Official Singles Chart on 2/8/2019

Totally agree with you! OMG, he is everywhere!! and soon we will get Adele's new album and she will be everywhere too!! So many unknown and as much talented artists around who has no chance to be known to the public as mr Ed Sheeran is everywhere on the net!!

THATS NOT HER HIT

This is her hit

i thought it was whitney voice...sorry confused is this madonna?

MR BRIGHTSIDE is a curse for KILLERS

their last hit was 11 years before and since then no hits just flops

Thank you for posting that song James...Love it...

You can like leo stannard's please dont & sabina ddumba's scarred for life

Yes it's nice. I like the groove - but the sounds they're using are very generic, his vocal style is also derivative, and I don't see anything "amazing" about the instrumental part. It's just the backing. Reading your comment, I was expecting some kind of solo.

Yes, it's shocking no new songs in the chart. Proof that the streaming chart format is kind of dead. It's been stagnant for a number of years but it's got worse in 2019. But the chart's loss is general streaming and pay digital download's gain. You can go on Spotify or other streaming sites and find lots of great pop music (and other genres). Just a shame most of that doesn't get in the top 40. I'd love to hear a song like Sam Clines Think About Us break into the top 10. Never will!

On the plus side, nice and kinda weird to see Whitney Houston in the top 10. RIP.

Streaming counts towards the charts and has become the primary source of music for majority but people rely on the playlists provided by most of these streaming services for new music without searching for what's new, that's why it's this way. People keep rotating the tracks on Spotify's "Hot Hits UK", Deezer's "Hits of The Moment", Apple Music's "Today's Hits" and more hoping to find good new tracks but end up listening to the same things over and over.
The charts in the 90's only gave relevance to sales so people bought new tracks weekly but how many times those tracks were played didn't matter but today, streaming services are some people's music library. Where people listen to their favourite songs on-demand. Since it's so popular and counts towards the charts we keep seeing what's trending and not what's new.

I listen new music friday from of all countries. İ pass them easily . only iceland and norway have taste.

Came out in 2017! Now that's a slow climber. LOL At this rate it will get to number one before the end of the century. :P

can you cut it short piran? every single week i have to scroll down the screen to read other more interesting opinions for more interesting people!!! your comment is just copy and paste of what we can find on google!! just have a opinion for yourself!!

Opinions are opinions. Everyone is entitled to them & nobody's is more nor less important or interesting than anyone else's.

If you don't want to read my weekly posts, fair enough, ignore them by all means, but there are some other commenters here who do follow them every week.

Also, you do know you can filter "newest" & "oldest" comments, right?

Stagnant this week. Zero new entries in the Top 40! There is so much music out there... Millions of tracks! I don't understand how in the digital age there isn't more movement. Back in the '90s there were sometimes TWENTY new entries in the Top 40, and that was pooling from around a few hundred singles that were available in any given week!

I don't think it's the digital sales that are what's causing the charts to be so stagnant, but more streaming. If you go back to when the chart was just downloads, we would've had three new entries & four re-entries in the Top 40 this week.

Also, bear in mind that the OCC actually implemented the "three songs per artist" & ACR rules to cause more chart movement... looks like it didn't work this time around.

Hi piran!
I've finally decided to comment to u on the official chart! I'm loving senorita at the top and was happy to see higher love and 3 nights go in the top 10! I only realized it until u said there were no new entries. I was expecting Taylor swift or jax jones to enter the top 40.maybe next week. I've started tracking the downloads chart and streaming to see the difference with the actual chart.

They're as Genuine as they are ye freaking troll.

Yep. No new song in the top 40. As I said last week, we're not tired of hearing the same things over and over hopefully there'll be a change next week.

"Outnumbered" is a song I've been waiting for, It's really big in Ireland and it's undoubtedly beautiful but I don't get why it's not big in the UK yet. Low radio traction maybe... :\

What festival will you be attending next Friday?

