Charts analysis: Ariana Grande's Petal album blooms with 48,000 week one sales

Ariana Grande’s eighth studio album, Petal, makes a convincing debut atop the chart on consumption of 47,889 units (9,954 CDs, 16,916 vinyl albums, 1,327 cassettes, 1,553 digital downloads and 18,139 sales-equivalent streams) ahead of the UK leg of her Eternal Sunshine tour. It is the sixth consecutive No.1 for the 33-year-old singer/songwriter from Florida, following Dangerous Woman (2016), Sweetener (2018), Thank U, Next (2019), Positions (2020) and Eternal Sunshine (2024). Additionally, her 2013 debut Yours Truly reached No.7 and follow-up My Everything reached No.3 in 2014. Home to Hate That I Made You Love Me – a No.1 single in June – Petal includes a dozen new Grande tracks, all written with Ilya, who also co-produced the album with her. Swedish hit machine Max Martin co-wrote and co-produced three of the tracks, namely Hate That I Made You Love Me, and the two songs that join it in the singles chart this week – Kiss Me and the title track. Petal’s first week consumption – 25.34% above its immediate predecessor, Eternal Sunshine’s 38,207 start – is the second best of Grande’s career, trailing only Thank U, Next’s 65,214 opening. The others, and their first week tallies in descending order of magnitude: Sweetener (44,755), Positions (27,472), My Everything (23,766), Dangerous Woman (19,582) and Yours Truly (7,164). Despite its slower start and lower peak, My Everything is Grande’s most-consumed album with a to-date tally of 738,847, followed by Dangerous Woman (637,697 units), Thank U, Next (614,831 units), Sweetener (505,599 units), Eternal Sunshine (407,279 units), Positions (346,216 units) and Yours Truly (198,221 units). In the Top 200 continuously since release 126 weeks ago, without ever falling below No.144, Eternal Sunshine jumps 73-49 (2,690 sales) this week, and has spent 71 weeks in the Top 75. Only Dangerous Woman (73 weeks) has had a longer Top 75 career. The only female solo artists in chart history with more No.1 albums than Grande are Taylor Swift (14), Madonna (13), Kylie Minogue (11) and Barbra Streisand (seven). Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga have also had six. Grande is the third female solo artist in as many weeks to have a No.1 debut on the album chart, following Gracie Abrams and Charli XCX. It is the first time in chart history that this has happened, although in 2024, four albums by female solo artists (Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and Gracie Abrams) debuted at No.1 in a row, albeit over a seven-week period. Twelve weeks after it debuted at No.13, Katy Perry’s career-encompassing first compilation, The Ones That Got The Plays, rebounds 11-8 (6,401 sales), to surpass its previous peak of No.9. The rest of the Top 10: The Essential (2-2, 13,479 sales) by Michael Jackson, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love (3-3, 12,722 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, The Art Of Loving (5-4, 8,819 sales) by Olivia Dean, Visitor (6-5, 7,598 sales) by Sienna Spiro, 50 Years: Don’t Stop (9-6, 7,493 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, The Highlights (10-7, 6,584 sales) by The Weeknd, +-=÷× Tour Collection (13-9, 6,239 sales) by Ed Sheeran and The Great Divide (12-10, 6,147 sales) by Noah Kahan. No.1 on debut last week, Music, Fashion, Film tumbles to No.23 (3,907 sales) for Charli XCX. Also exiting the Top 10, Reality Awaits (8-144, 1,462 sales) by The Strokes, and Top 200 departees Eyes Open (1,166 sales) by Snow Patrol and Little Miss Twain (604 sales) by Shania Twain, number four and seven, respectively, a week ago. Comprising five tracks with a playing time of just under 16 minutes, Olivia Dean’s pre-fame EP Growth is five years old, and to mark the occasion was released physically for the first time last week, on 10-inch vinyl. Said format accounts for 2,543 of the 2,987 units that earn the set a No.42 debut on the album chart, where it becomes Dean’s third entry. More than 46 years after they released their debut album on the iconic Factory Records label, legendary Manchester post-punk band Durutti Column make their very first chart appearance, debuting at No.54 (2,644 sales) with Renascent. It is the first studio album in 15 years by the band, who comprise charismatic leader, guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, who just turned 73; 86-year-old drummer Bruce Mitchell; and bass guitarist and