Charts analysis: Adele's Easy On Me spends seventh week at No.1

Adele’s stranglehold on the singles chart eases a little, with Easy On Me continuing at No.1 (69,372 sales), while there are declines for I Drink Wine (4-5, 30,218 sales), and Oh My God (2-6, 29,525 sales). Although two singles have lingered longer at No.1 this year – Drivers License spent nine weeks at No.1 for Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Habits spent 11 weeks at No.1 for Ed Sheeran - Easy On Me’s reign of seven weeks is now the joint longest of any single by a UK female soloist, matching the mark set by Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love in 2007. With 30 continuing to lead the album chart, Adele spends her second week in a row and seventh week in total simultaneously topping the singles and albums charts. That’s a great achievement – but far short of the record 41 weeks that The Beatles spent at both apexes in the 1960s. The only other British female solo artists to lead both lists at once are Leona Lewis, Duffy, Lily Allen and Cheryl Cole – though none for as long as Adele. Easy On Me and 30 are also No.1 in America this week, making Adele the first Brit to command both charts concomitantly since Ed Sheeran in 2017, and the first British woman to do so since herself in 2015. Leona Lewis and Olivia Newton-John are the only other UK-born female soloists to do the double stateside. Now becoming a hit in her US homeland, where it debuts at No.51 this week, 17-year-old Gayle’s sweary debut hit, abcdefu, took 13 weeks to make the chart here, but has since blossomed, moving 40-14-2. Its consumption up 56.21% this week, at 32,062 units, it is the only bona fide new entry to the Top 10. Making even faster progress are returning seasonal favourites All I Want For Christmas Is You (24-3, 31,053 sales) by Mariah Carey and Last Christmas (28-4, 30,450 sales) by Wham!. Dating from 1994 and 1984 respectively, both topped the chart for the first time last year and are in the Top 10 for the sixth advent in a row. After a fortnight at No.9, Seventeen Going Under - the title track from Sam Fender’s recent No.1 album – reaches a new peak, climbing to No.8 (28,054 sales). The rest of the Top 10: Flowers (Say My Name) (7-7, 29,437 sales) by ArrDee, Overpass Graffiti (10-9, 27,265 sales) by Ed Sheeran and All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) (6-10, 27,098 sales) by Taylor Swift. Overpass Graffiti is now Sheeran’s highest charting title, as ACR hastens the Top 10 departures of Shivers (3-13, 22,995 sales) and Bad Habits (5-19, 19,013 sales). After becoming their first ever Top 10 hit last week, D-Block Europe’s 31st hit, Overseas (feat. Central Cee), also leaves the top tier, falling 8-12 (25,201 sales). With the flurry of Christmas-themed re-entries to the chart becoming a blizzard, there are few opportunities for genuine new entries to the Top 75 this week – and as it happens, all five that make the grade are also Christmas songs. Three are available for purchase or streaming only via Amazon. They are: Come On Home For Christmas (85-36, 12,720 sales), George Ezra’s 10th hit; The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) (No.46, 10,801 sales), one of three new versions of the Mel Torme-penned classic exclusive to Amazon, and the debut hit for 22-year-old London singer/songwriter Olivia Dean, who was vocalist on Rudimental album track Adrenaline in 2019; and I’ll Be Home For Christmas (No.59, 9,263 sales), the 23rd hit for Camila Cabello (including six with Fifth Harmony). A popular song since it was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1943, I’ll Be Home For Christmas has been recorded by many famous names including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis and more contemporary acts like Demi Lovato, Lady A(ntebellum), Pentatonix, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe and Kelly Clarkson but has never made the Top 75 hitherto. Finally charting, five years after it first appeared on her Everyday Is Christmas album, Snowman (No.72, 7,367 sales) was helped by a TikTok challenge, and becomes Sia’s 25th hit. Michael Buble has the last new entry to the chart this week, courtesy of The Christmas Sweater (No.74, 7,229 sales), taken from the new 10th anniversary edition of his multi-platinum album Christmas. It is Buble’s 18th hit, and joins two more resurgent tracks from the album in the Top 75: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (49-20, 18,887 sales) and Holly Jolly Christmas (No.52, 10,059 sales). Alongside the five new Christmas hits there are 24 Christmas-themed songs from previous years in the Top 75 – up from 10 last week – with Fairytale Of New York (44-16, 19,930 sales) by The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl and Merry Christmas Everyone (52-17, 19,928 sales) by Shakin’ Stevens joining the previously mentioned Carey, Wham! and Buble cuts in the Top 20. There is a new peak for Enemy (40-34, 12,951 sales) by Imagine Dragons & JID. Singles sales are up 0.33% week-on-week at 23,623,095, 11.15% above same week 2020 sales of 21,254,266. Paid-for sales are down 1.43% week-on-week at 350.956 – 18.51% below same week 2020 sales of 430,683. Subscribers can access all the latest charts here.

