The official Top 40 greatest songs of 2021

The UK’s biggest official song in 2021 was Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

The British superstar’s return single, taken from the chart-topping album =, increased the charts to more than 1.7 million in 2021, comprising 204 million streams and 142,000 sales. Bad Habits was the longest-serving number 1 of the year, spending a total of 11 weeks atop the official singles rankings. It was Ed’s tenth number 1 and the first of four chart tops for the singer-songwriter in 2021. See Ed Sheeran’s full chart history.

Ed’s gigantic streaming figures also reflect a shift in the way UK audiences consume music; with new BPI analysis of Official Charts Company data showing recorded music consumption increased 2.5% in 2021, topping over 147 billion streams, a 5.7% increase from 2020 .

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Streaming now accounts for well over four-fifths (83.1%) of all music consumption in the UK, with people of all ages discovering and enjoying the music they love through the format’s seamless connectivity. In June 2021, the UK experienced its first week when audio streams passed the 3 billion mark – a feat since repeated three times in December.

180 artists have streamed over 100 million UK streams in the past 12 months, and nearly 2,000 artists have seen their songs streamed at least 10 million times. Graphically – typically, a track needs to hit over 1.4 million audio streams in a single week to enter the Top 40 on the official singles charts.

At number 2 sits Olivia Rodrigo with her bratty breakup anthem Good 4 U, with 1.39 million chart sales including 167 million streams since its release in May. Olivia also sits third on our year-end list with her debut single Drivers License, which has been streamed nearly 156 million times. The driver’s license set a new chart record when it was released in January, claiming the highest number of UK streams in a single day for a song other than Christmas. The track accumulated 2.407m streams in 24 hours on Tuesday, January 12.

Double graphic! Olivia Rodrigo pictured with her number 1 awards for Good 4 U and Sour.

Good 4 U and Drivers License are both taken from Olivia’s debut album, Sour. Olivia rewrote the chart history earlier this year when she became the youngest solo artist in history to win the official double of the UK charts, at the age of 18 years and 3 months. Find out where all of Olivia Rodrigo’s singles are located in the UK.

Olivia is also linked with Ed for the most entries in Biggest Songs of 2021; both winning three. Olivia has another entry on the charts with the melancholy Deja Vu at number 32, while Ed’s record-breaking Shivers is at number 15 and 2017’s single Perfect at number 35.

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Other acts with multiple Top 40 entries include The Weeknd with Save Your Tears (4) and Blinding Lights (9), Dua Lipa’s Levitating (6) and Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) with Elton John (21) and Lil Nas X with the scorching Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (5) and Industry Baby (32) and Joel Corry with last year’s Head & Heart with MNEK (17) and Bed with Raye (18).

The best-selling singles in 2021

Adele not only managed to land the UK’s best album of 2021, but she also left a dramatic impact on the singles front – walking away with the biggest opening week of the year after Easy’s debut. On Me on the official singles chart with over 217,000 chart sales. his first seven days.

LadBaby, Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s Christmas 2021 No.1 also delivered the goods at lightning speed exactly when it mattered, Sausage Rolls For Everyone marked the second biggest opening week of 2021 in December with 136 000 units – it’s the second most downloaded song of the year too.

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While Oxfordshire group Glass Animals enjoyed chart success with the viral hit Heatwave this year (8), Tion Wayne and Russ Millions put the UK exercise on the map in April when Body became the first track exercise to reach number 1. Body also wins a Top 10 ranking in the year-end table (10).

Tion Wayne and Russ Millions Celebrate UK’s First Year # 1 Exercise – Body.

Viral TikTok star Nathan Evans sailed the Wellerman slum to Number 1 in March before docking as one of the UK’s top tracks in 2021 (11). It’s been a good year as well for Australian rapper Kid Laroi who broke through with two Top 10 singles, both of which are in the year-end Top 20 – Stay (7) and Without You (19).

DJ Jonasu’s summer track Black Magic takes a spot at number 22, and the A1xJ1 duo who met digitally during the lockdown and got their first Top 10 single this year with Latest Trends (25) .

In contrast, the oldest track to make the year-end cut is Wham’s perennial favorite for the holidays Last Christmas (34), the song breaking official chart records on January 1, when it finally broke. landed atop the charts some 36 years after its release – the longest time ever for a single to reach number 1.

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Official Top 40 Greatest Songs of 2021

© 2022 Official card company. All rights reserved.
This graph is compiled using the combined streaming sales and equivalent sales.

Top 40 most listened to songs in 2021

© 2022 Official card company. All rights reserved.

Official Top 40 Best Selling Songs of 2021