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Official Singles Chart on 18/1/2019

18 January 2019 - 24 January 2019

The Official UK Singles Chart reflects the UK’s biggest songs of the week, based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, compiled by the Official Charts Company. The UK Top 40 is broadcast on BBC Radio 1, the Top 100 is published exclusively on OfficialCharts.com. View the biggest songs of 2024 so far.

 

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Subhaan Khan

0

Am gonna say this again and again over the past 4 years am not with the streaming thing it might become a shock to you all. Thr streaming has ruined the offical charts i remember new music used to come out on sundays not fridays and dance music was something that you could call dance. Am a huge fan of example/elliot gleave known for changed the way you kiss me and his other hits. He never went he still brought new stuff out but sadly never charted well. It dosnt make any sence whats so ever his new song all night was and still is top 40 on itunes then why it didnt chart am off it failed to enter the charts when it was ment to. And this is why i hate streaming even tho a song makes makes load of sales and downloads it will not get into the charts all this is not only happening to example its happening to most uk artists who ant made nothing in a wilhile it needs to stop. All we see nower days is the same old songs been in the charts over a month or a two what is all this . Cuz all we seem to is american poppy trash with dumb lyrics.

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Damián

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It's always nice to see that legend acts, such as Westlife, return to the charts in such a good from. I guess they're one of the old "members of the physical sales charts" who had beaten this new weird kind of charts. Congrats to them.

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Subhaan Khan

-1

I have been hateing charts for this since 2015 where is example - all night it was in top 40 on itunes dosnt make any sence at all for not charting but yet it charted in scotland

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BBR MB 2016

0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4aJwAEeCcs

PK

Philip Kelly

0

Giant and Nothing breakshort like a heart should be fighting for no1 in my opinion

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Piran

7

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- ‘Sweet But Psycho’ by Ava Max is #1 on the singles chart for a fourth consecutive week. This week, the song received 8 million streams & was downloaded 12,000 times, giving it a 30,000 combined sales lead over its closest challenger.

- ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’ by Mark Ronson ft Miley Cyrus is still #1 on the national airplay chart.

- ‘Sweet But Psycho’ is #1 on the YouTube chart for a second consecutive week, although it does lose 8.5 percent of its weekly viewing figure, down to 2.79 million.

- SAM SMITH & NORMANI – DANCING WITH A STRANGER (#4)
I’m not going to mince words, this is probably going to be the best review I’ve given a song on this thread since when ‘Sweet But Psycho’ first made the Top 40! Sam Smith going from a huge Fifth Harmony fan himself to working with one of the members was always going to be a pleasant listen, but I didn’t think we’d get this level of joy from the oozing beat to the generally awesome R&B-disco feel to it. Sure, it doesn’t produce a lot of intensity, but he certainly captures that retro vibe in a way that actually gave me goosebumps! Then Normani comes in & every line in their duet is on-point with their harmonies, as they both move from an ex & don’t look back, as they dance with somebody new but exiting. It might be a simple song, but it’s so much fun & I really want to see this go to #1 in the future! Light 9/10.

- CALVIN HARRIS & RAG’N’BONE MAN – GIANT (#7)
Oh, this is just a breath of fresh air to the charts! Calvin Harris always surprises me when he works with new artists & has recently switched up his production style a lot so that it’s tailored to the vocalist. Here, he uses the standard electronic features like those house beats & pulsating synths, although he also mixes in: vocal chants, strings, piano & even brass! The latter is probably my favourite as the colourful trumpets dominate the drop. As for Rag’n’Bone Man, he goes into his usual raw & soulful delivery for most of the song, but he huffs going into the bridge & almost ends up rapping there too, you did read that right! He's actually singing about addiction & redemption, which is a lot deeper than you’d otherwise expect for this kind of song. I’m really impressed with this though, so for me, solid 8/10!

