1. Singles
  2. Albums
  3. Film
  4. MoreView all charts
Previous
Next

Official Singles Chart on 16/2/2018

16 February 2018 - 22 February 2018

The Official UK Singles Chart reflects the UK’s biggest songs of the week, based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, compiled by the Official Charts Company. The UK Top 40 is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, the Top 100 is published exclusively on OfficialCharts.com. View the biggest songs of 2023.

 

Hot right now

Decorative flameDecorative flameDecorative flame

Join the conversation by joining the Official Charts community and dropping comment.

Already registered?

Log in

No account?

Register

avatar

🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜

1

So two of my favourite songs of the first third of 2018 - FRIENDS and Look Alive - are the highest two debuts in this chart. Love it! :D

avatar

SIMΘN JΔMΞS

0

I'm just wondering why Bebe Rexha is doing so well in the US and AU with Meant To Be (feat. Florida Georgia Line) on various charts, but is nowhere to be seen in the UK charts :/

SH

Scott Harris

0

Probably because it's classified as a country song and country music doesn't really get played much, or even at all, outside the US.

SH

Scott Harris

0

I feel bad for "These Days" having to put up with "God's Plan" blocking it from the top spot, not just in the UK, but also in Sweden and Australia. It must be a terrible position to be in when you have the most downloads and airplay only to be overshadowed by streaming. :(

KF

Karl Frost

0

Pretty confusing. I'm guessing Greatest Showman being classed as a cast recording means only 3 tracks are eligable despite them being by different artists whereas as Black Panther is a compilation meaning that the rules don't apply. I do note that Kendrick Lamar seems to have snuck 4 songs into the top 100 though (excluding backing vocals on another), I thought the limit was 3?

avatar

Dan Love

0

Kendrick Lamar getting 4 songs in the top 100 is either a mistake by the charts company or they're counting him as a featured artist in 'Pray For Me'

KF

Karl Frost

0

I think that is it as it fits the rules, but it seems a little unfair when you compare the 2 soundtracks, then add that other versions of the chart including 4 or more tracks for the Greatest Showman. To further throw question at it, I'm thinking Ed Sheeran's track with Eminem seemingly doesn't count, whilst the one with Taylor Swift does even though Itunes credits that as 'featuring'? I'm only surmising of course that if not he would have a third solo track in there - most likely Galway Girl, looking at its performance across other versions of the charts, likewise Million Dreams from Greatest Showman would be too. The whole system is big an unnecessary mess. Anybody from the official chart company able to clarify?

T

Thermo

0

Kendrick's actually got five songs in the chart, 'All The Stars' (#11), 'Pray For Me' (#13), 'Black Panther' (#42), 'King's Dead' (#53) and 'Big Shot' (#55), though he is only the lead artist on three of them (ATS, BP, BS) - whilst he is credited as the joint lead on the other two he isn't the primary artist so I suppose the OCC are counting those as featured credits. The rules are meant to be that one artist can only have three hits as the lead, but oddly, technically Kendrick is the lead on all five here.

T

Thermo

1

Ed Sheeran had three solo tracks in the chart last week (Perfect, Shape Of You, Castle On The Hill) alongside his features on River and End Game. It appears this week Castle has naturally dropped out due to all the new entries from the Black Panther OST, and Galway Girl clearly hasn't sold enough to make the chart this week either.

avatar

Dan Love

1

I guess that 'The Weekend/Kendrick Lamar' count as a different artist to 'Kendrick Lamar'. Same with 'Kendrick Lamar & SZA' and 'Kendrick Lamar & Travis Scott'

avatar

Piran

3

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- ‘God’s Plan’ by Drake is the #1 single for a fourth consecutive week! It has been streamed 6.7 million times since last Friday.

- ‘These Days’ might’ve just missed out on overall chart dominance this week, but it does become the new #1 on the airplay chart. ‘God’s Plan’ is way behind on this metric, only climbing 21-20.

- ‘For You’ jumping 18-8 gives Rita Ora her 12th Top 10, which puts her equal with Shirley Bassey & Petula Clark for the most Top 10 singles by a British female solo artist.