Hey Piran, Dermot Kennedy is so underrated. His debut single 'power over me' which I have mentioned numerous times on here is a masterpiece in itself and I hope that 'outnumbered' will achieve success too, it may well give 'power over me' a new lease of life such as happened for Tom Walker, who is now a massive artist. Shame the way music is portrayed these days as rather than hear new artists people would rather stream a brand new track from a major artist, cue Arriana Grande next week, huge hit before anybody even listens to it.
PS I enjoy your weekly reviews and hope you enjoy your festival next week

Stagnant and boring due to the latest chart rules. I obviously agree that streams should be included but greater emphasis should to be given to paid subscription streams and ad-supported activity should be excluded

Chart streaming has narrowed the type of 'pop' music getting into the chart. No rock or indie-tracks, few pure pop tracks. Post 2014 there's been a marked shift to more urban rap, urban r&b, grime, more sexual content lyrics. The most notable anomaly is the incredible appeal of Ed Sheeran. He doesn't fit in with the shift to urban chart music. His fanbase is so huge that he's managed to have consistent chart success but very few artists like him have succeeded in the streaming chart era.

I consider Lizzo's Juice a pure pop song but it struggled to make the top 40. Highest position 38:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCrQL_8eMY

I reckon it would have been a top 20 hit or higher pre-streaming. Guess it's too feel good for most streamers!

Streaming chart music killed off alternative pop music. Think of past indie/alternative bands like Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, New Order etc. They would have had zero chart success in the streaming chart era. Oasis would have never made it big chart-wise in the 2010s era. What about U2? They were huge back in their day. Imagine U2 as a new band starting out in the streaming era. They'd never chart!

Not only "Outnumbered" by Dermot Kennedy deserves to become a hit in the UK, but first of all his previous single "Power Over Me". I hope you agree with this Piran, as that song was a milestone in Dermot's career. Enjoy the weekend and the festival next week wherever it will be !!!

I think chart success involves luck. I've no idea why Ed Sheeran is so popular. I doubt he even knows. What I mean is, I doubt he can explain why he's insanely popular. You could go to a London tube station and see some guy with a guitar, similar looks to Ed, similar voice, busking. He never makes it. Ed makes it and is super rich. It's impossible to make sense of why some people make it so big and some don't (assuming the people have comparable talent!).

Some really good points James. You should do what I do and check out the US Billboard Mainstream Rock and Alternative singles charts. That's where they all live now, Twenty One Pilots, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, The Black Keys, Godsmack, Three Days Grace etc.

I am going to cry! David is upset...

I don't even understand why the UK doesn't have an ACTIVE rock/alternative chart. There's one for Rock & metal, but it's dead.

"Power over me", "lost", "for Island fires and family". All good tracks but no one made it here. :(

yes you mean the year 1997 when every week 6 new entries reached the uk top 10 and 5 of those songs left the top 10 forever after one week ?

thats a huge problem with ALTERNATIVE SONGS
in the 80s THE CURE, DEPECHE MODE, SIOUXSIE and many more then strange bands were on that chart

now however the same HOT 100 POP HITS

Good point. I think the US have a lot more airplay based charts, like Alternative, Adult Alternative (which Lewis Capaldi has crossed over too now), Rock Airplay. We don't do that so much in the UK. Ours tend to be based on the main charts and then eliminating everything that is not classed as rock, which tends to make quite "a not very exciting" chart

Paid streams have been on a 100:1 ratio since the summer of 2018, while ad-supported streams have been on a 600:1 ratio since the same time. Paid subscription streams are already worth 6x more than ad-supported ones.

Hey Piran! It's great seeing 'Señorita' at #1 again, and at this point I really think it has a good chance of getting an extended run at the top! With 3 weeks it's already Shawn's longest running #1, and if it can manage 2 more it'll match 'Havana', which I think should be very possible. It's great seeing Ed still with 3 Top 10s as well, though I do wish some of the new tracks from the album were getting the spotlight instead of the 3 previously released singles, all of which had already reached at least #4 before the album even released. I of course also really love seeing NF get his 1st Top 10 album with 'The Search'.
The fact that there isn't a single new track in the Top 40 is pretty crazy! If 'Grace' hadn't (seemingly) been pushed onto ACR, helping 'Bounce Back' re-enter, it's possible that the entire Top 40 could've consisted of the exact same songs as it did last week. I mean, I did kind of predict it in my last reply to you, but I didn't fully expect it to happen. Like I said there, I thought it was more likely that we'd get a few lower down Top 40 entries. Well, since there are no new Top 40 entries, I'd say that my favourite new Top 100 entry is easily 'Time', which debuts at #76 this week, NF's highest chart position (other than 'Let You Down', of course)! I really hope that he can have another hit on the scale of 'Let You Down' someday, as he makes incredible music, on par with or sometimes even better than 'Let You Down', with every album.
Next week looks like it'll be relatively quiet again in terms of debuts. 'boyfriend' will most likely be a Top 10 debut, but it's not getting enough streaming, especially not on Apple Music where it's only #11, to really have a shot at #1. A few of the "new" Drake tracks might make it as well, but none of them look likely to even reach the Top 20. 'f**k, i'm lonely' might also have a smaller chance, but overall it definitely looks like it'll be another relatively stagnant week. Hopefully Mabel's new album can at least reach the Top 10, though!