Charts analysis: Adele does the double on albums and singles charts

As her fourth album, 30, makes a forceful debut atop the album chart, Adele remains at No.1 on the singles chart for the sixth straight week with Easy On Me. Benefitting enormously from streaming of the album, Easy On Me’s consumption increases 49.96% to 100,627 units, as it is joined in the Top 4 by two further cuts from the album: Oh My God (No.2, 53,429 sales) and I Drink Wine (No.4, 49,520 sales). Although falling short of taking the top three positions simultaneously – something only Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran have ever done – Adele sets a new benchmark for a female soloist, eclipsing Olivia Rodrigo’s feat of placing three songs in the Top 5 just 24 weeks ago. Easy On Me’s latest surge lifts its to-date consumption to 634,610 units, making it her 12th platinum single. Its reign atop the chart is now the longest of any Adele single, and the longest by any UK female since Bleeding Love was No.1 for Leona Lewis for seven weeks in 2007. Ed Sheeran’s monopoly of the chart, that saw him take nine of the Top 10 slots for two weeks in a row in 2017, caused a change in OCC regulations, setting the maximum number of tracks a primary artist could have in the chart at one time to three. Were that rule not in existence, Adele would have seven of this week’s Top 10, those that are ‘starred-out’ being My Little Love (43,956 sales), Can I Get It (41,785 sales), Strangers By Nature (38,189 sales) and Cry Your Heart Out (36,075 sales). Two of the three remaining positions in that Top 10 would be filled, ironically, by Ed Sheeran, who also has three singles in the Top 10 again this week, namely Shivers (2-3, 50,831 sales), Bad Habits (4-5, 42,221 sales) and Overpass Graffiti (6-10, 29,296 sales). Overall consumption of Adele tracks increases by 679,350 this week to 24,452,849 – about a third of Sheeran’s total. Super Furry Animals had 21 Top 75 hits between 1996 and 2007 without ever reaching the Top 10, a record that stood until October last year, when London hip-hop collective D-Block Europe scored their 22nd hit without troubling the top tier. Super Furry Animals return to the top of that list this week as two tracks from D-Block Europe’s new album Home Alone 2 enter the chart. They are Funny Bunny Nails (No.35, 10,998 sales) and, more pertinently, Overseas (feat. Central Cee), which opens at No.8 (31,900 sales), thus providing their first Top 10 hit (Central Cee’s third), eclipsing the peak of their previous highest charting hit, UFO (feat. Aitch), which reached No.11 in October last year. D-Block Europe now have 31 hits to their credit, the last of their current three being No Competition, which debuted and peaked at No.18 three weeks ago and now rebounds 39-22 (15,491 sales). The rest of the Top 10: All Too Well (Taylor’s Version) (3-6, 36,828 sales) by Taylor Swift, Flowers (Say My Name) (5-7, 32,188 sales) by ArrDee and Seventeen Going Under (9-9, 31,002 sales) by Sam Fender. All of which means there are Top 10 exits for Coming For You (10-11, 26,233 sales) by SwitchOTR feat. A1 x J1, Cold Heart (8-12, 24,236 sales) by Elton John & Dua Lipa, and Love Nwantiti (7-27, 13,877 sales) by CKay. Everywhere serves as the Official BBC Children In Need single for 2021, and debuts this week at No.23 (14,671 sales) for Anne-Marie & Niall Horan. Anne-Marie’s 21st hit and Horan’s 37th (including 29 with One Direction), it is their second pairing, following Our Song, which reached No.13 in July. It is a cover of a 1978 No.4 hit for Fleetwood Mac from the album Tango In The Night, which had a second chart life in 2013, reaching No.15 after being used as the soundtrack to 3 Mobile's Dance Pony Dance TV campaign - which featured the track over humorous footage of a moonwalking Shetland Pony. It is Fleetwood Mac’s most successful track, with digital era consumption of 1,840,000 units, just ahead of The Chain, which has never made the Top 75, but has accumulated 1,700,286 sales. Also new to the Top 75 this week: Own Brand Freestyle (88-64, 6,915 sales), the first hit for FelixThe1st & Dreya Mac feat. Finch Fetti; More Money (No.71, 6,450 sales), the third hit for Mancunian rapper Meekz; and house cut Cut Me Loose (80-75, 6,083 sales), the first hit for Jethro Heston, and the second for Max Marshall. No new Christmas song has yet made the Top 75 this year but 10 previously-charted seasonal selections now decorate the chart, up from two a week ago. Mariah Carey leads the charge with All I Want For Christmas Is You (44-24, 14,510 sales), while Last Christmas (54-28, 13,565 sales) also dents the Top 40. There are new peaks for: Do It To It (24-13, 21,549 sales) by Acraze feat. Cherish, Abcdefu (40-14, 20,525 sales) by Gayle, Ghost (32-29, 13,200 sales) by Justin Bieber, Where Are You Now (50-39, 9,224 sales) by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott, Enemy (66-40, 8,941 sales) by Imagine Dragons & JID and Money Calling (56-50, 8,275 sales) by Da Beatfreakz with Raye x Russ Millions x WeWantWraiths. Singles sales are down 1.80% week-on-week at 23,546,351, 12.25% above same week 2020 sales of 20,977,182. Paid-for sales are down 2.08% week-on-week at 356,034 – 22.01% above/below same week 2020 sales of 465,487. Subscribers can access all the latest charts here.

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