producer Keir Stewart, of indeterminate age, who has worked with Reilly and Mitchell for nearly 30 years. Country star Luke Combs’ short UK tour – two dates at Murrayfield in Edinburgh and three at London’s Wembley Stadium – is over, but his albums continue to climb. His latest (sixth) album The Way I Am climbs for the sixth week in a row, moving 31-15 (4,305 sales) to achieve its highest placing since it debuted at No.4 in March; 2017 debut This One’s For You, which made its very first Top 75 appearance last week, climbs 47-32 (3,298 sales); and second album, What You See Is What You Get – No.27 on debut in 2019 – secures only its second week in the Top 75, climbing 81-62 (2,433 sales). No.11 when first released in 2024, Calvin Harris’ studio/compilation hybrid 96 Months bounds 41-24 (3,860 sales), to achieve its highest position for 64 weeks, following the screening of his two-hour set for Radio 1’s Dance Weekend at Glasgow’s Hampden Park, aired on BBC1 last Saturday (August 1). His 2012 studio album, 18 Months, charges 91-52 (2,648 sales), coming to rest at its highest position for 601 weeks – more than 11 years. Despite recording the lowest ever first full week sale for a regular Now! That’s What I Call Music album, with an opening tally of 5,954 units (5,516 CDs, 438 digital downloads), Now! 124 debuts atop the compilation chart. It replaces the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack (1-2, 3,645 sales), which was No.1 for 52 of its previous 58 weeks on the chart, including the last nine consecutively. Overall album sales are down 0.04% week-on-week to 2,426,938 units, 1.48% above same week 2025 sales of 2,391,581. Physical product accounts for 286,551 sales, 11.81% of the total.

Charts analysis: An incredible record-breaking result for Rein Me In on the singles chart

More than 35,000 records have made the singles chart since its 1952 inception, of which in excess of 1,400 have reached No.1 but none has managed to spend more than 18 weeks at the apex – until now. Sam Fender & Olivia Dean’s blockbusting duet Rein Me In is the one to break the mould, racking up an incredible 19th week at the summit, to take the all-time record, toppling Frankie Laine’s I Believe, which has held it for nearly 73 years, after racking up 18 weeks at No.1 in 1953 before the chart was even a year old. Laine’s leviathan resisted previous challenges from the like of (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, No.1 for Bryan Adams for 16 weeks in 1991; and Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet, which endured for 15 weeks in 1994, but is finally relegated to second place by Rein Me In. Trailing the official World Cup anthem Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy on sales flashes for much of the week, Rein Me In emerged triumphant after a short, sharp and successful social media campaign for fans to download the track on Thursday (30 July) boosted its digital sales from 562 to that point, to 3,865 just 24 hours later. The incentives to do so before the chart deadline, at a 59p price point, included prizes of Official Charts Fan Awards and T-Shirts with, appropriately, 19 of each available. On the sixth week of its fourth run at No.1, its 31st consecutive week in the Top 10, and 58th straight week in the Top 40, Rein Me In achieved overall consumption of 44,474 units (one 7-inch sale and 40,608 sales-equivalent streams complete its profile) – an increase of 2.36%, week-on-week. Within that, digital downloads increased 535.69% week-on-week to their highest ever level, while sales-equivalent streams ebbed 5.21%. The campaign was crucial in fighting off Dai Dai, which ended up just 2,404 units in arrears, its consumption rising 10.20% week-on-week to 42,070 units on its second week as runner-up. Now in pursuit of a 20th week at No.1, Rein Me In actually saw its streaming decline for the second week in a row, and will fall into ACR if it returns negative streaming next week – an event which would surely end any chance of it adding further to its chart-topping exploits. Choosin’ Texas (5-3, 26,519 sales) climbs to a new peak for Ella Langley, while Movin’ To The Sun shines ever brighter for Hugel, Imael Angel & Ultra Naté. Surging 11-7 (23,284 sales) it is the third Top 10 entry for Ultra Naté, some 28 years after her second, and the first for the others. Hugel also has a fast-rising second hit in the form of Jamaican (Bam Bam), his collaboration with fellow French DJ Solto, which