Hey Gameskiller! :)

Yeah, if Ariana's new single nor anything from Taylor's new album can stop it, then I think 'Senorita' will also go on to become Camila's longest #1 here too. 'Beautiful People' looks like it'll remain at #2 until it gets put on ACR at this point.

I could also see 'Ladbroke Grove' rising to a new peak of #3 next week, as well as '3 Nights' becoming a Top 5 hit. 'Higher Love' is continuing to do awesome on sales, but radio haven't got behind it enough just yet. I'm still really amazed with how well it's done already though!

Was 'Bounce Back' the only re-entry too? Woah... this has to be the most stagnant chart of the year in terms of the Top 40 so far, but at least two good songs broke into the Top 10 for the first time.

'Boyfriend' will probably go Top 10 by Friday, although I wouldn't be surprised seeing it in at least the Top 5 in the "First Look" chart a little later. I'd be surprised if Drake didn't chart at least one or two songs from his 'Care Package'.

As you saw in my review of it this week, I really hope 'Outnumbered' can make the Top 40 next week, which is has a good chance of doing given that it was #41 this week & it's still gaining on streams. Love Island definitely helped this one too it seems, but we just need to see some airplay for it now!

I'd be curious to know what you think of this song too? Everyone on here seems to love it so far!

'Power Over Me' was an amazing song that deserved more recognition too, although I think I prefer 'Outnumbered' slightly more. It seems like the former got some traction in the US though, reaching #21 on their rock chart & #5 on their adult alternative chart.

Hopefully he'll do what Lewis Capaldi did & have some of his older hits get big a while after they're released.

The festival is called Boardmasters (in Cornwall) & it's only about an hour's drive from where I live.

Thanks for the comment Ireneusz! :)

Yeah, Ed Sheeran definitely stands out as the biggest artist who saw some success from before the streaming era & I guess Taylor Swift's been doing mostly fine too, but all the others seem to have sadly peaked.

I think if the chart was just sales, we'd see all those older bands you mentioned have significantly high debuts, but I'm still not sure they would get the longevity like they used to. I do agree that streaming is causing way more grime & trap songs to become big than the download-only chart, but the latter is full of almost all pop & dance songs.

That said, I understand that the taste of the UK public seems to change significantly every few years. Latin had its big resurgence a couple of years back, so hopefully indie/alternative will have the success it deserves one day. That's why I love it when songs like 'Feel It Still' by Portugal. The Man get big, or why I like that 'Pumped Up Kicks' remains one of the most played songs of the decade.

Glad you mentioned 'Juice' though! I do agree that it's an awesome song! :)

Yeah, hopefully he'll go on to get the level of success that Lewis Capaldi has had. Asking for Ed Sheeran levels of chart performance is a big ask, but Dermot Kennedy really deserves it from what I've heard so far.

You make a good point about people only wanting to hear a song based on name recognition alone! That's why with Ed or Drake for example, no matter what the song even sounds like, you know it's probably going to #1 anyway if its a lead single just because of whose singing it, not what the song itself is like.

'Boyfriend' might getting a low Top 10 debut at this rate, since it took a bigger second day drop on Spotify than expected, having fell 3-6 there. Sales already seem no longer dominant too & I'm not sure if they'll stabilise soon given that it appears to be a one-off release like 'Monopoly' was.

Thanks for the comment! Glad you like the reviews & I'll be back with my next one in two weeks! ;)

It'll be interesting to know the last time the chart had no new songs break into the Top 40. I know a few weeks back we had a completely stagnant Top 10, but I'm not sure about the former having no new songs.

