This is the annual chart that follows on the Brit Awards, hence a bunch of odd re-entries.  The awards themselves seem to have some short-term sales effect, and the primetime TV coverage is always good for shifting a few downloads to people who aren’t regular audience members.  Without the Brits this would be another rather quiet chart.

40.  Ed Sheeran – “Don’t”
38.  Ed Sheeran – “Sing”
35.  Ed Sheeran – “Bloodstream”
12.  Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”

Yes, this week’s chart is 10% Ed Sheeran, after he won Best Male Artist and Best British Album.  “Don’t” and “Sing” are re-entries; “Thinking Out Loud” is on its way down the chart after its stint at number 1 last year.  “Bloodstream” is the odd one out; it’s the track he actually performed on the show, because it’s going to be his next single.  It’s been available since the album “X” came out last year, but the version for single release is a remix by Rudimental.  What’s actually charting at this stage is the album track, so it’ll climb in due course.

33.  George Ezra – “Blame It On Me”
18.  George Ezra – “Budapest”

He didn’t actually win anything but a performance of “Budapest” gets it to rebound 12 places, and “Blame It On Me” re-enters.  Both have been top ten hits before.

32.  Paloma Faith – “Only Love Can Hurt Like This”

Performed on the awards show, and instantly rebounding from outside the top 100.

26.  Madonna – “Living For Love”

Performed on the show, and boy, there are less painful ways of getting press coverage.  Madonna isn’t the force on the singles chart that she once was – this is her biggest hit since “Celebration” got to number 3 in 2009.  It’s a Diplo collaboration, not that you’d know to hear it.  The midweeks have it dropping to 38, so it’s going no further, at least for now.  There is an actual video for it (which the Brit Awards performance loosely tries to re-create).

24.  Disciples – “They Don’t Know”

Well, that’s a bleak video for a dance record, but that’s what you tend to get with Luke Jacobs.  He also brought you Rudimental’s “Not Giving In” and Chase & Status’s “Alive”.  Basically a director of choice for dance acts wanting random depth to go with their records.  Disciples are a trio of producers from London, making their chart debut.  While that vocal loop sounds like it ought to be a sample, it’s actually one of the group.

22.  Axwell & Ingrosso – “Something New”

Yes, I know it’s officially styled as “Axwell /\ Ingrosso”, but come on.  This is two thirds of the Swedish House Mafia, if you didn’t know.  A genuinely odd video, dropping out enough of the song with sound effects to make it more of an advert for the track than a conventional video.  It’s a non-mover on the midweeks, which makes this a bit of an underachiever compared to SHM.  Strangely, I can’t seem to find any details of who the singer is.

15.  Sam Smith – “Lay Me Down”

The song he did on the Brit Awards.  He also won Best British Breakthrough Artist, which is what they give you when you aren’t Ed Sheeran.  This was his first solo single back in 2013, when it failed to chart; it’s getting a re-release (or, more realistically, re-promotion) now, in order to keep the album promotion ticking over.  The midweeks have it going no further, but he has had five singles from this album by this point.

7.  Kelly Clarkson – “Heartbeat Song”

Highest new entry, but more by default than anything else.  It’s a bit over-polished, isn’t it?  There’s quite a catchy chorus in there somewhere, but it’s all very polite.  It is, nonetheless, her biggest UK hit since “Mr Know-It-All” four years ago.

It’s the lead single from Clarkson’s final album under her current deal, and she’s already working on a country album, all of which makes it sound a tad contractual-obligation.

6.  David Guetta featuring Emeli Sande – “What I Did For Love”

Climbing 14 places, to a more plausible position for the people involved.  It doesn’t seem to be sticking around.  Still, there’s an actual video now – even if it’s only marginally more elaborate than a lot of lyric videos these days.

1.  Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do” 

Four weeks, topping an entirely static top five.  That’s now her longest-running number 1 – “Burn” managed 3 weeks.  She’ll be gone next week, as we look to be finally returning to a more typical release schedule.

Over on the album chart, the addition of streaming data does not result in any obvious shake-up, though the rebounding of various Brits-associated albums obscures matters a bit.  The number one would have been the same with or without streaming (and indeed on streaming alone).

• “In the Lonely Hour” by Sam Smith is at 1, presumably because everyone’s already got the Ed Sheeran album.
• “Royal Blood” by Royal Blood rebounds to 3, because they were on the show too.
• “Physical Graffiti” by Led Zeppelin at 6.  40th anniversary re-mastered version.  Single: “Trampled Under Foot”.  (And yes, apparently the BBC really did regard this as appropriate visual filler when playing the track on BBC2.)
• “Fan of a Fan: The Album” by Chris Brown & Tyga at 7.  Nice of them to spell out that it’s an album.  Perhaps they think some of their fans might be unsure.  The single “Ayo” is at 10.
• “The Race for Space” by Public Service Broadcasting at 11.  The “archive samples” gimmick of PSB is often rather more compelling than the actual music, but the last album got to 21, so they’re making headway.  Single: “Gagarin”.
• “The Killer Instinct” by Black Star Riders at 13.  This is the name used by the current touring line-up of Thin Lizzy for their new material (in deference to the death of Phil Lynott in 1986).  This is their second album under that name, and the first got to 25.  Single: “Finest Hour”.
• “Dark Sky Paradise” by Big Sean at 23.  His first top 40 album in the UK, rather surprisingly.  It’s his third album.  Single: “Dark Sky (Skyscraper)”.
• “Return to Forever” by the Scorpions at 31.  Another symptom of the decline of the album chart, frankly – the Scorpions haven’t had a top 40 album in the UK since 1990, despite continuing releases, but older buyers are more loyal to the album format.  The album is basically an exercise in polishing up unfinished rejected songs from the Scorpions’ heyday.