- This week, we had four new songs breaking into the Top 40 & the highest debut of the week is ‘Friends’ by Marshmello & Anne-Marie, starting its chart run at #19! The ironic thing about this song is, with Valentine’s Day being this past Wednesday, this is an anthem completely about being friend-zoned & you know, I actually love it! Lyrically, a certain guy is in love with Anne-Marie, but she does not feel the same way back. Marshmello’s production makes this another infectious electronic pop tunes, even if the verses do sound a little clunky at points. However, Anne-Marie is the artist that stands out a lot more here, as she can belt out feisty lyrics with that usual bit of sass & she’s always brought more personality than most pop divas who feature on this dance tracks. This is a lot of fun & I really hope we can make it a hit here, because it’s up there among my favourite song by both artists. Really good song!

- Blockboy JB earns his first Top 40 single, as ‘Look Alive’, featuring Drake, makes its Official Chart debut at #23 today. I’m really unsure what I think of Drake at this point; he does still make some decent R&B/hip-hop & some of his collaborations, like those with Rihanna, work really well, but he’s becoming way too overexposed at this point to the point where so many people including me are tired of him. This time, he’s teamed up with Blocboy JB, a Memphis rapper, but I don’t even think I can say there’s even much in the way of quality here either. The production comes courtesy of Tay Keith, so it bears minimalist, keyboard-powered beats & that’s fine enough. That said, for a song called ‘Look Alive’, neither Drake nor Blocboy JB sound alive at all, as they go into one of the most boring flows I’ve heard in the past couple of weeks. It’s not like the content is that notable either, as both artists brag & take down their rivals, while comparing guns to instruments & Febreze bottles… yeah, this is painfully mediocre & it’s possibly the most forgettable song inside the Top 40 right now. I’d skip this.

- ‘Mine’ by Bazzi jumps 50-37 after last week’s debut, making this his first song to reach the Top 40. Even though Vine doesn’t exist anymore, I don’t mind most of the big names we got from that platform, although their music can get annoyingly generic sometimes. As for ‘Mine’, it might have taken a few listens to grow on me, but I really see why this starting to gain traction. I’m definitely a fan of the melody here & I also like both Bazzi’s deeper tones & his falsetto, which really blends in with this brand of R&B well. Some of the production choices I enjoyed here were the organ & chimes, but I can’t say the same about the electronic touches at the end of the hook & the structure of two verses & two choruses makes the song sound unfinished as a whole & it could have done with a bridge & third verse. That said, I’m not complaining that a meme is helping this to gain traction & I have a feeling that it’ll be big in the coming weeks, so check it out if you’re curious! I don’t mind this.

- The last new entry of the week is ‘Wild Love’ by James Bay, debuting at #39 & becoming his third Top 40 single. Despite its mixed critical response, I mostly enjoyed James Bay’s debut album, ‘Chaos & The Calm’ & to remind you how big it was, it debuted at #1 on the albums chart here & even scored him a Grammy nomination. This indie sound wasn’t going to be easy to replicate, so with ‘Wild Love’, he didn’t replicate that sound & move into a different direction… but this is a little underwhelming to be honest, mostly because the ambition behind it doesn’t get matched by its execution, which kind of makes it fall short for me. I’ll say this though, James Bay’s vocals are still interesting; they maintain an intense allure, which can easily draw listeners into the track for them to really focus on his emotions. However, the production isn’t helped by that heavy synth overlay & drum-programming which gives this a very dull rhythm for the most part. I think the bigger issue comes within the lyrics though, as there seems to be no subtlety to them & repeating the line “I Wanna Give You Wild Love” gets irritating after a while, making the track fizzle out badly towards the end. A bit of a disappointing return for James Bay unfortunately, but I know he’s capable of way better, so we’ll see how that second album goes.

- On the albums chart, ‘The Greatest Showman’ remains at #1 for a sixth consecutive week! With 51,000 copies over the past seven days (70% from sales), this is its strongest week on the charts yet, outselling Ed Sheeran three to one this week.