I do think poor airplay is what's preventing 'Outnumbered' from doing well here, along with no real traction on YouTube. Hopefully its sales & streaming gains thanks to Love Island will help it chart next Friday though, since it was just one position away from entering this week.

I'll be at Boardmasters, which is a surfing & music festival. It's only about an hour's drive from where I live, but it has a capacity of 53,000 people! Headliners for this year include Wu Tang Clan, Florence + The Machine & The Wombats. :)

Hey Tony! Glad to see you here. :)

I agree with you on everything you had to say about the Top 10 this week!

With 'The Archer', it didn't last on streaming at all, but that was to be expected given that it's only a promotional single. 'Harder's gaining well across the board, so maybe it'll go Top 40 within the next week or two.

Good idea! I do the same actually. Really surprised how different the sales chart is to the official one, but that just goes to show how little downloads impact the chart compared to streaming these days.

It would be great if Dermot got the same kind of success that Lewis has but I think he is similiar to Tom Walker in that he has 2 amazing songs that really stand out whereas Lewis has an album full of them. Not that the other music i have heard from either Dermot or Tom is bad in any way, they just have 2 tracks which are both phenomenal and really stand out.
Hopefully some more new artists can break through in the coming weeks, I keep trying to listen to as many new tracks as possible by various artists but there are so many so undoubtedly I'll miss plenty of good songs myself

Perhaps the OCC should rename the official singles chart the official songs or official tracks charts as it's not got that many official singles in the chart as it's full of album tracks

I think the name change is a good idea too, but it's definitely not a "singles" chart. There are still a lot of songs here that are just album tracks (e.g. 'Take Me Back To London' a couple of weeks back) that aren't singles at all.

Regarding your other post to me about new artists breaking through, one of them I'm keeping an eye on is Maisie Peters. She seems to be in a very similar position to what Freya Ridings was in this time last year. :)

I'm pretty sure there's been a time when the chart was stagnant, say back in the physical sales era but OCC haven't made any statement and I'm too lazy to check the archives. :-P

I guess love Island could help "outnumbered" gain sales. If the song enters the top 40, radio channels will play it more. Let's see how that plays out next week. :)

Boardmasters sounds fun, I really like the line-up. Have fun Piran ;-)

I think so, but yeah, I doubt it's something the OCC would comment on anyway. They'd always focus on things that did happen instead of those that didn't.

Yeah, not on any of the playlist of neither my local stations nor the big national ones, but maybe it'll be a slow burner there.

Speaking of Boardmasters, I literally found out that Dermot Kennedy will be performing there! I'm not sure that'll be enough to give any significant boost for it in the charts, but it'll give it a chance to be in the running for #1 on my personal chart.

Thanks! I'll let you know all about it when I get back next Monday, :D

Spot on. I still can't understand why the great new single from Keane "The Way I Feel" didn't even make The Top 100.
I'm shall if it was released before streaming it would of been a hit, you only have to look at the album chart and it's a completely different story.
Well said James The singles charts don't mean nothing these days like they used to they are pants.
You only have to look at Ed Sheeran's I Don't Care single dropping from number 2 to out of the top 100 then making a re-entry at number 3.

The big question is why aren't they getting streams where other artists and bands are. FIXED.

I don't think 'boyfriend' is likely to reach #1, even if it is in the first look. It's currently #3 (and falling fast) on iTunes, #6 (and falling) on Spotify, and #10 on Apple Music (though it is climbing there), so I'd say a debut around #5 is the most likely. It could climb in the future, but I'm not sure about that, and if it does I doubt it'd reach #1. Something from 'Lover' could reach #1, though I'd say 'Señorita' still has a good chance of staying at #1 then as well.
I can definitely see 'Ladbroke Grove' climbing to #3 as well, which would be fantastic! I think that would make it the 4th highest peaking British urban track since Wiley's 'Heatwave' reached #1 in 2012. I can only remember 'Barking', 'Funky Friday' and 'Vossi Bop' reaching higher recently, at least, and I'd say that AJ Tracey is probably the 3rd biggest British urban act around right now, behind Stormzy and Dave.
Yeah, 'Grace' was the only song to leave the Top 40 and 'Bounce Back' was the only song to re-enter, so definitely a very stagnant week!
I've just heard 'Outnumbered' for the first time, and I must say it left a positive first impression! It does seem like it could reach the Top 40 next week, and right now I'd probably give it a strong 7/10, with definite potential to climb, and that emotion that Dermot carries in his voice is certainly impressive! Similarly, I'd like to know what you think of NF's 'Time'. It's either my favourite or 2nd favourite track from 'The Search', fighting with 'Only', and the album itself would be my 3rd favourite album of 2019 so far! Most people who've heard it seem to like it, though I've not seen many people who have heard it, so I'd like to hear your thoughts on it as well!