- GESAFFELSTEIN & THE WEEKND – LOST IN THE FIRE (#9)
Given that the two Gesaffelstein tracks from The Weeknd’s last EP had the least commercial success out of all of them, I didn’t see a Top 10 debut coming for this! That said, between Gesaffelstein & Daft Punk, The Weeknd really needs to work with more of these kind of producers, because he sounds absolutely effortless on this! Gesaffelstein has worked with many other big names before such as Kanye West & Lana Del Rey, but he blends the mix of gloominess & pop fairly well for The Weeknd here! I like dark & futuristic this whole thing sounds too & the only real talking point out of the lyrics are the possible shots taken at Drake, hinting that he’s dissing him for hiding his kid from the world. Either way, this might grow on me even further, but I’m thinking a strong 7/10 for now!

- WESTLIFE – HELLO MY LOVE (#13)
I’m absolutely chuffed that these guys are back! In terms of singles chart success, they’re up there among the biggest groups of all-time with an incredible 14 #1s, but this is their first single in eight years, so I was definitely excited to it! Okay, you can tell straightaway from the lyrics that Ed Sheeran cowrote this, as it’s another feel-good love hit about realising how grateful & lucky you are for the person in question to love you. What’s noticeably different from most Ed Sheeran hits though is that this has a soaring pop dynamic, impressive production by Steve Mac & of course, Westlife’s signature tight harmonies. I mean, it might not bring the sparkle that they’re older smashes like: ‘Uptown Girl’, ‘What About Now’ or ‘Swear It Again’ (which are some of my favourite songs of all-time!), but it’s still a return that brought back a huge smile on my face. Welcome back, Westlife! Strong 8/10.

- CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN – LONGSHOT (#25)
Is it just me, or did nobody expect this to get as high as it did? The song was never really that strong on any metric & this group have had three songs that have barely charted & not got anywhere close to the Top 40 before. That said, I love it when these alternative hits crossover because the vocalists almost always sound awesome live & you can tell this would definitely be not different! There’s a ton of passion throughout this anthem, even if I think the energy went a bit too raw. The taut guitars are okay, but nothing that sticks with you, although the beat is well-driven at least. As a lead single to their upcoming third album though, I wouldn’t mind hearing more & at least they’re still showing their fired up. I’m going to say, strong 6/10!

- LEWIS CAPALDI – SOMEONE YOU LOVED (#29)
Lewis Capaldi has had Top 40 breakthroughs in back-to-back weeks now, which indicates that he could gather a lot of momentum as a new artist throughout 2019 & while I might not have loved ‘Grace’, I’d be more than happy to see him put out more material like this, since this is considerably better! It’s a very emotional slow break-up song, in which he writes this to a past partner that he misses. Instead of showing jealousy or reflecting too much on what could’ve been, he hopes for anybody that he can have to love again as he misses the way it felt in his previous relationship. Lewis himself still sounds a lot like James Arthur to me, so while his lower range might be a little boring, I’m really impressed with the higher notes he hits in this song. The production is mainly based on jumping piano notes, which have a rather intriguing melody if you listen in carefully. I’d actually be cool with this sticking around. Nice work, solid 7/10!

- FLIPP DINERO – LEAVE ME ALONE (#36)
So apparently this was one of the songs that helped influence Drake’s latest album & it’s been getting a ton of streams in the States, just a shame it’s also not very good. Look, Flipp Dinero doesn’t exactly have a bad flow in the verses, but while you could argue the hook is catchy, it grated on me very fast & it just got so annoying, especially when you factor in that the production adds nothing to trap music, this same beat was probably used in a song that came out last week! The bigger issue might be when you dig deeper into the content, where on the surface he’s getting frustrated at a girl trying to call him up, even though he states that he likes her. Yeah, it looks like I will be leaving this song alone for good in the not so distant future. Solid 4/10.

