Rihanna Clocks Ten Weeks at Number One

Rihanna makes UK chart history this week as she manages to chalk up a tenth week at number one. Only a handful of singles have ever managed to remain at number one for longer making ‘Umbrella' one of the greatest singles in history.

Some may argue that Umbrella doesn’t deserve to have that kind of recognition alongside classic from the Beatles, Whitney Houston and Bryan Adams.

However, in today’s world where every single song (album track or not) eligible for download competes for potential chart success, the fact that Rihanna’s song has outsold some 5 million tracks on iTunes for ten straight weeks is nothing short of outstanding and rightly deserves its spot in the history books.

Rihanna’s stronghold on the top spot means Kate Nash, up one spot from number 3, must wait one more week to see if her single ‘Foundations’ can hit number one. Also waiting for a chance at number one with his follow up to ‘Give it to me’, Timbaland climbs to number 3 with ‘The way I are’.

Fergie falls to number 4 with ‘Big girls don’t cry’ while Enrique Iglasias remains at 5 with ‘Do you know’.

Breaking into the top ten this week, Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen jump from 12 to 8 with ‘Oh my god’ making this the second straight top ten song for Ronson.

Top debut this week comes in at 12. Scottish singer/ songwriter Amy Macdonald brings her folksy style of pop to the charts for the first time with ‘Mr Rock & Roll’. Sounding like the love child of Joni Mitchell and the Beatles, Amy has a style that is both retro and modern. A catchy tune that blows the rest of this week’s debuts out of the water.

Down 5 at 28 Reverend & The Makers – bop in with ‘Heavyweight Champion Of The World’. Their sound echoes that of the Bravery and The Rapture, a tinge of rock over a sliding disco beat. Not a bad single, nothing groundbreaking. However, the repeated anthem ‘Just be like everybody else’ is quite catchy, if somewhat disturbing.

R Kelly & Usher land in the top forty at 32 with ‘Same Girl’. They could have called it same song as it sounds like so many other boring R & B tracks about a girl gone astray. This song totally wastes a listener’s time, even the artists themselves sound bored. A complete disaster and waste of vinyl. How records like this make it to the charts boggles my mind especially when there is so much better music out there from which to choose.

Sunfreakz Ft Andrea Britton dance into the chart at 37 with ‘Counting down the Days’. With a backbeat that sounds almost tribal, this track sounds familiar, like an old dance cut from the nineties that you haven’t heard in a while. Not a strong vocal sitting overtop of the wall of sound. If this is all discoland has to offer, we’ll all be counting down the days – until we hear a good dance track.

New at 38 on downloads alone, Amerie works it on ‘Gotta Work’. She’s looking to dethrone Rihanna as this year’s queen of pop and while this single seems rather throwaway, it has landed top forty before its official release which guarantees at least a top twenty single in the coming weeks.


Coming back to the top 40 at 40, after a few years away, Thrills returns with ‘Nothing Changes Around Here’. A simple guitar driven slow burner that doesn’t go very far, reminiscent of an early Travis B-side or Thrills earlier hits. The title says it all really, their sound hasn’t changed at all. Still, not a bad single to finish off the top 40 in a very slow week of hits.