-enter too!).

Hey Sergej! :)

Oh yeah, 'Own It' will be way out in front, since it's the most dominant song on all metrics apart from 'Dance Monkey' (which will remain on ACR).

'Pump It Up' did very well to survive the Christmas takeover, but 'This Is Real' joining to make two new EDM Top 10 hits in the first week of 2020 would be incredible!

Yeah, at least three-quarters of the chart will probably be either debuts or re-entries...

Piran, my Disqus doesn't work (I didn't got the notification from Disqus, but looking from my phone through my e-mail), has it happened to you too? Just a question.

Anyway, here are my prediction for my personal chart:
1. Oh Wonder - I Wish I Never Met You (=)
2. Poli Genova - If Love Was A Crime (+8)
3. Alessandra Amoroso - Immobile 10+1 (+34)
4. Wes Period - Nü Shoes (+4)
5. The Weeknd - Blinding Lights (-2)
6. Viki Gabor - Superhero (-4)
7. Stormzy - Own It (feat. Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy) (-1)
8. Coldplay - Everyday Life (+35)
9. Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted (+37)
10. Elisa - Soul (+18)

This is not final, "Wait For You" and "Let Me Drink" could return to the top 10 on Friday.

Hey Sergej! :)

Yeah, I also have an issue where I can see comments if I go into the articles, but nothing on Disqus’ end.

Anyway, good Top 10, but my favourite part is ‘Everyrhing I Wanted’ set to return to the region with a massive rebound!

Hopefully ‘Wait For You’ can stick around too.

Dua Lipa deserves #1

Hie Piran welcome to new year im glad to see Don't Start Now regaining it still has potential to hit number 1 .This is real recently grown on me took a while to love it as well as everything i wanted

it's going to be an amazing start of 2020 big albums coming soon I have great news my personal chart of 2019 revealed today on a new year
My Biggest Hits of 2019
50.Ariana Grande 7 Rings
49.Panic At the Disco High Hopes
48.Lizzo Truth Hurts
47.Marshmello One Thing Right
46.Yk Osris Worth it
45.Post Malone Better Now
44.BTS Boy With Luv
43.Sam Smith How Do You Sleep
42.Lil Nas X Panini
41.Khalid Better
40.Shawn Mendes Senorita ft Camila
39.Ed Sheeran Ft Justin Bieber I Don't Care
38.Ciara Thinkin Bout You
37.Lauv I'm So Tired
36.Tones And I Dance Monkey
35.Meduza Piece of Your Heart
34.Lewis Calpadi Hold Me While You Wait
33.Dermot Kennedy Power Over Me
32.Mabel Don't Call Me Up
31.Dave Location
30.Sigala Ft Becky Hill Wish you Well
29.Ariana Grande Thank U Next
28.Dean Lewis Be Alright
27.Ally Brooke Lips Don't lie Ft a boogie wit da Hoodie
26.Katy Perry Never Really Over
25.Someone You Loved Lewis Capaldi
24.Kygo Carry On
23.Sigrid Don't Feel Like Crying
22.Ella Mai Trip
21.Halsey Without Me
20.Jessica Mauboy Little Things
19.P!nk Walk Me Home
18.Shawn Mendes If I Can't Have You
17.Black Coffee Drive ft David Guetta
16.Alesssia Cara Rooting For You
15.Benny Blanco Eastside
14.Blanco Brown The Git Up
13.Dermot Kennedy Outnumbered
12.Ellie Goulding Ft Diplo & Swae Lee Close to Me
11.Avicii SOS Ft Aloe Blacc
10.Jonas Brothers Sucker
9.Selena Gomez Lose You To Love Me
8.Ed Sheeran Ft Khalid Beautiful People
7.Calvin Harris Giant
6.Mark Ronson Ft Miley Cyrus Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
5.Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Shallow
4.Ariana & Social House Boyfriend
3. Sam Smith &Normani Dancing With a Stranger
2.Normani Motivation
1.Khalid Ft Disclosure Talk

Hey Brandon! Happy New Year. :)

This is a really amazing list! I might not be a massive fan of 'Talk' at #1, but I do love that 'Dancing With A Stranger' finishes third, while other incredible hits like 'Shallow' & 'Lose You To Love Me' (the former is a 10/10 for me) made this list!

Happy 2020 to you too! :D

I really hope so, although 'Own It' seems too dominant at the moment & JB is apparently releasing new music tomorrow.

that's everybody expecting seems it's out now and new sound Rnb sound not pop in still like the new sound

thanks for your comment well Talk is going to continue to #2020 in the charts its a floozy instrument and well fitted vocals. as for Lose You To Love Me it was released late maybe early it could be in the top 2 but that's fine with new album out next week it's gonna be a challenge to number 1 JB new single, Selena new album it's a battle also grown lately Adore you and blinding lights are contenders for number 1 next week

Have you seen the new OCC chart by the way? It was so busy this week as you'd expected, but a lot of good rebounds happening! :D

I'll check it out a bit later! :)

It's certainly a good sign if you liked it though.

big jumpers I did comment check on the page of Stormzy first number of #2020

Yeah, definitely glad that Stormzy started the year off strong.

Including features, 'Own It' is now Ed's ninth #1 single! :O

and First Burna Boy number 1.
Can you try to listen to
"AKA ft Burna Boy, Dales -All eyes on you it was a hit in 2014 in south africa
.have you been able to listen to Shekinah any thoughts, Prince kaybee fetch your life?

Burna Boy had a hit in SA in 2014?! Literally the first song I heard from him was 'Location' with Dave from last year... :P

Oh, by the way, my new personal chart is out now:
http://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-162

will definitely check it out

Yes features on our local artist AKA it's called All Eyes On You

Cool! I'll listen to that tonight or tomorrow hopefully. :)

Cool! Hope you like it. ;)

hm