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Official Singles Chart Top 40 on 05/1/2018

5 January 2018 - 11 January 2018

The Official UK Top 40 chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on official sales of sales of downloads, CD, vinyl, audio streams and video streams. The Top 40 is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, the full Top 100 is published exclusively on OfficialCharts.com. View the biggest songs of 2023.

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Anthony Langan

-1

i dont give a f*** about your chart musings

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Dan Love

2

On the streaming chart: On the combined chart:

50 re-entries - 35 re-entries
8 new entries - 11 new entries
42 climbers - 53 climbers
0 non-movers - 1 non-mover
0 fallers - 0 fallers

R

riley

2

Absolute farce how new Rules by Dua Lipa is at 5 on the streaming chart, 11 on sales but 13 on the "Official" chart. Should 100000000% be back in the top 10. Another example of the hideous new rule where songs decline from 150:1 - 300:1 after a certain amount of weeks

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Dan Love

0

If the rule didn't exist I bet you would be moaning about how long it had been in the top 10 and how it wasn't making way for new songs

R

riley

12

not at all. i never moaned about how long songs were in the top 10 promise ya that mate

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Dan Love

2

35 songs are in re-entering
11 songs are new entries
53 songs are climbing
1 song is a non-mover
0 songs are falling

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Thomas Sales

0

Whatever happened to the rule that an act can only have three songs on the chart at any one time? Ed Sheeran's got five.

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Dan Love

1

Features don't count. He only has 3 as a lead artist

J

Jstar

1

Wait they finally fixed the comment section. That is awesome it sucked having the comment section combined for Months.

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ManuelM

1

One Last Time by Ariana reenters the chart now in 2018, and it was released as a single in February 2015. Is it possible for it to become her biggest hit there?
Also shoutout to Little Mix that have 4 songs in the chart

NC

Nigel Coleman

1

Little Mix, it should be Pick and Mix. They sound like a bunch of girls out on the all night and then having a go at karaoke at the end of the night. They are shocking and the charts mean sod all these days.

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I.B.

1

Fast forward to April and he'll still have that number one position.

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Carl Mefkintallica Foxall

0

How the is that Ed Sheeran rubbish STILL at number one??? His latest album has still not dropped out of the top ten yet after more than 30 weeks on the album chart so all of his sad fans with dreadful taste in music should have his rubbish song by now

M

Mouttonnoir

2

Have to agree, Sheerin has to be one of the most over rated "artists" of all time. Nothing original or exceptional about him or his music. I would also add Sam Smith and Adele to that list.

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Carl Mefkintallica Foxall

0

Can't stand them either It's mostly rubbish that charts nowadays

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Spaceman

1

Ed Sheeran > Metallica

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Dan Love

0

The music buyers have had terrible taste in music for decades now

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Carl Mefkintallica Foxall

0

Metallica are legends Ed Sheeran is over rated garbage

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Carl Mefkintallica Foxall

0

You ain't jokin

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Piran

7

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran remains at the top of the singles chart for a fifth consecutive week & becomes the first #1 of 2018!

- ‘Perfect’ is also #1 on the airplay chart for a sixth consecutive week. With all of the Christmas dropouts, there were two non-movers & 38 climbers inside the Top 40 on this metric.

- As far as I’m aware, ‘Last Christmas’ leaving the charts from #2 is the biggest dropout that’s ever occurred on the Official Charts.

- I'm not sure if this is a first in the Official Charts, but not a single song inside the Top 100 is a faller this week.

- The first chart of the year is always extremely busy, hence there were 17 re-entries & 6 new arrivals to the Top 40 this week. The highest of the new arrivals is ‘Breathe’ by Jax Jones ft Ina Wroldsen, which climbs 50-24 today. These two artists have had seen reasonable success over the past couple of years, with the former having some huge summer dancefloor hits thanks to either original or remixes & the latter on song-writing for some other big dance hits. Now, if you’ve heard anything from both of these artists before, ‘Breathe’ shouldn’t really spring any surprises. The house beats are deep as usual, the track is particularly fast-paced & the ‘dam-dam-da-da’ is ridiculously catchy (although it could get annoying eventually). What is notably different is how haunting the hook is, especially with the “don’t say I didn’t warn you” line. Ina Wroldsen is really the star here though, due to her impressive pop vocal thanks to the gorgeous tone that she brings. Lyrically, ‘Breathe’ isn’t driven by attitude as much as ‘You Don’t Know Me’ or ‘Instruction’, but it’s fine that the content isn’t sassy for a third time in a row. For a winter dance track, this is fine enough, although I’m not sure how long it’ll stick around for.

- Last month, a musical called ‘The Greatest Showman’ was released & both the film itself & the soundtrack have been reasonably successful so far. The drama musical is based on the story of P.T. Barnum’s creation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Anyway, from the soundtrack, the most successful track from it appears to be ‘This Is Me’ by Keala Settle so far, which begins its chart run at #28. We’ve got a good set of new songs into the countdown today, but this is on another level compared to the rest of the songs I’m discussing in this post! Firstly, there’s no doubt that Keala Settle is such an awesome singer & she’s taking on a topic that has been covered many times before; standing up for yourself & being proud of who you are, despite haters trying to put you down, but I like some of the metaphors she uses here, such as how words cut. What makes this all the more amazing is the production, with the piano line opening the song to the drums that impact as soon as she says “I’m marching on to the beat I drum”. It’s a very cleverly written song & one that reminds me of an X Factor winners’ single. I don’t think this is very likely to become a hit, but I hope I’m wrong, because I really enjoyed this!

