Joseph's Hit 40

Ariana Grande was no stranger to the #1 spot in 2014, notching up three consecutive chart toppers in Problem, Break Free and Bang Bang, but she's not seen the top spot since, until this week. Side to Side is the third single from her #1 album Dangerous Woman, and it finally sees her return to the top, with a little help from Nicki Minaj, who gains her second #1 (her first being Bang Bang). Ariana's singles run has been inconsistent at times to say the least, with that run of three #1s being followed up by #40 hit Love Me Harder, but she's now achieved three out of three top 5 hits this era, plus the #6 hit Focus preceding the album campaign. Nicki is equally inconsistent, although it is much rarer for a rapper to have consistent hits in my chart. She does, however, have one of the largest tallies of chart entries out of any artist, with 19 top 40 hits to her name.

Making her chart comeback, Emeli Sandé released her brand new single Hurts last Friday, and after less than 24 hours of availability, it entered at #26 on my chart. After a full week, it soars up to #2, even contending for #1 in the early stages of the week. It instantly becomes her highest charting song to date in my chart, and her second top 5 hit. Her chart history is.... inconsistent to say the least, but that's more because my chart was a MESS in the early days of 2012.

The battle for #1 in the album chart was even closer than the songs chart. I'm sure it's no surprise that Shawn Mendes wins the battle with his second album Illuminate, which also becomes his second chart-topping album after Handwritten finally made the top spot earlier this year. AlunaGeorge however put up a good fight for the top spot (particularly as they had a full week while Shawn had less than 24 hours), as their second album I Remember drastically improves on the #15 peak of their first album Body Music. They had a greater impact on the singles chart this week, with Mean What I Mean rebounding 13 places up to #26, and I'm in Control re-entering at #37. Expect Shawn's album to impact the singles chart next week when he has a greater window of time to do so.

In terms of new entries, this week is dominated mainly by post-album singles, with Tom Odell, Fifth Harmony and Delta Goodrem all returning with new hits from their #1 albums. Tom Odell's Here I Am becomes his seventh top 10 hit, re-entering at #9 this week, and Fifth Harmony only just lose out on their sixth top 10, as That's My Girl re-enters at #11, but expect it to climb higher in the future. Delta nabs the highest new entry this week at #21, as The River begins to impact, expect this to climb too, especially with Delta having eight previous #1s!

Aside from all the above songs, also reaching new peaks this week are Smile by Daniel Skye (8-6), On Purpose by Sabrina Carpenter (21-8), Time After Time by Ben Weighill (14-10) and Beast by Tungevaag & Raaban feat. Isac Elliot (29-20). Isac aside, all of these artists achieve new career highs, as does Allie X who is new at #29 with That's So Us, her first chart entry.