2025 Music Year in Review: Reunions, record-breakers and a renaissance

2025 was a blockbuster year on the Official Charts, with chart icons like Taylor Swift, Robbie Williams, Oasis and Kylie Minogue grabbing the headlines. Throw in a Geordie Springsteen, Mother Monster and a trio of Kpop Demon Hunters – it’s your 2025 Music Year In Review.

Elton John - Two Number 1 albums in the same year (again!)

Sir Elton John was already a British music icon, but that didn’t stop him smashing more chart records in 2025. Firstly in January, his 2017 greatest hits Diamonds topped the Official Albums Chart for the very first time, after being newly-released on cassette and diamond effect vinyl. A perennial streaming favourite, Diamonds reached Number 1 in its 374th week on chart, marking the most weeks spent in the Top 40 before reaching the top spot.

Not content with just one major accolade in 2025, Elton claimed his second chart-topper of the year – and 10th overall – in April with Who Believes In Angels?, his collaborative album with Brandi Carlile. It marked the fourth time Elton claimed two Number 1 albums in the same year (following 1973, 1974 and 1990), making him the first act to do a double in four different years, before Taylor Swift matched the feat the following month.

Robbie Williams - Record-equalling Number 1 album

Robbie Williams is already king of the Official Albums Chart, with more Number 1s than any other solo artist. He extended that lead in 2025 with the soundtrack to his film Better Man, netting him a 15th solo chart-topper. What’s more, it puts him level with The Beatles for the most UK Number 1 albums ever. With Robbie’s thirteenth studio album Britpop coming out in February 2026, Robbie could claim that record solely for himself…

MORE: The Official biggest songs of 2025

Sabrina Carpenter - Another year as a main pop girlie

Sabrina Carpenter had a red hot 2024, and kept her foot on the gas in 2025. In February, she released the deluxe edition of Short n’ Sweet, sending it back to the top; it claimed three further weeks at Number 1 in 2025, taking its tally to five weeks. The album set a record in June 2025 for the most consecutive weeks inside the Official Albums Chart Top 5.

Sabrina then shocked the world in June, surprising fans by announcing that her new album Man’s Best Friend would be released in August. The collection was preceded by the Number 1 single Manchild, and itself stormed to Number 1 in September, becoming the third fastest-selling album of the year, accruing 85,500 chart sales in its first week.

Sam Fender - Fastest-selling album of 2025 by a British act

Sam Fender cemented his status as a bonafide British pop icon in 2025, as his third album campaign for People Watching became his most successful to date. The era actually began in late 2024 with the arrival of the title track lead single, which peaked at Number 4 and hung around in the Top 40 until the Spring.

The album was released in February to critical and commercial acclaim, becoming the fastest-selling album of the year by a British act, totalling 107,000 chart sales. The first and one of only two albums to sail past 100k units in 2025, People Watching’s first-week sales included 43,000 vinyl, the highest-weekly figure for a British act this century.

Lady Gaga - Return to form and mainstream dominance

The most streamed song of 2025 in the world with Die With A Smile? Check. One of the biggest songs of the year globally by a female solo artist with Abracadabra? Check. The most successful tour of her career with The Mayhem Ball? Check. 2025 was a killah year for Lady Gaga. 

Trailed in 2024 by the bonus track Die With A Smile and lead single Disease, the Mayhem era kicked off proper with the release of Abracadabra in February, charging to Number 3 on the Official Singles Chart. The album followed in March, becoming Gaga’s sixth chart-topping album (including The Star Is Born soundtrack credited as Motion Picture Cast Recording).

MAYHEM saw Gaga return to the dance-pop styling of her debut album The Fame, mixed with the dark, chaotic nature of The Fame Monster. Combining those sounds with a new and inventive industrial edge led to a return to form for Mother Monster, resulting in an album era up for eight Grammys, her most ever for a single campaign.

Oasis - Unprecedented comeback and chart domination

2025 saw the long-awaited comeback tour for Oasis, a reunion that seemed like it may never happen. But the UK is so glad it did, and proved it on the charts.