That's how it seems to have stayed in its third day as well; #4 on iTunes, #6 on Spotify & #10 on Apple Music, but it seem to remain stable on all of those metrics. I could see it getting a good debut, or at least big gains, over on the airplay & YouTube charts too. Either way, it looks like it has a decent shot at being the most trending song of the week.

'Taste [Make It Shake]' seems to be heading for a Top 10 debut too, given the massive gains across the board today, since it's now #3 on iTunes, #11 on Apple Music & #18 on Spotify, while also getting some good YouTube trending. In the latter, it already reached 218k daily streams, which is its best total yet.

I also wouldn't be surprised if 'Dilemma' by Sigma makes a Top 40 entry before the end of the week either, given its promotion on 'Love Island: The Reunion' last night.

Regarding 'Time', I would probably give it a 7/10 at first listen, with it also having a chance of going up in the future. NF's delivery gave me 'Let You Down' flashbacks almost immediately! :D

Yeah, I think a Top 5 debut is definitely possible for 'boyfriend', as well as a decent run in the Top 10 after that. 'Taste (Make It Shake)' is looking good for a Top 10 debut as well, or at the very least Top 20, and at the rate it's climbing at the moment I think a Top 5 peak in the future is absolutely possible! For 'Dilemma', though, it did make a big climb on Apple Music, up 198 places, but it's still only at #203 so I can't really see it getting a Top 40 entry.

'Time' is definitely somewhat reminiscent of 'Let Me Down', probably the most out of any track from 'The Search', though personally I'd say that I slightly prefer the former to the latter. Both are great tracks, though! 7/10 is a good score, and probably around what I would've expected you to give it. I'd say it's probably a strong 9/10 for me, but then I am a big fan of NF!

Hi Piran, I have followed your reviews for a fair few months now, but haven't actually wrote a reply (apart from maybe once in May) so I think i'll be writing more of these replies in the coming weeks/months.

I like Senorita however, I just feel like alot more people are enjoying it alot more than I am. I think this song is a 6/10 for me, at this point in time, even though it started with 7/10 5 weeks ago.

Higher Love is undoubtably one of my top songs of the year, definitely in the top 5 so far. Easy 9/10. Still think this song is a tad underated and hope it continues to climb in the following weeks.

Other climbers such as Ladbroke Grove and 3 Nights I'm not to keen on, still a 5/10 though. I also hope Sam Smith climbs more next week as he's currently 8/10 for me.

Ed Sheeran has 3 songs in the top 10. I seen from your crownnote chart that Beautiful People is your top song of the week (for me it's number 11). I seen from today's music week update that Take Me Back To London is set to return to the top 20, replacing Cross Me (Probably on ACR). This 3 Chart Rule has really made this look like such a stupid rule. People that don't have a huge interest in the chart but still listen anyway will be wondering where all the other Ed Sheeran songs are, if they don't know the rules very well (Remember The Name is my crownote, only Ed Sheeran Number 1 this year)

As for next week, I was hoping that "Boyfriend" by Ariana would enter at number 1 (making it her 3rd instant number 1 in the last 12 months). Unfortunately this dosent look set to happen, with me predicting a finish at number 3. I really hope Anne Marie can enter with F*** i'm lonely and Dermot Kennedy can enter with "Outnumbered". Dont really care about Aitch's new song.

Thanks for reading :)

Do you really think streams should be used in the chart? When i was a kid (i'm 49 now), me and my mates used to play the same records so much that if they had streaming back then i'm sure Adam & The Ants' 'Prince Charming' would have been in the charts for at least 3 years! Back then if a song made No.1 it would generally have a 3-4 month chart run. There should be a rule that only songs that are released as singles should enter the charts also. The chart is also open to corruption with streams, i'm sure fans of Ed Sheeran etc have his songs on continuously rtegardless of if they are actually listening to him.

