The UK's Official Songs of the Summer 2023: Dave & Central Cee's record-breaking Sprinter named Song of the Summer

Dave and Central Cee claim the UK’s Official Song of the Summer 2023 with their record-breaking collaboration, Sprinter, the Official Charts Company can confirm. 

Sprinter became both the longest-running UK Rap track to hit Number 1, and the first to ever reach 10 consecutive weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart, which it serendipitously achieved on the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop. 

According to Official Charts Company data, from the first week of June until the last week of August, Sprinter (which was, serendipitously, released on 1st June) collected 812,000 UK chart units in total, including 105 million UK streams, also making it the most-streamed song of the summer. 

Taken from the duo’s collaborative EP Split Decision, Sprinter became Dave’s third UK Number 1 in June, following 2018’s Funky Friday with Fredo and 2022’s Starlight, while it notably marked Central Cee’s first chart-topper.  

Meanwhile, in second place is trance banger Miracle by Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding, which topped the Official Singles Chart for eight non-consecutive weeks.  

Earlier this summer, the Official Chart went through something of a Padamic, thanks to Kylie Minogue’s viral hit Padam Padam becoming her first UK Top 10 single in over 10 years. Padam Padam (19) ends the summer as the UK’s most-downloaded track. 

Other huge tracks to make the Top 10 include; Dua Lipa’s chart-topping Barbie anthem Dance The Night (3), J Hus’ Who Told You? ft. Drake (4) and Giving Me by Jazzy (5). 

Olivia Rodrigo’s maudlin ballad vampire, which reached Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart in September, comes in at Number 6, but is named the most-purchased single of the summer on physical formats. 

Following a record-setting all-solo female Top 6 in August, we’re happy to announce that the Summer of Girl Power continues, with female acts holding a majority of places in the Top 10; seven out of the Top 10 tracks are led by, or feature, a female artist. With entries from the likes of Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer (7), Miley Cyrus’ Flowers (8) and Dancing is Healing by Charlotte Plank, Rudimental and Vibe Chemistry (9) proving that sisters were definitely doing it for themselves this year. 

Rounding out the Top 10 is David Kushner’s Number 2-peaking single Daylight. Spending five weeks at its highest placing, it was held back only by the seemingly unstoppable Miracle. 

The dominance of dance music in summer 2023 is there for all to see in the Songs Of Summer list too, with Top 10 hits such as; Switch Disco & Ella Henderson’s React (11), Hannah Laing & RoRo’s Good Love (12), Peggy Gou’s (It Goes Like) Nanana (14) and Nathan Dawe, Joel Corry & Ella Henderson’s 0800 Heaven (22) taking the good vibes from the clubs to the charts.  

A stack of former Number 1 hits feature throughout the Top 40, including Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? (18), Lewis Capaldi’s Wish You The Best (26), and Ed Sheeran’s emotional Eyes Closed (27).  

Further Top 10 hits appearing include Gunna’s F*kumean (22), Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & Aqua’s Barbie World (23), Loreen’s Eurovision 2023 winner Tattoo (25) and Fifty Fifty’s record-setting Cupid (29), the first single by a K-pop girl group to hit the UK Top 10. 

Afrobeats also proves to be one of the most in-demand and fastest-growing genres in the UK commercial market right now, with a number of tracks making this wider Top 40 list, like Rema’s Calm Down, which hit its chart peak of Number 3 this year and places in the Top 20 songs of the summer at 13, alongside Libianca’s Number 2 hit People (17), which also topped the UK’s Official Afrobeats Chart for 12 weeks and Dancehall musician Byron Messia’s Talibans (32).