Olivia Dean opens 2026 at Number 1, while Lily Allen is back in the Top 10

After an insanely successful breakthrough, winning my personal Christmas Number 1-hit of 2025 and claiming “Man I Need” as the best-scoring song of the year, Olivia Dean continues her winning streak and opens 2026 at Number 1. “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” has now held at Number 1 for six weeks. In 2023, Olivia Dean her European festival appearances garnered critical acclaim and listed her as “the one to watch”. Her debut album helped her become BBC’s Artist of the Year and play Glastonbury. In 2025, she debuted at Number 1 with “Rein Me In” featuring Sam Fender and made “Man I Need” a 9-week Number 1 throughout the summer and autumn. If her sophomore album The Art of Loving will produce more singles, and perhaps be supported by a concert tour, Olivia Dean could easily become a leading force in music in 2026.

The Christmas seasons are retreating as the season has ended. Chris Rea and Sabrina Carpenter hold in the Top 20 for one more week, while most other songs plummet down or exit the Top 40 altogether. It paves the way for new songs to soar – as does “Run Your Mouth” by The Marías. The Marías is an American indie pop band from Los Angeles, who released two albums already, including Submarine. It was a major success in the United States and earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in 2026. “Run Your Mouth” has been a small charting hit on my list for a few weeks now, stalling at #11 for four weeks. It also placed on the year-end ranking of 2025. This week, The Marías soar up seventeen places to #8, earning the LA-band their very first Top 10-hit. “Run Your Mouth” definitely qualifies as a sleeper hit, as it was originally released in the spring of last year. Oddly, the song’s follow-up single, “No One Noticed”, was a big US-hit and even made the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Perhaps it’ll be The Marías next hit on here?

At the end of last year, Lily Allen made her long awaited return to the pop industry with the tell-all hit song “Pussy Palace”. It is taken from her fifth studio album West End Girl, which came at the end of a seven-year hiatus and delves deep into the undoing of Allen her marriage to actor David Harbour and his alleged infidelity. She very precisely and very publicly airs all their dirty laundry, even directly naming the woman that Harbour allegedly had an affair with. Highlight “Pussy Palace” even goes as far to detail Harbour his sex obsessions and fetishes – there’s no coming back from that. Lily Allen has always been a tell-all sort of singer, with even her earliest hits not being afraid to say what’s on her mind of who’s crossed her. And hits, she has! Her debut “Smile” was a knock-out Number 1-song. More hit singles followed, including a Mark Ronson-cross over with “Oh My God”. Her sophomore album spawned the Number 1-singles “The Fear” and “Not Fair” and made Lily Allen one of the most successful British female solo artists of all time. In 2013, she made it to the top one more time with the in-your-face “Hard Out Here” and successfully covered Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”. She’s now back in the Top 10 for the first time twelve years.

Many songs return to the Top 40 as the Christmas song leave. ROLE MODEL tries again with “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” with a brand-new peak at #23. Zeeland-based rock-pop groups BLØF and Racoon return with their team up “Glas” at #26. Tame Impala returns with the Halloween-infused hit “Dracula” to extend the single its already successful chart run. Further down, Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter re-enter with their respective Top 10-hits, “The Dead Dance” and “Tears”. Crazily enough, Zara Larsson re-enters my personal Top 40 with the 2015 breakout hit “Lush Life” at #19. The single has resurged thanks to a viral moment at Zara Larsson her concert in Amsterdam during which Dutch fan Julia joined Zara onstage to dance to the fantastic song. “Lush Life” was the kickstart of Zara’s big international career – it peaked at Number 1 on my personal chart and became the first of ten Top 10-hits. Internationally, it exposed Europe to the Swede pop princesses’ discography and paved the way for more cross-over hits. “Lush Life” is now set to also become a hit in the United States, nearly ten years after the fact.

Dave sprints back into the Top 40 for the first time since 2023’s successful “Sprinter”, earning him his fourth Top 40-hit to date with “Raindance” featuring Tems. DJ HAVEN. debuts at #38 with the new song “I Run” featuring Kaitlin Aragon.