- The rest of the Top 5 is: ‘÷’ by Ed Sheeran (3-2, 50th week in Top 10), ‘Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life’ by The Wombats (debuts at #3), ‘Diamond In The Dirt’ by MIST (debuts at #4) & ‘Tables Turn’ by Fredo (debuts at #5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these songs could enter the Top 40 for the first time: ‘Please’ by Samantha Harvey, ‘Mad Love’ by Sean Paul ft David Guetta & Becky G, 'You Are The Reason' by Calum Scott & maybe even more.

- Elsewhere, I’m really happy to see ‘This Is Me’ & ‘Feel It Still’ hit new peaks in the Top 10!

- Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all have a good weekend. :)

- My latest Crown Note chart: https://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-63

avatar

Foxes

2

Hey Piran! I don't mind seeing 'God's Plan' get another week at #1, though I also wouldn't mind seeing 'These Days' reach #1, so I'm pretty happy with the top of the chart at the moment. I can see 'These Days' doing something similar to 'Anywhere' though and getting stuck at #2 without ever reaching #1. In the week before this one, 'God's Plan' outsold 'These Days' by over 17,000, and there was a 7,000 sales gap between them this week. Much less than the week before, but still a large gap. In the week before this one Drake got 47,500 streaming sales with 9,000 pure sales for 56,500 total, while 'These Days' managed 18,000 pure sales but only 21,500 streaming sales for 39,500 total.

I really like that 'FRIENDS' is this week's highest new entry! I really like the song and Anne-Marie is quickly making her way up the list of my favourite artists. She may even be able to make it into my Top 10 soon! I'm also glad that she's Ed's UK support act again for his tour later this year. She was great when she performed when I went to see Ed last year, and I'm sure she'll be great again when I go to see Ed again in June!

I didn't really like 'Look Alive' or 'Wild Love', though, and 'Mine' is only OK for me at the moment, though I can see it growing on me in the future.

It's really interesting to see that 'The Greatest Showman' is still continuing to grow in popularity, and I find it extremely impressive that '÷' is still managing to sell 15,000+ copies every week almost a year after its release! At the moment 'The Greatest Showman' is the best selling album of 2018 by far with over 200,000 copies, trailed by '÷' in 2nd and 'The Thrill Of It All' in 3rd. I can definitely see it becoming the biggest album of the year, though if '÷' were to sell exactly 15,000 copies every week this year (and I can see it selling more on average because of the BRITs and his stadium tour) it would end up with 780,000 in total, so 'The Greatest Showman' will have some pretty tough competition.

I really like that 'Diamond In The Dirt' managed to debut at #4 on the album chart, though it is slightly annoying that 'Black Panther' isn't eligible as I'm certain that it would've made #2. On the bright side, though, 'Black Panther' manages to chart 11 tracks inside the Top 100 because they're all classed as different artists!

Speak to you soon! :D

avatar

Piran

1

Hey Gameskiller! :)
I think one advantage that 'God's Plan' has going into next week is the official video. While YouTube doesn't directly affect the chart as we've previously discussed, it will cause the song to improve on trending, boosting overall streaming & potentially even sales too. It'll be close again, but I think 'God's Plan' will still have a slight edge on Friday, although I expect it to crash hard when it eventually reaches the 300:1 streaming ratio.
It also appears that 'Fifty Shades Freed' isn't eligible for the albums chart either. Given the performance of its tracks in the singles chart, it could've had a chance to hit the Top 5, or at least the Top 10.

avatar

Foxes

1

Yeah, I think that 'God's Plan' will be #1 next week as well as they've made sure to put a lot of interruptions in the official video, driving people to listen to the song on other streaming services so they don't have the interruptions.

The week after that will be a very interesting one, though, as that's when the BRITs will have a proper effect on the chart. Couple that with the fact that 'God's Plan' should be losing popularity by then and I can definitely see a new #1 then. I just don't know whether it'll be 'These Days' or something else.

