I Knew She Was Trouble
This may be another of those "told you so" moments, for which I make zero apologies.
Cast your minds back to last week and the triumphant debut of Ariana Grande's Hate That I Made You Love Me at the top of the Official UK Singles chart. We noted therein the fragile nature of her lead over Sam n' Livvy as well as the imminent arrival of a new single by another superstar which could also upset the apple cart.
Both of these have now come to pass. Hate That I Made You Love Me did indeed sink below its rival, this week 'enjoying' a deficit of over 6,000 chart units. So it would not have had a second week at No.1 under any circumstances.
But really, that means nothing at all. Because the two big hitters of last week are not 1 and 2, but instead 2 and 3. Even they cannot withstand the unstoppable force that is Taylor Swift. The lady who previously "had fewer No.1 hits than you might expect" this week lands her third chart-topper in the space of the last eight months as I Knew It I Knew You crashes straight to the chart summit..
The reason for this is that it is a previously unheard track, the brand new recording her contribution to the soundtrack of the forthcoming Toy Story 5 movie. This unusual foray into soundtrack work sees the American superstar flashing back to her country roots - although given the current rise of the likes of Stella Lefty and Ella Langley (who has no fewer than three singles in the US Top 10 this week) this may be a very tactful move indeed.
I Knew It I Knew You is Ms Swift's seventh No.1 single to date, and her second of 2026 so far following Opalite which enjoyed a week at the summit in February. The last No.1 hit before Rein Me In began its reign of terror, fact fans. She joins Harry Styles as the only acts to top the charts with two different hits so far this year. It is also her sixth chart-topper of the 2020s, a total which puts her level with Ed Sheeran as the most successful performer of the decade by this metric. As friends have also pointed out, this is now the second week in a row that the No.1 single is a track that has entered straight at the top. That hasn't happened since August 2024 when Charli XCX's Guess was followed by Chase & Status' Backbone in successive chart weeks. That which was once alarmingly routine is now pretty damn notable.
The Toy Story movies are celebrated for their Randy Newman-penned soundtracks and their often award-nominated theme songs. Toy Story 1 featured You've Got A Friend In Me (which has become a recurring motif throughout the franchise), Movie #2 featured the Oscar-nominated When She Loved Me as performed by Sarah McLachlan. Toy Story 3 was led by another Newman track We Belong Together, and Toy Story 4 was promoted with Chris Stapleton's rendition of The Ballad Of The Lonesome Cowboy. I Knew It I Knew You is the first Toy Story track to have no Randy Newman input (although he still scores the rest of the film), the song penned by Swift herself alongside frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff. It is notably the first from the franchise ever to become a chart hit.
The Long Goodbye
Token Rein Me In fact of the week: the track celebrates its 52nd week as a Top 100 hit, albeit the 51st as a Top 40 hit single. Its ACR clock has now ticked twice, so the dreaded axe may finally come for that first anniversary proper. But of course we have been here several times before. Just as last week, the No.1 position was largely decided on one-shot paid-for sales. Without the 9,456 paid sales she has to her name across various physical and digital formats, Taylor Swift would still have topped the charts on streaming alone. But only by the tiniest of margins.
With Michael Jackson's Billie Jean static at No.5, it means four of this week's Top 5 hits are current or former No.1 singles of varying vintage. The exception is Olivia Rodrigo's The Cure which slips to No.4. But don't rule her out for a comeback. The track's parent album You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love is released this week and may well dominate the chart story in seven days' time.
I've Had A Small Movement
Taylor Swift inserts herself at the head of a singles market which remains quite marvellously becalmed. Without her, every single one of last week's Top 20 hits would have been the same records, just in a slightly different order. Between 11 and 20 just two tracks make any kind of forward progress. Choosin' Texas finally lands a new peak for Ella Langley as it hauls itself up a place to No.12 while Prospa and Cloonee's Free Your Mind eases up to No.17. The latter in theory enjoys the benefit of the release of Prospa's debut album whose title it shares, although the Leeds-based duo can only manage the No.24 album of the week. The album's other chart single - Baby - is No.54 for the third week running. Keep an eye on that one, no track has ever managed four weeks in a row on that particular chart rung.
Fevered
It is June 2026 and should we be scared that Alex Warren has recorded his song again? Well, not for the first time this year, actually no. Another teaser for his forthcoming second album Wildchild, Passenger becomes its third hit single hard on the heels of Fever Dream and Fine Place To Die. The new song proves that Fever Dream was no out of comfort zone one-off, Passenger sees the American balladeer doing another Sombr-esque switching up of gears, the song an almost relentlessly chirpy ditty with a chorus that is alarmingly derivative of, gosh, Baby Come Back. It is interesting in the same way that his first single this year was, if you take my meaning. A No.22 makes it one of his smallest opening gambits to date, and given that both of its predecessors peaked at their initial entry position I don't hold out much hope for this one. But this is good, an Alex Warren single that isn't entirely like all the others. So it gets some credit.
None Of Their Parents Could Spell
Did you know until today there have only ever been two chart stars called Alyssa? There was Alyssa Palmer, singer on The Chainsmokers' 2011 hit No Beef. And then Alyssa Reid who hit No.2 with Alone Again a year later. Now they are joined by a third as Californian TikTok discovery Alyssa Grace makes her UK chart debut. Close your eyes and she could be Olivia Dean in a folk rock phase, the combination of acoustic guitars and that same warm vocal style is a disconcerting one. However the most interesting fact I have to tell about her for now is that her single Bloodstream is this week's No.25 hit. If she goes on to be a superstar, may these words come back to haunt me.
Mac Is Back
After its resurfacing last week, the late Mac Miller's previously unheralded Cinderella takes another step towards becoming a proper hit single as it bumps up the pile to No.27 - incredibly enough his first ever Top 40 hit single in this country. When he passed away from a drug overdose at the tragically young age of 26 back in 2018 most eulogies presumed everyone knew who he was and his music. In Britain that wasn't so much the case. His biggest claim to fame was being a former partner of Ariana Grande and the man with whom she had her own debut chart hit in 2013. Perhaps it is only appropriate that this anomaly is corrected.
Also easing its way to a Top 40 position is On 2Nite from Silva Bumpa which opened its account at No.43 last week and climbs to No.32 this time out. The producer from Sheffield makes music that is an unapologetic throwback, part of a mini revival of the 2-step garage sound that was all-pervading at the turn of the century. On 2Nite transports you back to the summer of 2000 with almost effortless ease. The vocal on the track is - amusingly - a dramatically pitched-up sample of the Montell Jordan track Get It On… Tonite. A song which was a No.15 hit here in April 2000 - right at the time of the original garage mania.
F*cker
Taking over as "album that beats Michael Jackson to No.1" on the long player's countdown is Dinner Party, the fourth solo album from One Directioner Niall Horan, one which lands him his third No.1 record in a row. All, you will note, without the benefit of any chart singles. His only solo release to miss the top was his 2017 debut Flicker (with cover art that made the title look even ruder). That peaked at No.3, although it had the consolation of hitting the top in America. That’s just how big these guys were. And apparently still are amongst fandom.
