Dave, a UK rap star, has broken Disney’s hold on the UK singles chart.
His surprise song Starlight, issued to mark his UK arena tour, debuted at number one, selling 63,000 copies.
As a result, We Don’t Talk About Bruno, the smash song from Disney’s animated feature Encanto, has ended its seven-week reign. Starlight, based on the jazz standard Fly Me To The Moon, is Dave’s second number one single, following Funky Friday in 2018.
It was streamed 7.7 million times last week, according to the Official Charts Company, helping Dave record the most opening week sales of any artist this year.
We’re All Alone In This Together, the Brit and Mercury Prize winner’s second album, also rose back into the top five, reaching number five.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno falls to ninth place, owing to the rankings’ “accelerated decline” rule, which reduces older songs’ streaming counts by half in order to keep them from cluttering up the Top 40 perpetually.
The rest of the top 10 is affected by the shuffle, with Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under, Mimi Webb’s House on Fire, D-Block Europe’s Overseas, and Central Cee all moving up one spot. This week, Fender’s song reaches platinum, with 600,000 total sales.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno’s defenestration also benefits a slew of other up-and-coming blockbusters.
Anthem of the club After five weeks on the chart, MNEK and Jax Jones’ Where Did You Go enters the top ten for the first time. Anyone For You, George Ezra’s comeback hit, continues its six-week ascent to a new high of 13. And, after a quarter of a year as a mid-chart smash, Tiesto & Ava Max’s pop barnstormer The Motto reaches its highest position ever, at number 17, after a quarter of a year as a mid-chart hit.
Russ Millions, Buni, and YV are the highest climbers, leapfrogging 34 places to number 12 with their energetic posse hit Reggae & Calypso.
Camila Cabello’s Latin-flavored Bam Bam (with Ed Sheeran) debuts at 22 and becomes her 15th UK top 40 smash.
With their 25th anniversary album Oochya!, Welsh rockers Stereophonics achieve their ninth UK number one on the albums chart.
They now rank alongside Taylor Swift, Oasis, Kylie Minogue, and R.E.M. as the most successful chart acts of all time, with eight chart toppers each. The Beatles have the most (15), followed by Elvis Presley (13), and Robbie Williams (13).
Ella Henderson, whose second album Everything I Didn’t Say has been nearly eight years in the process; Bryan Adams, with his 80s throwback album So Happy It Hurts; and Franz Ferdinand, with their best-of compilation Hits To The Head, might all have new entries next week.
Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa, who collaborated on the bass-heavy pop hit Sweetest Pie, are poised to have the largest impact on the singles list.
With the catchy Ashanti collaboration Baby, Aitch has placed his eyes on the top 40, while Ms Banks might score her first UK chart success with Typa Way, a sensuous duet with Tion Wayne.