Roxy & Ronnie lead an unchanged Top 3

Roxy Ro and Ronnie Flex continue to dominate the Dutch singer with their pop house song “Gaan We Weg”. A big national hit; it recently topped the official Dutch Top 40 and is a streaming juggernaut on Spotify. On my personal list, “Gaan We Weg” earned the young Roxy Dekker her fourth consecutive Top 10-hit and her second Number 1, while rapper veteran Ronnie Flex collected his eighth Number 1, tying him with Calvin Harris and Robbie Williams as the male artist with the most chart-toppers of all time. Closely behind the Dutch duo is JADE, who stays in second place with her first post-Little Mix single “Angel of My Dreams”. She currently is the only Little Mix alumna without a solo chart-topper. If she were to overtake Roxy Dekker and Ronnie Flex next week, Little Mix will be the first girl group from which every member also scored a solo Number 1.

Earlier this year, Billie Eilish released her third album Hit Me Hard and Soft. It was met with universal acclaim from fans and critics, while spawning the Top 20-hit “Lunch” on my list. Reviewing Billie her discography so far, she has scored some big hits amidst minor Top 40-entries. Obvious highlights are the breakout “When the Party’s Over” – her longest-running chart entry yet – and the Number 1 “Bad Guy”. Last year, her Barbie release “What Was I Made For?” earned Billie her second chart-topper to date. She now adds her seventh Top 10-hit to her resumé with “Birds of a Feather”, which shoots up a whopping twenty-eight places to #10. Its performance is boosted by a big online presence and streams on Spotify, having topped the Global Top 50.

It's a never-ending Brat summer it seems. Charli XCX has broken the internet with her acclaimed sixth studio album, the album even being used to promote Kamala Harris’s official presidential campaign. It also spawned a string of new hits for the British singer, reviving her career to completely new heights. “360” comfortably sits in the Top 10 – #8 this week – while her much-talked-about remix with Lorde debuted atop my chart and earned Charli XCX her second ever Number 1. Brat lines up its next smash hit as “Apple” earns the highest new entry of the week at #18. An undeniable earworm, a viral dance helped it break out into the mainstream. It helps earn Charli her twenty-fourth Top 40-hit on this chart, the fourth off of Brat. It ranks as Charli her second best debut yet, only behind “Good Ones” its debut position #16 back in 2021.

Closely behind, Halsey makes a big comeback to my chart with “Lucky”. The American singer rose to prominence in 2016 as a feature on The Chainsmokers’ Number 1 “Closer”, before scoring a string of Top 40-hits on her own. A career highlight is 2018’s “Without Me”, which went straight to Number 1. Her latest album, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, explored a darker sound and failed to spawn a significant hit, although she did have a Top 5-feature on Calvin Harris’s “Stay With Me”. Halsey now returns with “Lucky”, which explores her complicated relationship with the industry and prominently samples Britney Spears’s 2000-hit of the same name, which peaked at #4. Halsey now returns, scoring her sixteenth Top 40-entry to date.

Chappel Roan continues her chart take-over with “Red Wine Supernova”, which debuts at #26. It was the eighth single from Roan's debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Following her breakout with “Good Luck, Babe!” – a Number 1 on my chart – her previous singles have revived, most notably “Hot To Go”. The 2023 single now becomes her third Top 40-entry so far. Fresh off her debut album Y2K, Ice Spice bags her sixth Top 40-entry with “Did It First”. She links up with Central Cee; big-name London-rapper who had a UK Number 1 with “Sprinter”. Finally, Taylor Swift rounds out the new entries with “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” at #38. It’s second song off The Tortured Poets Department and its many, many versions to chart. The lead single “Fortnight” with Post Malone underperformed by Swift’s standards, peaking at a low #30 amidst The Eras Tour.

After being featured as the opening song in Deadpool VS. Wolverine, *NSYNC their 2000-hit “Bye, Bye, Bye” is resurging on the charts, re-entering the Spotify charts across the globe. As the song now classifies a soundtrack hit – it could even re-enter my list soon – and many new soundtracks spawned new hits last year, it is time to rank the biggest soundtrack songs of all time. Céline Dion comes out at #1 with “My Heart Will Go On”, the Number 1-smash from Titanic in 1998. An undeniable hit, it has become Céline her signature song, ranking quadruple-platinum. In second place, since this year, ranks Sophie Ellis-Bextor with “Murder on the Dancefloor”. The nu-disco anthem was included in Saltburn early this year and went viral on TikTok, leading it to re-enter my personal list, reaching #3. Tallying up its original chart run in the early Noughties, it comes out as the second biggest soundtrack hit of all time. Ellie Goulding ranks third with her Fifty Shades-song “Love Me Like You Do”, while Geri’s big solo hit “It’s Raining Men” for Bridget Jones ranks fourth. New in fifth place is Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten”, which ranks as a soundtrack hit since it was included on Anyone But You this year, after which it also went viral again. *NSYNC’s pre-mentioned “Bye, Bye, Bye” ranks eighth so far. Adele claims the biggest Bond soundtrack hit with “Skyfall”, the ninth biggest of all time.

Newly certified

“360” – Charli XCX GOLD

“Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter 3 X PLATINUM

Biggest soundtrack hits of all time

1. “My Heart Will Go On” – Céline Dion [Titanic]

2. “Murder On the Dancefloor” – Sophie Ellis-Baxtor [Saltburn]

3. “Love Me Like You Do” – Ellie Goulding [Fifty Shades of Grey]

4. “It’s Raining Men” – Geri Halliwell [Bridget Jones’s Diary]

5. “Unwritten” – Natasha Bedingfield [Anyone But You]

6. “Dance The Night” – Dua Lipa [Barbie]

7. “Men In Black” – Will Smith [Men In Black]

8. “Bye, Bye, Bye” – NSYNC [Deadpool vs. Wolverine]

9. “Skyfall” – Adele [Skyfall]

10. “Kiss from a Rose” – Seal [Batman Forever]