jumps 67-45 (8,971 sales). The rest of the Top 10: Stupid Song (4-4, 26,352 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, Talk To You (3-5, 24,944 sales) by ANOTR & 54 Ultra, Free Your Mind (6-6, 23,325 sales) by Prospa & Cloonee, The Cure (9-8, 20,660 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, Hate That I Made You Love Me (7-9, 20,353 sales) by Ariana Grande, and Man I Need (12-10, 19,434 sales) by Olivia Dean. It is the 50th consecutive week that Man I Need has spent in the Top 40 – its entire career since it debuted at No.8 last August. Aside from the week after Christmas, when it dipped to No.35 under pressure from seasonal evergreens, it has actually never been lower than No.17, even though it has been on ACR for most of its chart career. It is a strangely contradictory week for the track, which returns to the Top 10 after an absence of 12 weeks but with its lowest unadjusted (38,584 units) consumption since its debut tally of 28,140 units. Although No.1 for only one week, Man I Need remains Dean’s most-consumed track with a to-date tally of 2,644,060 units – over half a million more than Rein Me In (2,129,149 units). I Knew It, I Knew You (10-11, 19,265 sales) by Taylor Swift and Wonderwall (8-12, 18,874 sales) by Oasis exit the Top 10. Global girl group sextet Katseye have the highest of seven debuts on the Top 75 this week, scoring their sixth chart entry and second Top 20 hit with Animal (No.16, 16,727 sales). The song was written by Israeli Omer Fedi, American Blake Slatkin and our own Johnny McDaid (Snow Patrol) and Ed Sheeran. Although absent from the chart as an artist, Sheeran also co-wrote the No.2, Dai Dai, with a different set of writers. As for Slatkin, he also co-wrote another of this week’s new entries, Ain’t In LA (No.59, 8,023 sales), the first hit for Adéla – 22-year-old Slovakian singer Adéla Jergová, who was also among the latter track’s five writers. Charli XCX’s new No.1 album, Lights, Camera, Action spawns her 41st Top 75 and 27th Top 40 hit, Camera, which debuts at No.22 (12,058 sales). It is the fourth and biggest hit from the album, surpassing Rock Music (No.36), SS26 (No.43) and Wink Wink (No.57). Been By Now (No.53, 8,310 sales), is a new standalone single, and the 11th hit for country singer Morgan Wallen. Good Girl (No.61, 7,960 sales) is the second collaborative hit between Prospa & Cloonee following current Top 10 smash Free Your Mind. It is the third hit in total for Leeds electronic artists and DJs Prospa (Harvey Blumler and Guiorgi Smith), the second for UK-born, US-based DJ Cloonee (Dave Bissett), and the first for featured vocalist Tristan Henry, also UK-born but with an American accent as a legacy of living there for much of his childhood. German DJ Kolter – Johannes Kolter from Cologne – has had nearly 40 tracks released in the UK without breaching the Top 75 – but breaks his duck this week. Increasing consumption for the 16th week since its release in April, Trapped (80-69, 7,503 sales) makes the grade, while another Kolter track – Hey Everybody (Back In The Dance) – falls just shy, debuting at No.77 (7,001 sales) after a shorter, two-week gestation. The former is a Kolter original, the latter a re-titled cover of Jazzy Dee’s 1983 No.53 hit, Get On Up. Released more than a year ago, Edge Of Desire (77-71, 7,249 sales) has been in the 76-100 region of the chart for 11 of the last 13 weeks, and finally makes its Top 75 debut for Jonas Blue & Malive. Blue’s 12th hit, and first since 2021, it is the first for his Brazilian foil, Malive. There are new peaks for concurrent Sienna Spiro Top 20 hits Material Lover (14-13, 18,199 sales) and Great Expectation (19-15, 17,784 sales) plus Boston (15-14, 17,919 sales) by Stella Lefty, Bloodstream (23-20, 13,632 sales) by Alyssa Grace, Self Aware (29-27, 11,225 sales) by Temper City, Orbiter (40-36, 9,689 sales) by Noah Kahan, Sue Me (49-40, 9,511 sales) by Audrey Hobert and Kingdom Of Fear (57-54, 8,210 sales) by Cameron Whitcomb. Its chart career re-ignited by its prominence in Netflix streaming hit Voicemails From Isabelle, Robyn’s 2010 No.8 hit Dancing On My Own is back in the Top 40 for the first time since, rising 46-35 (9,824 sales). Overall singles consumption is up 0.15% week-on-week to 30,860,674 units, 2.82% above same week 2025 sales of 30,013,503 units. Paid-for sales are up 7.20% week-on-week at 269,700, 7.88% below same week 2025 sales of 292,757.

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