After their stadium tour kicked off in early July, the band’s greatest hits Time Flies… 1994-2009 returned to Number 1 for the first time in 15 years, with perennial favourites (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Definitely Maybe returning to the Official Albums Chart Top 5. What’s more, fan-favourite b-side Acquiesce (17) and Definitely Maybe album track Slide Away (31) made their Top 40 debuts, while classics Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Live Forever, and Whatever returned to the Official Singles Chart.

MORE: 100 songs turning 20 in 2026

Alex Warren - Longest-running Number 1 ever for a US male artist

A new wedding first dance song has entered the chat. TikToker-turned-chart topper, Alex Warren captivated fans of every generation with his track Ordinary, which was the UK’s biggest song of 2025’s first nine months.

In June, Ordinary also claimed the most consecutive weeks at Number 1 of all time for a US artist with 12, eclipsing the record set by Slim Whitman in 1955 with Rose Marie. While Alex did claim a 13th non-consecutive week on top, American crooner Frankie Laine’s I Believe still holds the record for the most non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart (18).

Kpop Demon Hunters - Chart domination

They went up-up-up! K-Pop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most successful movie ever in 2025, combining, well, k-pop and demon hunting to provide the year’s must see animated movie, complete with a banging soundtrack.

Lead track Golden by fictional girl group HUNTR/X (made up IRL by EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI) spent 10 non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, while their other tracks How It’s Done (9) and What It Sounds Like (13) reached the Top 20. Their boyband counterparts Saja Boys scored a pair of Top 10s of their own, Soda Pop (3) and Your Idol (5).

The Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack album broke the record for the most weeks at Number 1 on the Official Compilations Chart, claiming 22 consecutive weeks on top, before being dethroned by Wicked: For Good’s Motion Picture Cast Recording. Rumi, Mira, Zoey and the rest of the crew have since gone onto claim the top spot for another three weeks.

Olivia Dean - Biggest UK breakthrough of 2025

After earning critical acclaim with her Top 5 debut album Messy in 2023, Olivia Dean hit the big time in October 2025, becoming the first British female since Adele in 2021 to score the Official Chart Double, when Man I Need and second studio album The Art of Loving hit Number 1 during the same week. In all, The Art of Loving is home to six Top 40 singles and helped Olivia earn a Best New Artist nomination at the GRAMMYs.

MORE: The best songs of 2025 - Official Charts Staff Picks

Taylor Swift - Solo artist with the most UK Number 1 albums

Collecting chart records like Thanos collects infinity stones, Taylor Swift had another dominating year in pop. When you think Taylor can’t possibly claim another Official Chart feat, she scores several, and we’re forever in awe.

2025 saw Taylor claim not one, not two, but three UK Number 1 albums, for the fourth time in her career! Live album Lover (Live From Paris) hit the top spot on Valentine’s Day, becoming the first album in seven years to top the chart without any streaming-equivalent sales. 2024 release The Tortured Poets Department returned to Number 1 in April after the release of a signed CD edition; the album has spent 11 weeks on top in total.

In October, Taylor released her brand new album The Life of A Showgirl, and obliterated several chart records. The album became her 14th UK Number 1 album, ending her tie with Elvis Presley to become the soloist with the most Number 1 albums in UK chart history. TLOAS scored 423,000 chart sales in its first week, becoming Taylor’s fastest-selling album, and the fastest-selling of all time for an international artist. To top it all off, lead single The Fate of Ophelia is Taylor’s longest-reigning UK Number 1 single, racking up seven non-consecutive weeks.

Kylie Minogue - Oldest female artist at Number 1 with a new recording

Kylie Minogue was at the helm of Amazon Music UK’s Christmas original for 2025 with her yuletide bop XMAS. Thanks to strong streaming support from Alexa, a slew of downloads and a truckload of CD and vinyl sales, XMAS did the unthinkable in December, fending off WHAM! to claim the UK’s Official Christmas Number 1 2025.

XMAS marks Kylie’s first UK Number 1 single in 22 years since 2003’s Slow, and is her eighth UK chart topper. She also became the first woman to claim a Number 1 single in four decades (80s, 90s, 00s, 20s). What’s more, the track makes Kylie the oldest female solo artist to reach Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart with new material, besting Cher’s record earned by Believe in 1998 aged 52. Kate Bush is the oldest overall at 63, after her 1985 track Running Up That Hill topped the chart for the first time in 2022 after going viral.

What was your musical highlight of 2025? Let us know in the comments.