I can definitely see 'Happier' going to #1 that week if Ed debuts it at the BRITs, especially if he debuts a new remix of it like he did with 'Shape of You' last year (and Stormzy is also at the BRITs this year... could we potentially see a 'Happier (Stormzy Remix)'?). 'IDGAF' could also be in with a serious shot at #1 if Dua performs that at the BRITs, and there could be a brand new song that gets debuted at the BRITs that could reach #1. It will be a very interesting week for sure!

avatar

Piran

1

I'm not too sure if we'll have a new #1 that week.
I think Ed will probably debut a new song at the BRITS, but I'd see it reaching #2 & #3 & then get the top spot a couple of weeks later. Since Camila is apparently attending, maybe it could be 'The Boy'?
That said, I think with 'Perfect' on the decline & being hit by that new streaming ratio, he should focus on promoting 'Happier'. Speaking of Ed, what did you think of the official video for 'River'?
By the way, I just found out that Camila announced UK tour dates & the tickets were released on Friday! Are you thinking of going to see her? ;)

avatar

Foxes

0

Either way, the week after the BRITs will be a very interesting one for the charts! I didn't even think of Ed & Camila debuting 'The Boy' at the BRITs. I'd absolutely love for that to happen, but I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet as I think that Camila would've put it on her album if it were going to get released.
Ed should definitely focus on promoting 'Happier' now. 'Perfect' is well past its prime and is falling pretty heavily now because of the 300:1 ratio, while 'Happier' is by far the strongest performing non-single from '÷' and has a genuine chance of going to #1 with enough promotion.
I didn't even know that the video for 'River' had been released, so I had to go check it out right after I read your comment! I think that it's a pretty good music video and really helps to amplify the emotional effect of the song, but 'Havana' is still my favourite music video by far.
I would've loved to go see Camila on tour, and I looked at the tickets as soon as the pre-sale went out on Thursday, but the 3 venues are all too far away from me. With me living in Yorkshire, the closest venue would've been Birmingham which is still 4 hours away and extremely expensive on the train. Plus, with it being during exam time and all 3 dates being on weekdays it likely wouldn't have been possible anyway. It would've been amazing though as she's performing on the 5th, 6th and 12th June, and I'm going to see Ed in Newcastle on the 10th of June so I would've been able to see my 2 favourite artists live within a week of each other!

avatar

Piran

1

I don't get why 'The Boy' wouldn't be on the album though, you'd think with it featuring Ed Sheeran, it would be a massive hit. Maybe it's because 'Havana' & 'Perfect' were both at their peak at the same time, so both artists were busy promoting their own music at the time?
I think Camila had a song called 'Scar Tissue' with Charli XCX than never made it on the album either.
We know that 'Happier' is definitely the next single, but if debuts it at the BRITS, then I wonder when the video will be released.
That's a similar issue with me, as I live in Cornwall & like you, Birmingham is the nearest venue & that's four hours away. Also, according to her Twitter, her tour is already sold out, but I'll keep checking the resale tickets!
It's cool that you're seeing Ed twice! Ideally, I'd like to go Radio 1's Biggest Weekend, but I know the tickets are going to be extremely hard to get.

avatar

Foxes

-1

I think that 'The Boy' likely wasn't on the album because of the massive change of direction that Camila had when making the album. It was probably a song that she and Ed wrote, but when she changed the style of the album she felt like it didn't really fit anymore, and that she didn't feel the same way about what was in the song anymore. The same probably happened with 'Scar Tissue'. 'The Boy' would definitely have been a massive hit, but I think that making the album that she wanted to make is more important to Camila than having a massive hit. There is still the small chance that it'll be released at the BRITs, but I'm not holding my breath.
I would say that the video for 'Happier' will probably be released in mid-late March if the song does debut at the BRITs.
I hope you manage to get the tickets for Camila's tour! While I likely won't be able to go even if I could get some resale tickets, from videos I've seen Camila is fantastic live so hopefully you can get your hands on some! :D
I nearly wasn't able to go see Ed either of the times, as last year I just managed to get some resale tickets after all tickets were sold out instantly, and this year his dates for the 8th and 9th in Newcastle sold out instantly, but he added an extra date on the 10th a couple of days later which lasted for about an hour before it sold out so I was able to get tickets for then!