- One of the biggest British rappers of 2017, J Hus, continues his success into the New Year, as ‘Bouff Daddy’ leaps 57-29 on the new chart. I might be getting tired of him making bragging song (“bouff” is slang for money where he’s from), but it’s impossible to sit still while listening to this, partly for how hard the beat is & that the song is simply a lot of fun! His complex flow allows him to sound like two different rappers changing between the verses & the choruses. He’s not my favourite rapper at the moment, but I can definitely understand his appeal. I’d take this over ‘Did You See’, so I’d recommend ‘Bouff Daddy’ if you’re a grime fan. I’m not sure what your take on it would be if you don’t listen to this kind of music though.

- American rapper & singer, G-Eazy & Halsey, rise 65-30 with ‘Him & I’ on its fifth week of charting. While I’ve thought as the former artist as decent in general, Halsey has been a “hit-or-miss” artist in terms of quality, but often makes the wrong choices for official singles. That said, this collaboration has grew on me considerably since I heard it last month! Neither artist might bring the same intensity or charisma as other Bonnie & Clyde themed hits, but there is definitely chemistry between the two of them here. The lyrics seem to have a bit of a sense of danger to them, although it could’ve done without a few lines about bragging. I don’t even mind the fizzy beat or the guitar melody, although it is a little desaturated in the latter case. It kind of reminds me of ‘Bad Things’ by MGK & Camila Cabello in a way & while this isn’t as good as that, I’m glad it’s getting recognition in the UK. Not a bad song!

- Camila Cabello earns her third Top 40 appearance with ‘Never Be The Same’, which soars 71-37 in only its fourth week on the chart (although it’s her fifth including features as a solo artist & 10th including those with Fifth Harmony). As much as ‘Havana’ is a hit currently, I see this not quite matching the success of that in the near future, but it getting close to that level of success. This has already gained radio traction that, like ‘Havana’, it’s been made into an official single from originally being a promotional single. I might not love ‘Never Be The Same’ as much as I do ‘Havana’, but it’s still a very good song regardless! I think the main reason for that is how Camila goes beyond her range here, especially with that falsetto in the pre-chorus; she sounds very weak there & she’s a more limited singer than that. However, go beyond that & she makes up for it in the chorus, where she puts on arguably the most powerful vocal performance of her solo career with her pouring her heart out in those vocals; she sounds incredible! The production might not have a lot of melody, especially how percussion-heavy it is, but I like the Latin-inspired beat that opens the song & goes into the hook. I think if she can continue to blend pop elements & her Cuban roots together on more tracks on her debut album, ‘Camila’ is going to be very likeable! A song like ‘Never Be The Same’ would actually fit the ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ soundtrack well, as Camila compares her love of this guy to drugs, which admittedly has been used a lot in these kind of songs recently & yet, she can pull off $exy fairly well. So yeah, while I wish ‘Real Friends’ was here instead (a truly excellent song), this has still got me very excited for that debut album of Camila’s & there’s only another seven days to wait Camilizers!

- The final of the six new arrivals is ‘The Greatest Show’ by Hugh Jackman, which debuts at #40 today. Of the two new entries we got from ‘The Greatest Showman’ that we got this week, this might not be my favourite of them, but I’m still a fan of it! I think the only real problem with this is how dull Hugh sounds in the first verse, but the chants of “woah” & the claps from the ensemble make up for that in the opening of the song. Then, everything just seems to burst into life in the hook, where Hugh puts on some really impressive vocals over an intensifying beat. What really impressed me was the high notes that Lettie Lutz, as her gospel-style voice closes out the pre-chorus & into the final chorus. Lyrically, it’s a song about chasing your dreams & being the star of the show. The thing is, I’ve only listened to this myself a couple of times & I already find it a lot of fun & it seemed like a perfect choice to open up the soundtrack with. Check it out if you haven’t, I liked this a lot more than I expected to!

- I don’t mind seeing some the biggest hits of 2017 back, but what I’m really happy about is that ‘New Rules’ was this week’s highest climber & that ‘Symphony’ returned to the Top 20 thanks to featuring on the BBC1 advert! I’m even fine with seeing ‘Barking’ break into the Top 10.

- On the albums chart, ‘÷’ by Ed Sheeran remains at #1 for an incredible 20th week in total!

- The rest of the Top 5 this week is: ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’ by Sam Smith (stationary at #2), ‘Human’ by Rag’n’Bone Man (4-3), ‘The Greatest Showman Soundtrack’ (39-4) & ‘Revival’ by Eminem (3-5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these are the songs that could be entering the Top 40 for the first time: ‘For You’ by Liam Payne & Rita Ora (from ‘Fifty Shades Freed’), ‘Finesse [Remix]’ by Bruno Mars ft Cardi B, ‘Filthy’ by Justin Timberlake, 'Bad' by Steel Banglez ft Yungen, MoStack, Mr Eazi & Not3s & maybe even more.

