It seems that Lady Gaga enjoys making life unnecessarily difficult for herself.  The chart week ends at midnight on Saturday, giving the compilers time to verify everything before the charts are announced on Sunday afternoon.  (Sunday sales count towards the next week.)  So when does Lady Gaga release her new single?  Friday afternoon at two o’clock.

“Born This Way” dutifully shot to the top of the iTunes chart, which as we all know is based on a complicated formula involving very recent sales and water divination.  Would it make number one on less than a day and a half’s sales?

Well, no, of course not.  It may be the biggest new release of the week, but not by such a margin as to overturn a five day head start.  Granted, “Candle in the Wine ’97” managed it, but that was a special case.  “Born This Way” enters at number 3, but chances are it’ll climb to number 1 on Sunday.  So we’ll come back to it then.

Unexpectedly, that leaves “Price Tag” by Jessie J to spend a second week at number one.

It’s unexpected because “Price Tag” wasn’t even number one in the midweeks.  Even before Lady Gaga showed up, Jessie J was already losing to another new release – “Champion” by Chipmunk featuring Chris Brown.  As it turned out, “Champion”‘s sales were frontloaded into the start of the week, and it had slipped behind by the weekend.

This is the lead single from Chipmunk’s second album and his ninth hit to date.  The biggest was “Oopsy Daisy”, which spent a week at number 1 in 2009.  He was a teenage rapper tipped as the next big thing in 2008, who then signed to a major label and became one of the first of many artists to cross over to an unabashed mainstream pop market.  We’ve seen plenty of this over the last couple of years, but “Champion” is a particularly good example, because Chipmunk also crops up down at number 31 as one of the many guest rappers on “Pow 2011” by Lethal Bizzle & The Grime All-Stars.  It’s a remake of Lethal Bizzle’s 2005 single “Pow! (Forward)”, which reached number 11 to become one of the first grime crossover hits.  The difference between what grime used to be, and what many of its artists have ended up making, couldn’t be starker. Chipmunk’s bit starts at 1:30, if you’re wondering.

Oh yes… “Champion” also features Chris Brown, presumably in a bid for transatlantic appeal.  Actually, since he does all the choruses and one of the verses, you could argue it’s more his single than Chipmunk’s.  It’s his thirteenth UK hit, matching the number 2 peak of his debut “Run It!” (no, me neither) from 2006.  With “Yeah 3x” climbing to 6, it gives him two singles in the top 10 this week.  Truly there is nothing that a diligent PR department can’t overcome.

There are four other new entries further down the chart, none of which look to be going much further.  Number 22 is “Moment 4 Life” by Nicki Minaj featuring Drake.  It’s her third hit and sees her graduating from guest singer to lead artist.  (Her previous single “Your Love” stiffed at 71 last year.)  Drake gets his fourth hit; the last one, a guest appearance on Rihanna’s “What’s My Name?”, is still on the chart at 19.

Number 36 is “Stuttering” by Loick Essien featuring N-Dubz.  It sounds much like you’d expect from a record with “featuring N-Dubz” in the credits.  It’s not bad, actually, it just doesn’t really stand out from the pack.  First hit for Essien, whose previous single “Love Drunk” also missed the charts, and an unusually lowly twelfth appearance for N-Dubz.

Number 38 is “Feel Good”, the debut single by Modestep, who are (as the name might suggest) a dubstep act.  It’s pretty awesome, but for some reason the record company have seen fit to upload the video to YouTube with periodic “This is a UKF exclusive!” announcements every thirty seconds or so, which is… well, annoying. Not sure who thought that was a good idea. (It’s hardly going to be effective at deterring piracy.) Anyway, it’s a good enough track that they’re worth putting up with.

And number 40 is another debut hit, “Animal” by the Neon Trees.  They’re from Utah, they’ve supported the Killers on tour (and sound like it), and the single did much better in America.  It’s been out for three weeks in the UK before making it this far, so don’t hold your breath for it to match that performance.

Other climbers this week: “S&M” by Rihanna is up to 11 (and set to go further), and “What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne is up to 27.