RAYE claims her first-ever Official Number 1 single with Escapism. ft. 070 Shake: “I’m an independent artist – this is proof you should back yourself, no matter what!”

She’s done it! Congratulations to RAYE, who claims her first UK Number 1 single today with Escapism. featuring 070 Shake. 

Defying the odds and expectations, Escapism.’s track to the top of the Official Singles Charts has been a long and winding road. Now, nearly three months after its original release and thanks to a viral TikTok trend and huge streaming success, it ascends to Number 1 as the ultimate vindication of RAYE as a newly independent artist. 

The most-streamed song in the UK this week, Escapism. arrives at Number 1 with 5.6 million streams. The jagged electronic banger recently became RAYE’s first Top 10 single as lead artist. In total Raye has ten Top 40 singles, with previous hits including her breakout smash You Don’t Know Me with Jax Jones (3), Secrets with Regard (6) and Bed with Joel Corry and David Guetta (3). Re-discover RAYE’s Official Charts history in full here. 

Speaking exclusively to OfficialCharts.com on the biggest day of her career so far, an emotional RAYE says: "We are Number 1 in the UK! It’s the first Number 1 of the year, it’s my first Number 1 in my life. I’m an independent artist, this is sickening! 

Watch RAYE's highly-emotional acceptance of her Number 1 award:

RAYE posing with her Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award for Escapism. ft. 070 Shake (Credit: Official Charts Company)

"This is proof [you should] back yourself, no matter what. Thank you, this is mad. These are happy tears!"

Update: Escapism. has since been announced by Official Charts as one of the biggest songs of 2023 so far. Check out the full list of biggest hits of the year to date.

SZA also makes moves today with Kill Bill (4) as it becomes her first solo Top 10 entry and third overall, following Number 5 hit All The Stars with Kendrick Lamar, and Number 3-peaking Kiss Me More with Doja Cat. Two other tracks from her SOS album also land back into the Top 40 today; Shirt (25) and Nobody Gets Me (29). 

In the post-Christmas period, there’s a lot of change and rebound inside the Official Singles Chart today, with several tracks re-entering the Top 10. These include Venbee & goddard.’s Messy In Heaven (3), plus new peaks for Central Cee’s Let Go (6) and Rema’s Calm Down (8). Tom Odell’s Another Love, first released in 2012, also re-peaks today (10) after becoming popular on TikTok last year. 

Congratulations are also in order for Bugzy Malone and TeeDee, who ascend a massive twenty-nine places with Out of Nowhere (9), each claiming their first-ever Top 10 single in the process.  

Outside the Top 10, numerous songs start the New Year by reaching new peaks; Lewis Capaldi’s Pointless (15), Tiesto & Tate McRae’s 10:35 which enters the Top 20 for the first time (18) and Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way album track Bloody Mary (22), which takes advantage of a deluge of TikToks using the song to soundtrack fan-edits of the Netflix show Wednesday’s now-iconic dance scene. 

Australian singer-songwriter Dean Lewis reaches a re-peak with the emotional How Do I Say Goodbye (23), while viral singles Golden Hour by JVKE (24) and Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez (28) rise to become career-bests for both artists. 

US rapper Lil Uzi Vert achieves his first UK Top 40 entry in nearly three years with Just Wanna Rock (38), Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot’s I’ll Be Waiting (39) cracks the upper echelons of the chart for the first time, his second Top 40 single, and finally, Headie One scores his 12th Top 40 single with 50s (40).