- Finally, when the OCC update the Top 100 Songs of 2017 in chart form, I’ll be posting a re-ordering of those songs on that thread.

- 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-40-57

NC

Nigel Coleman

2

Yes "Last Christmas" by Wham, is the biggest faller ever in chart history. Last week it was number 2 and this week it has dropped out of the Top 100. Infact last week half of the Top 40 was Christmas songs; and they have all fallen out of the Top 100. It's only recently we are starting to see the biggest falls in chart history.

JB

Jonny Bird

0

Yeah because the chart is a farce these days. I don't know why anyone really cares.

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Nigel Coleman

1

I couldn't agree more Johny. You don't have to buy a record to get it these days, you can go straight on to You Tube and listen to it without buying it. Then there's pay a tenner a mouth and have access to thousands of songs. And as for Streaming, they are not sells. Let's face it who actually buys singles these days. Bring back the old days reference to how the charts worked, anybody over the age of 30 to 35 have no chance of making The Top 100 singles chart, and it doesn't mater how good or bad they are. Bring back sells only.

NC

Nigel Coleman

0

I wonder if these changes were due to the sells figures being so embarrassing low.

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Naos

0

Well, in the US, not a lot of people do buy singles. 14 singles sold over a million copies in 2017, compared to 36 in 2016 and 60 in 2015.

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Calum Pk7

5

Hey Piran! yeahhh, I totally agree NBTS would be amazing for fifty shades! so excited for Camila next Friday, I saw some review for every song somewhere on the internet and I love the different kinds of songs in different subgenres on the album!
haven't heard the liam and rita song yet, is it any good? its doing really well on iTunes so I have high hopes especially given I'm liking both artists at the moment!
to be honest though, I wasn't overly impressed with JT's new song. the backing kind of drowns out the vocals, which aren't greatly impressive either, nothing like those on his previous hits ive loved, like Mirrors, Not A Bad Thing (two of my very top songs of all time), CSTF and more. and its pretty simple lyrically too. lets hope the rest of his singles are improvements.

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Spaceman

-1

I say we drop sales and make the charts streaming-only. Globally, streaming is both more popular and produces more revenue than sales. I don't know how it is in the UK specifically, but it's probably a similar situation.

The purpose of the charts is to A) tell us what people are listening to, and B) allow comparisons between countries. A streaming-only chart does both things well. You can't tell how many times people replay a CD in their car, but you can tell how many times 12-year-olds smash the replay button on YT. And sales data isn't available for many countries, but streaming data is available almost everywhere, so you could make streaming-only charts for the entire world. This would be way more consistent than the current system, where every country weights streaming/sales/airplay differently, making comparisons clunky.

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James England

0

Maybe Wham's record label need to find a way to extend Christmas by other 51 weeks? :p

Who knows, perhaps this year Wham will get to no 1 at Christmas and fall out of the chart the week after! Lol

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Piran

1

Hey Calum! :)
Yeah, I heard about the track-by-track review too! When all of my exams are finished, I might do a review of 'Camila' myself.
Liam & Rita's new song isn't bad; I can see why it's on the soundtrack, but Liam's voice is auto-tuned & he sounds better without that.
'Filthy' had to grow on me, but now I love it & I like that he's sticking with his earlier dance music! That said, I also prefer 'Mirrors' & 'Not A Bad Thing' more.
Have you heard 'Finesse' by Bruno Mars & Cardi B yet? That's probably going to debut at #1 in my next chart.
I posted my latest one if you want to check it:
https://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-58

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Piran

0

I think other than the Christmas songs dropping out, the "three songs per artist" & the changing streaming ratios for older songs rules are allowing bigger falls down the charts.
Yeah, 43 Christmas songs inside the Top 100 last week was incredible!

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Carl Mefkintallica Foxall

0

The Christmas songs always exit the chart the week after Christmas

NC

Nigel Coleman

0

Yes they do Carl. My point is I was shocked to see them all go up in the charts last week. But looking back over the years, songs have never fallen by as much as they do these days.

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Anthony Langan

0

never a truer word spoken

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Calum Pk7

2

yeah, I'm sure ill do a 'Camila' review myself! :)
I do agree that Liam doesn't really make much of an impact on him and Rita's track, he can do better.
and I can also say Filthy has grown on me too, but I still prefer JT's 20/20 stuff.
I have heard Finesse and it sounded decent at first listen, but nothing really spectacular. I have only heard it once though so I don't really remember much of it.
ill go check out your chart now, right after ive uploaded my latest one! hope you've had a good weekend! :D

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Piran

1

I look forward to seeing that review, although I might be a bit later than you guys at it!
I agree with you regarding 'Filthy', but it'll still be getting at least a Top 5 debut on my personal charts on Sunday.
Hopefully 'Finesse [Remix]' at least makes your Top 40! I loved it from first listen, but even then, I prefer the original.
I left a comment on your new chart yesterday, if you haven't seen it already! :)