Official Singles Chart on 13/7/2018

where is boyzone?

First time I've looked at the USA chart for years and it looks like Drake is almost doing an Ed Sheeran with holding down 12 of the Top 20 positions

Is it just me, or do all these female singers sound alike? Singers used to have their own sound...now having "your own sound" is sounding like everyone else. Auto tune and all.

Three Lions might be the very first pre-internet/pre-digital single to be number one in the streaming era? I can't think of any 'old' song to make it number one. Chart guru Piran might know. 😉 Also the first 20th century song to make it to number one in the 21st century streaming era. I guess this makes Three Lions a chart record breaker.

England lost, of course. 😆

In spite of all these changes, look how rubbish the singles chart still is. The charts are achingly, achingly slow, there's practically no new entries apart from a handful at the very bottom, and it's the same old artists month in and month out

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- Despite England losing their World Cup semi-final match against Croatia, ‘Three Lions’ by David Baddiel, The Lightning Seeds & Annie Skinner make its return to the top of the singles chart, 22 years after it first did so!

- The football anthem spends a sixth week in total at #1, although it’ll probably set a new record for biggest drop from #1 next week.

- As for this week, it accumulated 88,000 equivalent sales (from 43,000 downloads, 6.8 million audio streams & 5.2 million video streams). Its total figure currently stands at an incredible sales number of 1.6 million, making it one of the most successful songs of all the time, not just of sports songs!

- It also sets a new Official Chart record this week, being the first song to have four different stints atop the singles chart.

- As Scott Mills said on his chart show, even though football might not be coming home this year, we should all see this as a celebration of how far England got, especially from such a young team!

- ‘One Kiss’ by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa returns to #1 on the airplay chart.

- ‘Girls Like You’ by Maroon 5 ft Cardi B remains at #1 on the YouTube chart for a fourth consecutive week, as its views increase by 24.3% from last week to 3.54 million over the past seven days.

- As I started my summer job this past week, I won’t have time to post reviews for each song right now, so I’ll just do a short summary of each new Top 40 arrival until I’m less busy…

1) DRAKE – IN MY FEELINGS (#4): Could go to #1 next week thanks to the virality of the dance challenge. That tropical beat is really cool though, Drake’s vocals & crooning are solid & this has a bounce to it giving the song such an infectious groove. I’m not massively into City Girls’ part & the drum machine could’ve altered a little during this, but it’s mostly reasonably enjoyable. Very light 7/10 from me.

2) ZIEZIE – FINE GIRL (#38): I’m definitely a fan of the grime & Afrobeat blend in the production & the hook is catchy, but I can’t understand a thing ZieZie is saying in the verses (his flow is annoying too), although the content is about an interest in a girl, but in a generic way for this genre. Light 5/10.

3) AU/RA & CAMELPHAT – PANIC ROOM (#39): Interesting & personal lyrics, about battling self-doubt & fear, which is matched by the darker production, even if the second drop does sound very similar to ‘Cola’. Unusual for a club song, but not bad either. I’m thinking a light 6/10.

- On the albums chart, ‘Scorpion’ by Drake is #1 for a second consecutive week. 90% of its total units this week are accounted for by streaming.

- The rest of the Top 5 is: ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack (3-2), ‘Palo Santo’ by Years & Years (debuts at #3), ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ (stationary at #4) & ‘Lightning Matches’ by Tom Grennan (debuts at #5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these songs could enter the Top 40 for the first time: ‘God Is A Woman’ by Ariana Grande, ‘Body’ by Loud Luxury ft Brando, ‘Ocean’ by Martin Garrix ft Khalid, ‘Summertime Magic’ by Childish Gambino & maybe even more.

- Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all have a good weekend. :)

- My latest Crown Note chart: www.crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-84