Official Singles Chart Top 40 on 09/11/2018

Hey Piran! Thank u next has definitely took me by surprise with how well people have reacted to it, though it's no wonder really considering the buzz over Ari's relationships and streams have low recently so it was inevitable a massive artist would come around with a new song. I do agree that it's not perfect though, I wouldn't be lying if I said it was better than all of her singles from the Sweetener era (especially Breathin), but the production and lyrics are great.

I like Baby and I Found You fine, but none of the other new entries are really doing it for me. A Million Dreams is one of the weaker songs off the TGS soundtrack, and I've never rated P!nk much as a singer either. Same for Polaroid and Empty Space, I've never really liked any of the artists involved in those tracks too and those songs aren't good.

Really hope Sweet But Psycho and 1999 will break into the Top 40 next week, both are great pure pop songs that the charts have kind of been lacking recently. in fact I'm surprised the latter didn't make it this week considering its massive gains on streaming!

Also very nice to see The Prodigy getting their 7th UK #1 album, I wasn't sure No Tourists was gonna make it this week considering the competition from A Star Is Born but they made it in the end.

That Baby is only a new entry at 33 is an absolute crime. The song is incredibly catchy, Marina's voice works fantastically in that falsetto of the chorus, and Luis Fonsi is, what, the best selling artist of last year? And you only gave the song a 7/10?? Crime :) Watch this song jump up to the top 5 next week!

Hey Piran! I've been pretty busy over the past couple weeks, so I haven't really been paying attention to music much other than playing some new songs from artists I knew of on the "New Music Friday" playlists on Spotify. Because of that, I had absolutely no idea 'thank u, next' even existed until yesterday! That said, I am very happy that it manages a huge debut straight in at #1. I really like it! I think it manages to capture more of the sound that Ariana is so good at, and a sound that was sorely lacking on most of the songs from 'Sweetener'. With its absolutely massive streaming figures, I would be surprised if this spends any less than 6 weeks at #1.

Less than a week after its release, it's already got the 5th highest daily streams figure on Spotify in the UK ever, becoming the 5th song to pass 1 million streams in a single day, both not including Christmas songs. On the most recent Spotify chart it posts streaming figures of 1.01m, meaning it trails only 'Despacito (Remix)' (1.03m), 'Galway Girl' (1.1m), 'Castle on the Hill' (1.24m) and 'Shape of You' (1.32m) in terms of non-Christmas songs. Since it's been climbing every day since its release, I actually expect it to pass 'Despacito (Remix)' in the very next Spotify chart. It's #1 on every single other streaming service I could think of as well, so we finally have a song that could genuinely disrupt Ed Sheeran's dominance at the top of the "Most Streams in 1 Week" chart in the UK. 'Castle on the Hill' got 11.07m and is #2 while 'Shape of You' got 13.7m and is #1, and the possibility of 'thank u, next' passing at least 'Castle on the Hill' is definitely there. 'In My Feelings' is #3 with 10.6m (it and 'thank u, next' are the only ones that even had YouTube views included in their totals, while 'In My Feelings' is the only one of the 2 that had an official video at the time, since 'thank u, next' only has a lyric video for now).

It's doing just as well globally as well, with its 9.61m streams on the most recent Spotify chart only trailing 'In My Feelings' with 9.85m, 'Shape of You's 9.88m and 'SAD!'s 10.42m. Again, it has a decent chance of passing both 'In My Feelings' and 'Shape of You's streaming figures on the very next Spotify chart.

Also on another, almost completely unrelated note, I just checked my all-time streaming figures on last.fm for the first time in a while and it turns out that 'God is a woman' is now my most streamed song of all time! It's currently sat at 1,047 streams, just ahead of the previous #1 'Real Friends' which is at 1,041. #3 is 'Bloodstream' with 879, #4 is 'River' with 856 and #5 is 'She Loves Control' with 778. This is just since 15 May, 2017 when I started using last.fm, about a month after I started using Spotify.

Anyway, now that my rant about 'thank u, next' and Ariana is over, I can finally look at the rest of the chart. I quite like that 'Thursday' takes a big climb into the Top 10, and I absolutely love that 'Without Me' also takes a huge climb into the Top 10, and that 'Sunflower' rebounds into the region. The huge climbs for 'Polaroid' and 'Empty Space' into the Top 40 are both great, and the smaller climbs for 'Taki Taki' and 'Ruin My Life' are really good as well.

