Adele battles herself for Number 1 following the release of the highly anticipated 30

Adele absolutely crushes her competition with the release of her highly anticipated fourth studio album 30. The album has logged over an impressive 159 combined streams in its debut week, claiming the biggest opening week of 2021. The title was previously held by Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, which earned 124 combined streams in its opening week. The lead single “Easy on Me” claims the top position for a sixth consecutive week, although it was nearly overtaking by album track “Oh My God”, which settles for a Number 2-debut instead. It marks the second time this year an act holds the top two positions; the first being Olivia Rodrigo whom achieved this feat on June 4th with “good 4 u” and “déjà vu” in first and second place, respectively. Additionally, “Oh My God” is one of the highest-opening songs of all time this year and the highest-peaking non-single of all time, considering no other non-single peaked inside the Top 5 before. If the album track were to take lead single “Easy on Me” next week, it would become Adele her tenth chart-topper on my personal chart.

While Adele is busy battling herself for Number 1, Kylie Minogue and Years & Years soar into the Top 5 with the exhilarating “A Second to Midnight”. It marks front man Olly Alexander his highest-peaking single since “King”, which reached Number 1 back in 2015. Dutch duo Suzan & Freek rise to sixth place with their sensitive ballad “Dromen In Kleur”, which is taken from their second studio album of the same name. 30 its album track “I Drink Wine” nearly scratches the Top 10, aided by impressive opening streaming figures, but debuts at Number 11 this week instead. It is blocked by Joel Corry and Mabel’s “I Wish”. If the soulful “I Drink Wine” were to move into the Top 10 next week, the album song would become Adele her sixteenth Top 10-hit on my personal chart.

Despite Adele taking the two top new entries this week with “Oh My God” and “I Drink Wine”, Dutch indie-singer and chart newcomer Meau is able to put up a good fight and enters the chart new at Number 18 with “Dat Heb Jij Gedaan”. The singer-songwriter has been putting out indie music for some time now and has been slowly building a solid fanbase for herself. Her music is similar to Eefje de Visser or Holly Humberstone. Following her steady rise to critical success, her newest single “Dat Heb Jij Gedaan” was quickly picked up by popular radio stations, which resulted in growing streaming numbers. She recently broke the Top 5 on the Dutch Spotify Top 50 and scored her first Top 40-hit in the national hit parade. Aided by growing personal streams and strong playlisting, Meau shoots up my own chart, finishing strongly at Number 18 amidst the Adele-takeover.

Further down, Anne-Marie and Niall Horan debut at Number 32 with their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s 1987-hit “Everywhere” especially for BBC Children in Need. They previously worked together on “Our Song” taken from Anne-Marie second album, which became a minor success and peaked at Number 13. Dutch DJ Tiësto and “Sweet but Psycho”-singer Ava Max debut at Number 38 with their newest collaboration “The Motto”. The song is widely popular on Dutch radio stations and is slowly climbing the official national charts.

To celebrate the return of Adele and “Easy on Me” its historic debut at Number 1, I have decided to take a closer look at Adele her chart history on my personal list. Since debuting in 2008 with the sleeper hit “Chasing Pavements”, the British singer has been a chart sensation, scoring back-to-back hits with ease. With her sophomore album 21, Adele claimed three Number 1-singles, which were all certified triple-platinum or higher, making it one of the most-successful albums of all time. In 2012, Adele topped the charts with “Skyfall”, the official theme song to the James Bond film of the same name. After a small hiatus between 2012 and 2015, Adele gloriously returned to the top of the list with “Hello”, the lead single of her multi-platinum album 25. It became her longest-running Number 1-single to date, having spent nine weeks atop the chart. Follow-ups, including “When We Were Young”, all peaked inside the Top 3. In total, Adele scored fifteen Top 40-hits, of which thirteen peaked inside the Top 3, an impressive feat not matched by many other artists. Her best-scoring record to date remains “Rolling in the Deep”, which spent six weeks atop the chart and an impressive thirty-eight weeks inside the Top 40. For a full overview of Adele her impressive legacy, check the ranking below this chart.