Evidently the Brit Awards do still move the needle. But first…

1. Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em”

That’s three weeks at number one. She’s never actually had a longer run at number one, whether as a solo artist or with Destiny’s Child – currently, this is tied with “Crazy in Love” and “Beautiful Liar”.

13. Raye featuring 070 Shake – “Escapism”
38. Raye – “Worth It”

Raye won six awards at the Brit Awards last week, which is getting into “why did anyone else bother showing up” territory. And it does result in a surge for her music. “Escapism”, her number one from 2022, re-enters at 13. “Prada”, which was still hanging around in the low 20s, rebounds to number 18 – it’s not exactly a Raye song, but she did include it in a medley at the Brit awards show.

Oddly, the third track to benefit is “Worth It”, a track from her album which was released as a single back in November to promote an upcoming live orchestral album. It didn’t chart at the time, but now scrapes the bottom end of the chart.

Her album, “My 21st Century Blues”, re-enters at number 5; it originally reached number 2 last February.

26. Charli XCX – “Von dutch”

The lead single from her upcoming sixth album. Charli XCX remains in the odd limbo of being more a cult act than a true pop star, but placing mid-table hits – and the occasional actual top ten hit – often enough to not quite fall into either camp. She’s been doing it for over a decade by this point, something that not many people can claim.

I’ve seen people assuming that the track is sampling Bodyrox’s “Yeah Yeah”, a number 2 hit in 2006. Apparently, it’s not, it’s just the same synth sound doing something rather similar with pitch bending. Unfortunately, once someone points out the similarity to you, it’s hard to get away from the fact that the Bodyrox track is much better.

34. Twenty One Pilots – “Overcompensate” 

The lead single from their new album, and that doesn’t sound like what I was expecting at all. Well, not for the first couple of minutes, anyway. Twenty One Pilots haven’t had a top 40 hit single since 2016, when “Stressed” got to 12 and “Heathens” made number 6.

This week’s climbers are quite plentiful. I don’t normally bother with records making rebounds on their way out of the chart, but there are a couple here making significant moves.

• “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone returns to number 2, which it first reached a fortnight ago.
• “End of Beginning” by Djo climbs 5-4.
• “Carnival” by Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign climbs 9-5. Okay, this is an actual hit. Kanye West hasn’t had a top 5 hit since 2018 (when the dreadful “I Love It” made number 3).
• “Alibi” by Ella Henderson featuring Rudimental climbs 11-10.
• “Whatever” by Kygo & Ava Max climbs 17-15.
• “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi climbs 22-16 to enter the top 20 in its sixth week on the top 40.
• “Prada” by cässo x Raye x D-Block Europe rebounds 27-18.
• “Whatever She Wants” by Bryson Tiller climbs 31-20.
• “Greedy” by Tate McRae rebounds from 32-22 for reasons that aren’t immediately obvious.
• “Never Be Alone” by Becky Hill & Sonny Fodera, which re-entered at 35 last week, rebounds to 23.
• “Kitchen Stove” by Pozer climbs 29-28.
• “Grey” by Yung Filly climbs 33-31.
• “Made for Me” by Muni Long climbs 37-36 in its second week.
• “Birds in the Sky” by NewEra likewise climbs a single place in week two, to the dizzy heights of number 39.

The four records leaving this week’s top 40:

• “Houdini” by Dua Lipa, which reached number 2 on release in November and has been around ever since, bar a week at the height of Christmas.
• “Leavemealone” by Fred again.. & Baby Keem, which peaked at 11 and had a total of 11 weeks in the top 40.
• “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli, which peaked at number 15 and had seven weeks.
• “Selfish” by Justin Timberlake, which re-entered at 39 last week.

The longest-running track in the top 40 is still “Greedy” by Tate McRae, which has been in the top 40 since late September without interruption.

On the album chart:

1. Liam Gallagher & John Squire – “Liam Gallagher & John Squire”

The single “Just Another Rainbow” reached number 16. Liam Gallagher has had five previous solo number 1 albums. John Squire hasn’t had a solo number 1 album before – he did got to number 17 in 2002.

3. Bruce Dickinson – “The Mandrake Project”

His seventh solo album, coming nearly twenty years after the last one. None of the others got above number 14, but this is more in line with typical chart positions for his band Iron Maiden.

4. Yard Act – “Where’s My Utopia”

Their second album; the first one got to number 2 two years ago.

6. The Kaiser Chiefs – “Easy Eighth Album”

It is indeed their eighth album. It’s their lowest position since 2011, but they’ve still yet to miss the top 10.

9. Everything Everything – “Mountainhead”

Their seventh album. It’s their lowest position since their debut in 2010, but it’s still a sixth straight top ten album.

10. Skrapz – “Reflection”

This guy’s been around a while, without making much impact on the charts – his 2017 album “Different Cloth” got to number 33, but the follow-up missed the top 50.

26. Jacob Collier – “Djesse – vol 4”

His fifth album; the previous three are volumes 1 to 3, and apparently this is the last one. It’s the first time he’s charted.