First past the post again, Dave & Central Cee smash Sprinter is finally showing signs of fatigue, with consumption off 9.90% week-on-week to 53,518 units (278 digital downloads, 53,240 sales-equivalent streams), while its three closest challengers – all from the Barbie soundtrack – improve their chart positions and register double digit growth.
Now platinum with overall consumption of 636,886 units (3,123 digital downloads, 633,763 sales-equivalent streams), Sprinter has reigned for nine weeks, with the only 2020s hits to sustain longer being Bad Habits by Ed Sheeran (11 weeks), As It Was by Harry Styles and Flowers by Miley Cyrus (both 10 weeks). Sprinter is bracketed in fourth place on the list alongside Olivia Rodrigo’s Drivers License.
Rodrigo has provided Dave & Central Cee’s biggest challenge with her latest hit, Vampire, but after four straight weeks at No.2 it fades to No.5 (35,128 sales), simultaneously overhauled by a trio of Barbie-related titles which move up in convoy. They are: What Was I Made For? (3-2, 47,543 sales) by Billie Eilish, Dance The Night (4-3, 43,524 sales) by Dua Lipa and Barbie World (5-4, 36,518 sales) by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & Aqua.
With Charli XCX’s Speed Drive vaulting 19-9 (24,849 sales) to become her sixth Top 10 hit, Barbie becomes the first film ever to spawn four simultaneous Top 10 hits. As we said last week, it was the fourth film to spawn three simultaneous Top 10 hits – the others being Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Encanto. However, our assertion that Barbie had become the first film to spin off three concurrent Top 5 hits was incorrect. Four weeks after it first provided three of the Top 10 hits on 14 October 1978, Grease actually provided three of the top four: Summer Nights (1-1) by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John and solo vehicles Sandy (2-3) by Travolta and Hopelessly Devoted To You (24-4) by Newton-John. Apologies for the error.
Barbie Mania also strikes hard in Ireland, where four of the top eight are from the film, with Billie Eilish’s track dethroning Sprinter in a photo-finish for No.1.
Travis Scott’s first No.1 album, Utopia spins-off the maximum of three new singles chart entries under the primary artist rule.They are: Meltdown (feat. Drake, No.10, 24,523 sales), Fein (feat. Playboi Carti, No.13, 21,871 sales) and Hyaena (No.21, 18,304 sales). All of the remaining 16 tracks from Utopia are ‘starred-out’ of the Top 75 (Top 52, actually, if that’s a thing) including K-Pop, which debuted last week at No.24, and is now positionless between No.26 and No.27 on consumption of 15,006 units. Scott has now had 39 Top 75 entries. Playboi Carti has had five and Drake has had a remarkable 133, his tally also including On The Radar Freestyle, his latest collaboration, which debuts at No.26 (15,099 sales). It pairs him with current chart-topper Central Cee, who thus earns his 26th hit. Meltdown is Drake’s 41st Top 10 hit – more than any other rapper, or any other Canadian – and Travis Scott’s sixth Top 10 hit, half of them with Drake.
The rest of the Top 10: (It Goes Like) Nanana (7-6, 28,049 sales) by Peggy Gou, Cruel Summer (6-7, 26,992 sales) by Taylor Swift and Fukumean (8-8, 25,750 sales) by Gunna.
Exiting the Top 10 are 0800 Heaven (10-11, 22,652 sales) by Nathan Dawe, Joel Corry & Ella Henderson and Who Told You (9-16, 200,888 sales) by J Hus feat. Drake.
Six weeks after their joint 2018 chart-topper Promises became the sixth song by Calvin Harris and the fourth by Sam Smith to achieve consumption in excess of two million units, the pair returned with Desire (No.18, 20,236 sales). Harris’ 47th Top 75 and 32nd Top 20 hit, it is Smith’s 31st Top 75 and 19th Top 20 hit. In addition to Promises, which spent six weeks at No.1, the pair charted together alongside Jessie Perez earlier this year, reaching No.23 with I’m Not Here To Make Friends.
Post Malone’s Austin album spawns his new (33rd) hit, Enough Is Enough (No.52, 8,124 sales) and paves the way for Top 75 re-entries for the newly reset Chemical (83-24, 15,507 sales) and Mourning (No.56, 7,359 sales), which peaked at No.11 and No.35 respectively, earlier this year.
Also new to the Top 75: Baddadan (feat. Bou, Irah, Flowdan, Trigga & Takura, No.31, 13,626 sales), the 17th hit for Chase & Status; Big 7 (No.53, 7,654 sales), the 18th hit for Afrobeats artist Burna Boy; One Direction (No.58, 7,200 sales), a rap collaboration bringing ArrDee his 10th hit and Bugzy Malone his 15th; Bittersweet Goodbye (No.65, 6,512 sales), the third hit (first solo) for singer/songwriter Issey Cross; Rave Out (80-68, 6,382 sales), the first hit for Turno and Skepsis and the second for Charlotte Plank; and Deli (88-72, 6,306 sales), the fourth hit for Ice Spice.
While four songs from Barbie populate the Top 10, two more make progress lower down the chart, with I’m Just Ken improving 25-14 (21,466 sales) for actor Ryan Gosling, and Pink rising 39-27 (14,515 sales) for Lizzo. However, after debuting at No.58 last week, Sam Smith’s song from the film, Man I Am, retreats to No.69 (6,359 sales).
There are new peaks for: Disconnect (17-15, 20,993 sales) by Becky Hill and Chase & Status, Fast Car (51-48, 8,683 sales) by Luke Combs, Asking (61-51, 8,442 sales) by Sonny Fodera, MK & Clementine Douglas and Highs & Lows (67-60, 6,747 sales) by Prinz feat. Gabriela Bee.
On its first full week since her death was announced, Sinéad O’Connor’s timeless hit, Nothing Compares 2 U jumps 45-30 (13,775 sales) to appear in the Top 40 for the first time since 1990, when it spent four weeks at No.1. Her compilation, So Far…The Best Of – No.28 in 1997 - returns to the album chart for the first time since at No.70 (1,852 sales). In her native Ireland, Nothing Compares 2 U jumps 37-7, while Mandinka re-enters at No.15. On the Irish album chart, So Far jumps 77-3, while there are re-entries for The Lion And The Cobra (No.23) and I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (No.28).
Anglo/Irish electronic music legend Aphex Twin almost returns to the Top 75 after an absence of more than 20 years, with new single Blackbox Life Recorder 21f at No.79 on consumption of 5,925 units. 744 of that total is from sales-equivalent streams and 875 from digital downloads. It also sold 869 copies on CD and 3,437 on the 12-inch single. The latter tally includes 1,402 copies on black vinyl and 2,035 on clear vinyl. No.1 on CD, vinyl and overall physical singles chart as a result, it recorded the highest weekly vinyl sales of any track since Liam Gallagher’s All You’re Dreaming Of sold 6,448 copies in the final week of 2020. Subsequently raising its vinyl sales to 15,961 (6,275 7-inch and 9,686 12-inch), All You’re Dreaming Of is the biggest selling vinyl single of the 2020s.
Overall singles sales are up 0.21% week-on-week to 26,408,879 units, 12.89% above same week 2022 consumption of 23,393,810 units. Paid-for sales are up 3.07% week-on-week at 308,847 – 4.98% below same week 2022 sales of 325,042.
