Official Singles Chart Top 40 on 23/8/2019

Hi piran as i predicted last week George Ezra has set a new chart record this week Shotgun is now officially the longest continuous song ever to stay in the top 75 its 74 weeks now beating Ed Sheeran and Clean Bandits 73 weeks each wow will this ever be beaten and could he make 100 weeks

It's a pretty cool chart this week, some cool new entries. It's great to see you've got another 10/10 track! Do you know how many you have given over the years?

I agree with your ratings on average, obviously I'm not as big of a TS fan as you are but "reputation" was a great album and that's definitely going to make me listen to "Lover" - sadly had no chance to yet!

I've also noticed the big drop for Location, obviously hitting ACR for the second time. Still hasn't departed the Top 40 which is pretty nice to see. What's your opinion on the changes to the chart rules? I think it's a lot nicer now songs have a bigger chance of bypassing it (25% sales gain as to 50%).

I'll take a look at your Crownnote now!

Hey Piran! I really love seeing 'Señorita' get a 6th week at #1 as well, becoming Camila's longest running #1, but sadly this'll almost definitely be its last week at #1. It's fallen in sales for the past 3 weeks, and since next week will be its 10th on the chart it'll almost definitely be getting pushed onto ACR. It looks like next week will be between 'Beautiful People' and '3 Nights' for #1, and if it is the former it'll most likely only manage the 1 more week at #1 as it'll probably be pushed onto ACR the week after as well. I like 'Sorry' climbing into the Top 10 this week, though I am sad to see 'Location' being put on ACR again.Still, it managed to stick around in the Top 40 (just) for a 24th consecutive week now, most, if not all, of which would've been in the Top 20 if not for ACR. If 'Funky Friday' hadn't already cemented Dave's place as a huge artist in UK hip-hop and the UK as a whole, 'Location' definitely has!
I absolutely love seeing 'Be Honest' get the highest debut his week! At the start of the week I was mainly hoping for a low-down Top 40 entry, but it just kept climbing to get the highest debut of the week in the Top 20! At the rate it's going I wouldn't be surprised to see it climb next week, and it could even be a Top 10 hit in the future! Anyway, strong 8/10 - light 9/10 from me. 'Both' was pretty good for me, though nothing special so probably a solid - strong 6/10 (and Headie One's album 'Music x Road' released today, which is why you won't see it on this week's albums chart. It could mean that 'Both' could climb next week, though, and he might have a couple other tracks on the chart). 'Lover' was honestly quite weak for me, my 3rd least favourite track on the album after 1 listen, just ahead of 'ME!' and 'The Archer', so light 5/10 here. I quite liked 'Motivation', probably a light - solid 7/10, while 'Post Malone' honestly surprised me with how much I liked it, so a light - solid 8/10 there!
Next week, like I said earlier it'll probably be between 'Beautiful People' and '3 Nights' for #1, though 'Higher Love' might have a chance as well, 'Be Honest' might climb and Headie One & Taylor Swift tracks should climb, re-enter and debut as their albums make an impact. I can also see 'Take Me Back To London' rebounding into the Top 5 as it had remixes released today (which would be #2 on iTunes with 81.91% of the sales of 'Higher Love' when combined, and #1 on Spotify with around 5k more streams than 'Señorita'), and I can see 'Post Malone' climbing as well. Hopefully 'f**k, i'm lonely' can finally crack the Top 40 as well!

Another 10/10. Awesome!

Yeah, only the third one ever, after 'SOS' & 'Senorita'! ;)

Hi Mark! :)

That's an interesting observation! If it does make 100 weeks in the chart before it drops out, it'll also break the record for longest consecutive stay in the entire chart, which is currently held by 'Thinking Out Loud' on 95 weeks.

Can you imagine how long it was last here if it wasn't placed on ACR, same with 'Mr Brightside'?

Hey Ben! :)

'Lover' is actually only the third song I've ever given a 10/10 rating to, after 'SOS' & 'Senorita'.