- KHALID – SATURDAY NIGHTS (#38)
It’s interesting to see this get pushed as Khalid’s new single & I’m not actually complaining about that, because I can groove to this for the most part! I like how in the production the guitar has a cool melody alongside the snaps in the back of the mix, the beat hits at just the right tone, as do the jingles in the chorus. The song didn’t really grab me vocally until Khalid slipped into his upper register for that last hook, but even the verses are a fine enough tribute to young love. See, I like a lot of elements to this, but there’s nothing that I can say I really love. Therefore, solid 7/10!

- On the albums chart, ‘The Greatest Showman’ continues its unstoppable streak at #1, with a 27th non-consecutive week at #1! It is now six weeks away from tying the longest #1 album ever that isn’t a soundtrack (‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by Simon & Garfunkel at 33 weeks). It doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon either since it had about a 2:1 lead over its nearest competitor in combined sales.

- The rest of the Top 5 is: ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ by George Ezra (stationary at #2), ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ [Soundtrack] (4-3) ‘A Star Is Born’ [Soundtrack] (3-4) & ‘Always In Between’ by Jess Glynne (6-5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these songs could enter the Top 40 for the first time: ‘7 Rings’ by Ariana Grande, ‘Breathe’ by Camelphat & Cristoph ft Jem Cooke, ‘Don’t Call Me Up’ by Mabel, ‘Losing It’ by Fisher, ‘Keanu Reeves’ by Logic, ‘Psych Out!’ by AJ Tracey, ‘Survival Of The Fittest’ by Fredo, ‘Don’t Feel Like Crying’ by Sigrid & maybe even more.

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

- My latest Crown Note chart: http://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-112

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ricardo

0

leave me alone is a good song

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Piran

-1

That's cool if you like it, but it's not for me.

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Nischal Joshi

1

I have taken quite a time to listen to Capaldi and Someone You Loved & Bruises were the two best tracks out of him for me, so it is nice to see it making a mark on the charts. Maybe we will see his new singles, if he is releasing them, to debut high on the charts.

The chart looks a lot more clean with the older songs all gone now. :D

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Kasper Elbjørn

1

Doesn’t make any sense at all that Hello My Love is only #13 when its among top 3 best-selling songs. Its just wrong!

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Piran

1

It was like 90th in streaming though, which was always going to knock its overall chart position back. Sadly, this also shows how much digital sales have been dying out over the past few years.

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Foxes

1

To add onto this, single sales this week are at 789k, a slight increase on last week's 763k, which was the lowest total since 2005, when the physical singles market was dying but digital sales hadn't been added into the chart yet. Yet, the singles market as a whole is increasing - last week's overall single sales (including streams) were at 16.7m, 11.33% above same week 2018 sales. It means that streams now make up over 95% of the singles market.

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Foxes

1

Hey Piran! I love seeing 'Sweet but Psycho' get a whole month at #1, still so far ahead of the competition, but sadly I'm pretty sure this will be its last week at #1. Its streams did increase this week, resetting its ACR clock, but '7 rings' looks pretty dead-set for #1 next week. It debuted at #1 on Spotify with 810k streams - almost double the amount of 'Sweet but Psycho' - and it's also getting around double the sales on iTunes. I doubt '7 rings' will stay at #1 for as long as 'thank u, next' did, but it's almost guaranteed to be there next week.
Other than that, I like seeing 'Wow.' reach a new peak of #3, but I'm honestly just really confused as to how 'Nothing Breaks Like a Heart' beat it. Granted, there were only 670 sales between them, but it seems like 'Wow.' should've been way ahead. It was at #2 on the weekly Spotify chart, while 'Nothing' was only at #7, and 'Wow.' was also at #2 on Apple Music for most of the week, while 'Nothing' spent most of the week lingering just outside of the Top 10. It was ahead of 'Wow.' on sales, but not by a huge amount, and definitely not enough to offset the difference in streams given the increasing irrelevance of sales. That only leaves YouTube, but on last week's YouTube chart 'Nothing' was only 19k views ahead of 'Wow.', with the former at #33 and the latter at #37. Unless 'Nothing' grew and/or 'Wow.' fell a ton on YouTube over the past week, I really can't see where the difference came from.
My opinion on most of the debuts this week were pretty similar to yours, in that 'Leave Me Alone' was the only one that I didn't like. For me, 'Dancing With a Stranger' is a light 8/10, 'Giant' is a light 7/10, 'Lost in the Fire' is a light 9/10, 'Hello My Love' is a strong 6/10, 'Longshot' is a solid 6/10, 'Someone You Loved' is a light 7/10, 'Leave Me Alone' is just a 3/10, and 'Saturday Nights' is a light 7/10. I really didn't expect for there to be 3 debuts in the Top 10 this week, but I guess with new music from Sam Smith & Normani, Calvin Harris & Rag'n'Bone Man, and the first new music from The Weeknd in almost a year, and with all of those tracks being great, it was almost inevitable.