I like most of the new entries this week and from last week, and my thoughts on most of them are pretty similar to yours. From last week, 'Arms Around You' was my favourite of the new entries with a light 8/10 and probably the track where our opinions differ the most, while 'when the party's over' and 'Close To Me' would both be a 6/10. This week 'thank u, next' is easily my favourite new entry, and I'd give it a solid 9/10, while 'Polaroid' and 'Empty Space' would both be a strong 6/10 for me. 'Baby' would be a strong 7/10, 'I Found You' is probably a light 6/10 and 'A Million Dreams' is the lowest, with a light 5/10.

Next week 'thank u, next' will almost definitely be #1, possibly even with the highest streaming figure since 'Shape of You', while I hope that 'Without Me' and 'Sunflower' can stay in the Top 10. There weren't really many releases this week that I was a fan of, though, so I'm not really rooting for any song to reach the Top 40. Speak to you soon! :D

Hey Gameskiller! :)
That's fine, this is a busy time of year so everyone, so don't worry about it.
I'm also very happy about Ariana's surprise #1 debut; but I like 'Thank U, Next' more thanks to the message behind the lyrics, as it shows her exes in a positive light while also promoting self-love, so it's so good to see her become the first female artist to have over one million daily Spotify streams in the UK. Yeah, six weeks seems like a good prediction for 'Thank U, Next' (in which case, will be 2018's Christmas #1?).
'God Is A Woman' is also your longest consecutive #1 of all-time, right? Doesn't it have the longest total weeks at the top of your charts too? In that case, I'm not surprised it passed 'Real Friends' on your last.fm chart really! Does your last.fm account count entirely towards to your charts, or do you factor in other things as well?
Speaking of Crown Note, I just commented on your latest chart there.
See you soon!

I agree that it deserved higher, but it won't go Top 5 next week as streaming isn't strong enough for it yet, but given their chart run over the past couple of years, it could do when 'What Is Love?' comes out.
Luis Fonsi definitely wasn't the best selling artist of last year in the UK, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was globally.
"Only" a 7? By my ratings, I consider 7s to be relatively good songs! :)

Hey Ted! :)
Yeah, I think I still prefer 'No Tears Left To Cry' over 'Thank U, Next', but as my score shows, the latter really deserves the success it's having right now! What should be even more exciting to see is her finally set to earn her first #1 in her home country tomorrow night.
I can agree with you on 'Baby' & 'I Found You', but 'A Million Dreams' would rank in the middle of what is a soundtrack that I absolutely love! I get why some people don't like 'Empty Space' & it was definitely my least favourite new song of the week, but 'Polaroid' is considerably better.
'Sweet But Psycho' might reach #1 in my personal chart next week & '1999' should make it soon given that its still gaining on Spotify like you said & sales aren't even that bad for it either.
I still need to hear 'No Tourists', but the response I've seen for it has been positive so far!

I am pretty confident that 'thank u, next' will be the Christmas #1 for this year, for quite a few reasons. Not only is it posting streaming figures on par with 'Shape of You' and 'Despacito (Remix)', which were both 10+ week #1s, but also because Ariana's next album (also called 'thank u, next') is supposedly going to release before the end of the year. If it does, I'd imagine it'll release in mid-December, giving the title track another huge boost just before the Christmas chart. Plus, since all the classic Christmas songs are on permanent ACR now, they don't really stand much of a chance of reaching #1.
Yeah, 'God is a woman' is my longest #1 ever on CrownNote, both consecutively and non-consecutively, with 9 consecutive weeks. It's also currently on its 16th consecutive week in the Top 3! My last.fm chart doesn't directly contribute towards my charts, but there's usually a pretty strong correlation. At the start of each week I create a Spotify playlist of my Top 40 songs so far that week, and then I move songs around, add and remove songs throughout the week as I start to like some of them less and some of them more, then at the end of the week I just translate that playlist into a chart. Usually my most streamed song of the week ends up as my #1 on CrownNote, but it's absolutely possible for a song that's #5 or even lower on last.fm to end up at #1 on CrownNote.
For some reason I can't find your comment on my chart. I can find your reply to my comment on your chart, but my latest chart doesn't have any comments on it yet, at least not that I can see.

That's weird, I thought I did post a comment on your chart, but appears not to have gone through.
I'll send you another reply there shortly! :)
Also, because my yearly chart tracking is the same as Billboard's, my next personal chart will be the last one that counts towards the 2018 leaderboard.