Personally, I'd say Taylor's new album is probably her second best after 'Fearless' & a big improvement from 'Reputation'. Then again, that depends a lot on your preferred genres, since I loved a lot of Taylor's older country music.

I personally really disagree with the new chart rules like ACR. The charts are now a lot less representative of the most popular songs of the week this way.

Hey Gameskiller! :)

Yeah, it does seem like this'll almost certainly be 'Senorita's final week at the top, but six weeks at #1 essentially confirms its title as Song Of The Summer 2019, so I'm still really happy about that. :D

'3 Nights' or 'Higher Love' seem likely to be the next "new" #1, although the latter might be closest at the moment! This coming week, it should be leading in sales for a third week, airplay for a second & Apple Music for its first. The only place it's not dominating on is Spotify, but even then, it just reached a new peak of #5 there, making the third best performing song on the streaming service not to be placed on ACR yet.

Regarding Taylor, 'Lover' & 'You Need To Calm Down' should gain a few places inside the Top 40, while 'The Man' would probably be her third song in the chart, potentially also making the Top 40 next week despite a steep second day drop.

Hopefully she'll get her fourth consecutive #1 album on Friday too! In America, she already broke several impressive records. ;)

Thanks for replying Piran it wud b nice if sum1 let george know because i bet he doesnt. I hope it stays on the chart for weeks to come. Really hope Kygo and Whitney manage No.1 but think it's too late now.

I'm surprised there have been no OCC articles on it, but it definitely has gone unnoticed elsewhere, since the record isn't even updated on Wikipedia!

According to the latest "First Look" chart, 'Take Me Back To London' is #1 with 'Higher Love' at #2 (since 'Senorita' got pushed to ACR). If any of the remixes for the former are frontloaded throughout the week, Whitney could be about to get her first #1 of the 21st century! :O

Is there any way of letting George know or OCC. I think its an important milestone in chart history.

Honestly, even yesterday I didn't think I'd be saying this, but I think 'Take Me Back to London' has a very good chance of being #1 next week rather than 'Beautiful People', '3 Nights' or 'Higher Love'. It was #1 on the update, which I thought might happen after Friday's figures came in, but since the update is now only based on 2 day's sales and 1 day's streams it's not the most accurate. I thought that even if it did end up at #1 on the update, it'd fall back to #4 or #5 by the end of the week, but its Saturday figures have made me completely rethink that. Completely defying expectations, it's actually made a pretty significant climb on its 2nd day, going from being 4,726 streams ahead on Spotify to now being 94,402 ahead! It's positions are very similar on Apple Music as they are on Spotify as well, so I think it's safe to say it's at least Top 3 there as well. If it can remain at all stable throughout the rest of the week it should manage #1, and even if it doesn't Ed could still get there with 'Beautiful People'. Between those 2 tracks, I think there's a pretty good chance of Ed getting his 10th week of the year at #1 next week.
Yeah, I think 'Lover' should pretty easily make #1 on the albums chart, and Taylor having 3 tracks inside the Top 40 seems decently likely as well. I agree with your predictions of which tracks they would be, but 'Cruel Summer' might make it instead of 'The Man' or 'You Need To Calm Down'. What records has she broken in the US already with this album then?

It seems like '3 Nights' is out of the race for #1 after all. 'Higher Love' will get a small boost today thanks to the official video being released, but the 'Take Me Back To London' remixes were surprisingly stable on Spotify, but are actually still gaining over on Apple Music!

As for 'Higher Love', it's still easily ahead on sales & radio, but whether or not it gets to #1 depends on how well the 'Take Me Back To London' remixes hold up, since neither are close to ACR for now.

Regarding 'Lover's achievements in the US, the first record it broke was the most pre-adds it had on Apple Music in its first day, being around 178,600 for the country! To put that into perspective, this is around double what her previous album, 'Reputation', achieved. This figure was closer to one million worldwide. Target also announced that it was also their most pre-order album of all-time, being her own record set by 'Reputation'.