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Kasper Elbjørn

1

I obviously agree that streams should be included but greater emphasis - or all emphasis - needs to be given to paid subscription streams and ad-supported activity should be excluded

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Yolanda Merkel

1

I agree 100% on the new single by Sam & Normani. It is pop perfection. Hopefully it dethrones Ava, who has overstayed her welcome. But I'll be happy if either Mark & Miley or Post Malone takes over next week. Love both songs.
As far as the other debuts are concerned, I agree about Flipp Dinero being quite annoying. I'm surprised that song is doing as well. The Calvin single is actually quite nice (I didn't expect that collabo to work well, but it does). I am also enjoying that track featuring the Weeknd. It sounds great from the first play. Finally, Westlife's "comeback" single is as mediocre as can be.They have always been awful and it is good to see that they are pretty much done.

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Piran

0

'Dancing With A Stranger' is probably by favourite song that both Sam & Normani have ever done! I actually still really like 'Sweet But Psycho', but since that's been #1 for a month, I wouldn't mind a change at this point. It looks that might happen though as '7 Rings' by Ariana Grande could very well debut at #1 next week.
Calvin Harris always surprises me with his recent collaborations like I said & I'm glad he's not going for generic or predictable like what he did for a bit a few years back.
The only song & act as a whole we disagree on is Westlife. Why have you never liked them? Just curious.

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Piran

1

They recently implemented this rule in the US Billboard charts, so it might end up happening in the UK, then again, maybe not since YouTube was recently added to the OCC formula. I agree that you need to put more emphasis on paid streams than free ones.

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Piran

1

Yeah, four weeks is still awesome for 'Sweet But Psycho' though! :)
It's cool that Ariana will get her second #1 all by herself, just a couple of months after her first! I don't know if it'll beat 'The Greatest Showman', but Ariana Grande's upcoming album could very well be the biggest one of 2019, at least by a female artist unless any huge surprise comebacks happen. I agree that while '7 Rings' might get less time at #1 than 'Thank U, Next' did, it'll have almost the same debut figure.
Regarding 'Nothing Breaks Like A Heart' & 'Wow', maybe it came from other streaming services outside of Apple & Spotify, but I'd think those would be negligible. The former is way ahead of the latter on TV & radio airplay, but they aren't factors that influence the charts. Both aren't on ACR either, so that can't explain it either. I'm not too sure outside of that really.
I'm glad that we almost entirely on the eight new Top 40 arrivals this week! What would your rating of '7 Rings' be by the way? Also, there's a chance that one song could get a 10/10 rating from me if it charts high enough on Friday. If you paid close enough attention to my Crown Note chart predictions, you might know which one it is!

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Piran

3

That's why I can't really agree with people who say that the chart should be based on just sales only. By your figures, that would mean the charts are only representing under 5% of what people are actually listening to.

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Piran

0

'Bruises'... never heard of that one. Is it better than 'Someone You Loved'?

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Foxes

1

I'm pretty sure the UK charts already put more of an emphasis on paid streams. I believe they implemented that at the same time as they added YouTube, and that paid streams are on a 100:1 ratio, while free streams are on only 600:1.

