Sam Fender and Olivia Dean finally reach number one after 35 weeks
15 minutes agoPaul GlynnCulture reporter
BBC/GettySam Fender and Olivia Dean have made UK chart history after their slow-burning collaboration, Rein Me In, finally made it to number one after 35 weeks
The song – Fender’s first ever chart-topping single – finally reached the summit on Friday, breaking the record for the most consecutive weeks in the top 40 before reaching number one.
The soulful pop-rock love song has been a mainstay on the singles chart since its release last June, previously peaking at number five three times.
The previous record was held by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, which spent 19 consecutive weeks slowly charming the nation before topping the chart in 2014.
Asked about why he thought it took so long to reach the top, Fender told BBC Radio 1: “I guess it’s the internet, it travelled online and people come to it later, which is wonderful really because it’s the music that’s doing the talking.”
The new number one is a duet reworking of a track of the same name taken from Fender’s third studio album, the Mercury Prize-winning People Watching.
It features an extra verse written from a female perspective, as sung by Dean, a recent Grammy winner.
Fender noted the new version – a sort of lyrical two-way conversation about the end of a relationship – was “all the better” for having her input. “Olivia made the song her own, and it took on a life of its own after we did it together,” he said.
The pair previously gave the melancholic ballad its live debut, performing it together during Fender’s gig at the London Stadium – home of Dean’s team West Ham United.
She joined him onstage again, a week later, to sing the same song at St James’ Park – home of Fender’s beloved Newcastle United – like the home and the away leg of the same musical tie.
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Rein Me In climbed four places to reach number one, dethroning Taylor Swift’s latest single Opalite, which reached the top last week after the release of its music video.
Despite scoring three UK number one albums, Fender had never had a number one single until now, with perhaps his best known anthem, Seventeen Going Under, peaking at number three in 2021.
Dean is no stranger to the top of the charts, having reigned supreme in October with her crossover smash hit, Man I Need (which is still in fourth place on Friday’s chart).
The London-born singer also takes second place in this week’s chart, with her solo single So Easy (To Fall In Love).
Elsewhere on Friday’s singles chart, Swedish pop star Zara Larsson’s Lush Life equalled its peak chart position – third – nearly 10 years on from its original release – thanks largely to a wave of 2016 nostalgia that has been taking over social media.
And recent Super Bowl performer, Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, sits in fifth spot with DtMF.
Charli hits the heights again
ReutersMeanwhile, Charli XCX secured a hat-trick of number one albums with her official soundtrack to the Wuthering Heights movie.
The success of her soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s movie adaptation of Emily Brontë’s gothic love story follows that of her 2022 album Crash and 2024’s all-conquering party record Brat.
But it also signals a significant departure in style for the British pop star, as heard on songs such as Chains of Love and Dying For You.
The album’s lead single, House, features Welsh musician and founding member of the Velvet Underground, John Cale.
Asked how she’d found the transition from the lime-green Brat summer vibe of her Brit Award-winning album to the darker themes of this film, Charli said: “Honestly, [it was] really, really fun.”
“I always like to work in polar opposites,” she told BBC News at the recent Wuthering Heights premiere. “And so this was, honestly, a dream project to me.”
Her new number one arrived on the same day that the Brit Award winner saw the cinematic release her Aidan Zamiri-directed mockumentary, The Moment.
Charli XCX’s success on this week’s album chart prevented a double number one for Olivia Dean, whose album The Art of Loving was at the summit last week.