The UK Singles Chart is a weekly record chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday.[1]
Ed Sheeran replaced his own number one single twice with ("Bad Habits" in July 2021 by "Shivers" in September 2021 and "Merry Christmas" in December 2021 by "Sausage Rolls for Everyone" in the same month. Sheeran has also spent the most weeks at number-one during the 2020s, with 23 weeks at the summit.
Audio streaming data was incorporated into the chart in 2014, with 100 streams equivalent to one sale.[1] In 2017, the OCC introduced an exception for songs that had spent a certain time on the charts and whose consumption had declined, whereby these songs are calculated at a rate of 300 streams equivalent to a sale.[2]Ellie Goulding was the first artist to top the chart in the decade with her cover of Joni Mitchell's song "River".
The following singles have all been number one in the United Kingdom during the 2020s:[3][4]
Wham! had the first 2021 number-one single with "Last Christmas", 36 years after its original release. The song returned to number-one in December 2022, January 2023, and most significantly as the 2023 Christmas number-one.Ellie Goulding had the first number-one single of the decade with "River", a cover of the 1971 song by Joni Mitchell. She topped the charts again in April 2023 with "Miracle", her fourth overall.Adele released her October 2021 number-one single "Easy on Me", a third number-one for the artist. The song went on to have the highest first week sales of 2021 and the highest for any single since 2017.Kate Bush broke three chart-topping records in June 2022 with "Running Up That Hill". The song holds the longest gap between two of an artist's number one singles, the previous 44 years earlier with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978). It also holds the record for the longest time for a song to reach number one after its initial release and the oldest female artist to have a number one single.The Beatles had their 18th number-one single with "Now and Then" in November 2023, making it the longest gap (60 years) between an artist's first and last number one in UK chart history.Mariah Carey earned her third number-one single with "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which topped the UK charts in its 70th week in the top 40 in December 2020, 26 years after the song's original release. The song returned to number one in December 2022.Taylor Swift earned three number-one singles in the 2020s with "Anti-Hero", "Is It Over Now?" and "Fortnight". All three singles achieved the prestigious Chart Double with the song's parent album simultaneously topping the UK Album Chart.In 2024, Beyoncé became the first female artist to earn a number one country single with "Texas Hold 'Em", which spent five weeks at the top of the charts.Sabrina Carpenter earned three number-one singles in 2024 with "Espresso", "Please Please Please" and "Taste", totalling 14 weeks at number one.
This was originally issued as a single by EMI Records, the majority of whose catalogue was purchased along with Virgin Records by Universal Music Group (UMG). However, UMG did not purchase the catalogue of Kate Bush as the licence for her work was part of the Parlophone-deal arranged with Warner Music (WMG). Fish People[6] is Kate Bush's record label, who also issued a version with a re-recorded vocal in 2012. Rhino, the catalogue division of WMG, held distribution rights only until February 2023, after which she moved distribution of her post-1980 recordings catalogue to the state51 Conspiracy.[7][8][9][10][11]
This was originally issued as a single by Rosebud, Eliza Rose's own independent record label and picked up by Warner Music UK a few weeks after charting.[12] After being listed solely under the Warner Music UK banner, the record label credit was changed for a third time to Warner Records X One House[13][14][15] during the record's stay in the UK charts.
Asylum Records was jointly credited alongside Perfect Havoc, a dance record label founded by Adam Griffin and Robert Davies, on Joel Corry's number one hit.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]