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Foxes

1

Yeah, 4 weeks is still great! '7 rings' wasn't just a 1-day wonder either - it increased to 882k on the most recent Spotify chart - the 8th highest daily total ever in the UK, excluding Christmas songs. Ed Sheeran has the Top 3, while 'Despacito - Remix', 'thank u, next', 'In My Feelings' and 'One Kiss' come after. Completing the Top 10 after '7 rings' are Drake's 'Nonstop' and 'One Dance'. Ariana's now lessened Ed & Drake's dominance, giving her 2 in the Top 10 to compete with Ed & Drake's 3 each. Ed does have 8 in the Top 20, while Drake has 6 in the Top 20, though.
I think that Ariana's upcoming album could pull the same kind of streaming figures as what we saw with 'Kamikaze', 'beerbongs & bentleys' and maybe even 'Scorpion', given her insane streaming figures for new singles. The only album I'm sure it won't beat on streaming is '÷', since taking up the entire Top 16 on Spotify for an entire week is something I don't think we'll ever see again.
Since 'Wow.' was also ahead of 'Nothing Breaks Like a Heart' on Deezer, I can only assume the difference came from the lead in sales and YouTube for 'Nothing'. On the most recent YouTube chart there is a bigger difference of 124k, with 'Nothing' at #22 and 'Wow.' at #27. I will be very surprised if 'Nothing' is still ahead of 'Wow.' next week, though.
My rating for '7 rings' at the moment would be a strong 8/10. Ariana's vocals are smooth as always, and I really like her rapping here as well! I wasn't a fan of it on 'Sweetener', but I think she pulls it off much better here. I have to guess that the 10/10 track is 'Don't Feel Like Crying', since that's set to debut straight in at #1 on your charts next week. Sadly it's nowhere near that for me, but it would still get a strong 6/10 or maybe a weak 7/10.

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Piran

1

So excluding Christmas songs, Ariana now has the two strongest Spotify debuts by a female artist as a lead artist?
I agree that Ariana's upcoming album will get the same opening streaming numbers as those three albums, although it'll probably have more physical sales & downloads than each of them.
It's got to be down to YouTube then, even though the streams to sales ratio for that service is only 600:1 as you mentioned in your last comment.
My rating for '7 Rings' is probably a strong 7/10 to weak 8/10 for now, but we'll see how that changes before I properly review it on Friday!
That's right! Apparently, Sigrid is releasing her debut album in March, which I can't wait to get since I've enjoyed every single she's put out so far, including those from her last EP. :)

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Foxes

1

Yep! The only other female artist to feature in the Top 10 is Dua Lipa on 'One Kiss', and the only other solo female artist to feature in the Top 20 is Adele with 'Hello' at #20, compared to Ariana's #5 and #8. To be fair, though, the main reason is just down to Ed & Drake's dominance with how many songs from their most recent albums got over 750k streams on release day, with the 2 of them taking up 70% of the Top 20 between them.
I'm pretty sure 'thank u, next' will at least have the biggest debut for an album in 2019, and I think it should end up as the biggest overall, though 'The Greatest Showman' will put up strong competition, as we saw last year with '÷' at #3, especially since 'The Greatest Showman' is doing much better now than '÷' was at this point in its life. Ed's supposedly releasing a grime-inspired EP this year as well, featuring UK urban acts like he did on 'No.5 Collaborations Project', so that will probably have the 2nd biggest debut.

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Yolanda Merkel

1

Hi Piran. Sorry about the late reply. I don't know what it is about them that has always annoyed me (I think it's the excessive amount of mediocre covers mixed with the fact that they don't offer the special something that groups like Take That and Backstreet Boys did). I sort of feel the same way about them as I do about NSync.

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Piran

0

I guess I'd prefer to listen to Take That over Westlife, as well as Backstreet Boys over NSYNC, but I'm honestly fine listening to any of their music, especially compared to some of the groups that hit the charts nowadays.