This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

One week after Bruno Mars became the first person this year to top the singles chart twice, along comes the second. Step forward then Pitbull who was last at the top of the charts a mere six weeks ago alongside Jennifer Lopez on 'Hit The Floor' but who now has a Number One single as lead artist for the first time ever as Give Me Everything wins another achingly tight battle at the top of the charts and moves into pole position. He's had a five year wait for this moment, his chart debut coming in February 2006 when he appeared as a featured star on Shake by the Ying Yang Twins, a single which limped to Number 49. His debut as a lead artist came slightly more recently than that with I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) hitting Number 4 in the summer of 2009.

Amongst the numerous guest stars on Give Me Everything is Ne-Yo who began his own chart career mere weeks after Pitbull did. By contrast however he topped the charts from the word go, debut single So Sick soaring to Number One in its second week chart eligible week in March 2006. After topping the charts twice more with Closer in 2008 and Beautiful Monster in 2010, the singer now has a fourth Number One, albeit his first as a guest on someone else's record.

Pitbull neatly tops and tails the Top 10, with the J-Lo single still hanging in there at Number 10. His chart domination however pales into insignificance next to the woman who is inevitably going to grab most of the chart headlines this week, for truly this is Gaga's world and we are just living in it.

Following her televised live set at the Radio One "One Big Weekend" event last weekend and with anticipation for this week's release of her new album Born This Way reaching fever pitch it was more or less a given that her current mass of singles were going to consolidate and improve on their chart positions. True to form then she now has two side by side Top 10 hits with last week's promotional single Edge Of Glory surprisingly holding firm at Number 6, comfortably outselling "current" single Judas which completes its chart comeback after having fallen as far as Number 23 three weeks ago to now return to the Top 10 at Number 8 and in the process eclipsing its original Number 9 peak four weeks ago [I had to read that a fair number of times too]. The album's title track is also back on the move with the single Born This Way advancing to Number 16 in its best chart performance for six weeks. Yet there is still more, for as one final pre-release teaser the album track Hair was also released as a chart-eligible download last week. As if to prove that sometimes less is more, this fourth track enters the chart lower than you might expect, but as a Number 13 new entry it is enough to ensure that Lady Gaga can boast four simultaneous Top 20 hits.

Take a moment to consider just what a phenomenal achievement this is. Earlier this year we were marvelling at Rihanna's ability to command a tenth of the Top 40 with her four simultaneous hits. Gaga now trumps this with 20% of the Top 20 under her direct control. Such a thing is by no means unique, but the last two people to achieve this kind of chart sweep - Michael Jackson in 2009 (he actually had five at once) and John Lennon in 1981 - both were as a result of posthumous surges in demand for their records. Even then, to find the last people to manage this foursome you have to look back to the dawn of chart history, to Elvis Presley in 1957, Frankie Laine in 1953 and Ruby Murray in 1955, Gaga now the first woman since her to complete the quadruple. [A feat duplicated by Bieber in November 2015].

Needless to say that four hits at once has been made much easier in the digital download era, but it has still taken a highly unusual level of release activity by the star to contrive to set this particular benchmark. With Born This Way finally hitting the shops this week, it raises the prospect of more Gaga tracks charting. Five or six Top 40 singles all at once? It could happen… [Again, Bieber did 8 in November 2015 so it did, albeit under very different chart rules].

Just for a change however the highest new entry of the week does not go to Ms Germanotta. Step forward instead the Swedish House Mafia who follow up their two 2010 hits One (Your Name) and Miami 2 Ibiza with new single Save The World which debuts at Number 11. The track is brand new production, unavailable on any album for the moment and unlike their previous hits eschews the use of a big star name on vocals, the lead on this track taken by hitherto unknown Swedish singer John Martin.

This week's chart is the first compiled since the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest although its impact on the sales of the participants is rather more limited than originally appeared to be the case. Leading the charge of the entrants are Blue with I Can, their single not quite managing to reclaim the Top 20 placing it landed upon first release, climbing a mere four places to Number 22. At the very least it has bettered the chart performance of the UK's 2010 entry That Sounds Good To Me by Josh Dubovie which failed to chart at all.

Next on the Eurovision parade of glory are Ireland's gruesome twosome Jedward. Despite the shame of having given the pair top marks in the telephone vote, the record buying public have only reacted mildly to their song Lipstick which creeps to Number 40 this week. If nothing else it restores the pair to the Top 40 for the first time since their debut single Ice Ice Baby charted in February 2010. Their second single, a cover of All The Small Things bombed out at Number 80 in July last year.

2010 winner Fairytale may have stormed the Top 10 last year but it is not quite the same story for the Azerbaijan entry Running Scared by Ell and Nikki. Despite a brief surge of sales interest in the immediate aftermath of the television show, interest tailed off badly during the week and the single charts at a lowly Number 61, just a few places higher than New Tomorrow by A Friend In London, the fifth place Danish entry to which the UK voters awarded five points.

Finally, you will have read it in many places already but we do still need to acknowledge it once more, despite a strong challenge from Kate Bush, Adele still clings on to the Number One position on the album chart with 21. With a grand total of 16 weeks on top it is now officially the longest running Number One album since the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack way back in 1978. Not that Kate Bush will mind too much, her new album Director's Cut maintains her impressive strike rate of Top 3 albums with only her second release Lionheart back in 1978 having failed to make the grade.