Within one day of release, the album sold 450,000 copies in the US! That means that Taylor claimed the biggest selling album of 2019 already, despite it not even being out for 24 hours. HDD also said that 'Lover' could debut with around 600-675k pure sales & 725-825k in overall units by the end of the tracking week, which would be the highest opening week for the album since late 2017 (again, since Taylor's last album!) & easily in the Top 10 biggest debut weeks of the decade so far! She won't be able to get that record-extending fifth "1 million+" debut, but her past four albums doing so is still unprecedented.

As for the streaming side of things, she had eight songs in the Top 10 of Spotify on the Friday, including the title track getting an impressive 2.6 million daily streams there! In total, her tracks amassed 29 million streams! That's the second biggest by a female artist & the ninth biggest overall. On top of that, all 18 tracks from the album received US pop airplay. Finally, with the title track debuting at #19 on today's Hot 100, she now ties Madonna as the female artist with the most Top 20 hits, with 44 each.

So yeah, a long passage about Taylor there, but that shows you really how big she is in her home country. Remember, this is her seventh studio album! :O

Also, did you see that Post Malone is releasing his third studio album, 'Hollywood's Bleeding', on the 6th of September?

So far 'Take Me Back to London's lead over 'Señorita' has gone 4,726 - 94,402 - 73,318 - 98,079 on Spotify, it's been selling consistently well on iTunes, its music video has been getting some pretty decent views and, like you mentioned, it's climbing on Apple Music, so I think it should be pretty safe for #1 this upcoming week! I honestly really like it when something unexpected and unpredictable like this happens, as it really makes the charts more exciting to follow! I mean, just think back to a few days ago on Thursday, no-one would've predicted 'Take Me Back to London' going to #1, and even on Friday after the remixes released very few people would've predicted it, at least not until they saw Friday's figures. In the next few weeks I think it'll be very interesting to see if 'Take Me Back to London' can hold its crown or if 'Higher Love' can manage to overtake it.
Wow, that definitely is a of a lot of achievements to have for a single album that hasn't even been out for a full week yet! I'm honestly quite surprised that she can have that level of success in the US without much of it transferring to the UK. She's still a big artist over here of course, but compared to what she does in the US she's tiny in the UK!

Yes, I have, and I am extremely hyped for it. I'd expected it to be called 'Runaway' and be released on the 13th September since he's going on the "Runaway Tour" starting on the 14th September, and he mentioned that album would release on a "special date" (which could've been Friday the 13th), but getting the album a week earlier is even better! Though, the 3rd single from it, 'Circles', was set to release on the 16th August and is still nowhere to be seen, so hopefully the same doesn't happen with the album.

Yeah, while neither of the 'Take Me Back To London' remixes impressed me all that much, it's always exciting to see a #1 that almost nobody predicted! :D

I believe if this prediction does hold, 'No.6 Collaborations Project' would become the album that Ed's had the most #1s on! He'd get his third this album, while both 'x' & '÷' managed two each ('Sing' & 'Thinking Out Loud' for the former, 'Shape Of You' & 'Perfect' for the latter).

Also, as far as I'm aware, Ed would become only the second Brit (after Calvin Harris) & fifth artist overall (after Ariana Grande, Drake & Justin Bieber) this decade to achieve three #1 singles on the same album. I don't think any artist has managed four in the 2010s though.

Regarding Taylor, she is certainly on another level in her homeland than she is here, but I'd argue she's definitely one of the biggest international artists of at least this decade over here. I'm not even saying this from bias of being a fan of hers from the start, but despite one #1 single & three (coming for four) #1 albums, she has a relatively big cultural impact here! Almost everyone you know has probably heard of her & she's always in the media or news whenever she releases an album. That's before we talk about how fast her tours sell out over here!