I have never been less interested in the UK charts than i have for this decade, it's totally down to downloads and streaming. The charts are full of the same repetetive nonsense and some of the tracks stay in the charts for well over a year!

It has affected the quality of songs we're getting on the charts, but that's entirely down to the public's taste rather than the way the charts are compiled. Virtually 100% of music consumption nowadays is either downloads or streaming, with negligible physical sales purchases for singles.

The chart formula has to change with the way that people are choosing to access music.

Hey TheSimulationFan! How you doing? :)

Yeah, you did write a brief post to me a couple of months back, but it's cool to hear that you'll be commenting on the reviews themselves now.

A lot of people really like 'Senorita' as you mentioned, but I do especially, since it's only one of two songs I've given a 10/10 to so far in 2019 (the other being 'SOS').

'Higher Love' is indeed a truly amazing song, even if I wouldn't rate it as high as you would. Kygo is one of my favourite DJs anyway & the fact that he paid this tribute to the legendary Whitney Houston only adds to the respect that I have for him.

'Ladbroke Grove' actually got the same score as you gave it when I reviewed it here, but it's only grown on me with every listen & I like it a lot more now! However, I've mostly enjoyed '3 Nights' from the start, although starting to get a little tired of it now.

'Remember The Name' is not bad by any means, but it's not one of the best tracks from 'No.6 Collaborations Project' in my opinion. Unsurprisingly, 'Beautiful People' is easily top for me there. I hope 'South Of The Border' can either chart or get an official video soon, or both. I totally agree that the "three songs" rule is really unnecessary as it doesn't accurately reflect the most popular songs in the country, which is the whole point of charts in the first place!

'F**k I'm Lonely' & 'Boyfriend' are both decent, but not among my favourites from any of the artists involved. I'll hopefully be able to post my ratings for each of these tomorrow, even if I can't do a full chart review. As for 'Outnumbered', well I've already said my piece about that here, it's really incredible! :D

Thanks for your reply. ;)

'Time' actually got to #2 on my bubbling under chart for this week! Had it had a few more hours, it might've made the chart proper, so keep an eye for that next week. :)

Here's the full chart: https://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-141

I know I said I was going to post this on Monday, but the festival I was due to attend got cancelled because of the bad weather that's been forecast.

I'm still going away to Bristol this weekend though, so no review tomorrow, but outside of 'Boyfriend' & 'Taste [Make It Shake]' debuting in the Top 10, I'm not missing too much it seems.

Anywhere between #3-5 seems likely for 'Boyfriend' based on how its done throughout the week.

'Taste [Make It Shake]' just doubled on sales out of nowhere, giving it roughly a 2:1 lead on iTunes. It also jumped 8-5 on Spotify since yesterday, while also becoming the new #1 on Apple Music. Honestly, if its YouTube numbers were also this good, it might even be the biggest debut of the week & could be as high as #2, with the potential to go all the way to #1 next week.

I did think 'Dilemma' would do a little better. Yeah, Love Island & some other TV adverts were the only places it got any real promotion, but Sigma have always been one of the more consistent dance acts on the charts this decade, even with streaming not really on their side.

Dont know how you can take an interest in the charts these days. Its all cr*p. I only come on here to look at the old charts featured on POTP.

1 person can only contribute 10 streams per day per song to the chart, regardless of how much they actually listen to it. That means a single person can only contribute up to 7/10 of a sale to a song each week through streaming, and that's if they're paying for the service. If they're not paying they can only contribute 7/60 of a sale. And yes, of course streams should be included on the chart, they make up over 95% of the singles market in the UK. In order to get to #1 on the sales chart you only need around 10,000 actual sales per week, which would barely even get you into the Top 40 on the main chart. Plus, sales are just as open to corruption as streams, if not moreso with the restrictions on streams that I just mentioned. Labels have been known to buy a single thousands of times to bolster its chart position, though neither sales or streams manipulation are really issues in today's charts with how uncommon they are.

There are still a few good songs that become hits every now & then, like 'Senorita' or 'Higher Love' at the moment for example (hence why I enjoy reviewing the Top 40 each week) but the charts are nothing like they were when I started following them.