Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have broken Wet Wet Wet's 32-year record for a British act's run at No 1 in the UK singles chart. Their duet Rein Me In has racked up its 16th week at No 1, beating Wet Wet Wet's Love is All Around, which spent 15 weeks at No 1 in 1994 after appearing on the Four Weddings and a Funeral soundtrack. Unlike Wet Wet Wet's consecutive run, Fender and Dean's song has dropped in and out of the top spot since February.
Reaction and Context
“Take that, Marti Pellow!” Fender told the Official Charts Company as the news was announced. He added that the success of Rein Me In has been “ridiculous – every Friday, it’s been an excuse to party”. The song also scores the longest consecutive run for a song in the Top 40, with 55 weeks, beating Ed Sheeran's record for his ballad Thinking Out Loud.
However, Fender and Dean are yet to beat two non-UK acts with an equal or greater run at No 1. They draw level with Canada's Bryan Adams, whose (Everything I Do) I Do It For You spent 16 weeks in a row at the top in 1991. US crooner Frankie Laine holds the all-time record with 18 non-consecutive weeks in 1953 for his ballad I Believe.
Song Origins and Impact
Rein Me In started as an album track on Fender's chart-topping, Mercury prize-winning 2025 release People Watching. A wracked mid-tempo number about self-sabotaging a romantic relationship, it showcases Fender's kitchen-sink poetry. Dean added her own verse, voicing the other figure in the relationship, and the duet was released as a single in June 2025. “Olivia putting the alternative narrative on it made the song really universal – that opened the floodgates,” Fender told the Official Charts Company. The pair performed it together at Fender's stadium concerts in Newcastle and London, and it won song of the year at the Brit awards in February.
Dean has enjoyed considerable chart success alongside Rein Me In: her single Man I Need topped the chart in October 2025, and its parent album The Art of Loving has remained in the top five since release, including eight weeks at No 1. She won three other Brit awards, plus three Mobos and the Grammy for best new artist.
Chart Rules and Longevity
The long-running success of Rein Me In is impressive given that the Official Charts Company introduced a rule in 2017 to prevent songs from lingering too long. After a song has been in the Top 100 for 10 weeks, if it has three weeks of declining streaming numbers in a row, the value of streams is halved, requiring twice as many streams to maintain chart position. Since the rule's introduction, only four songs have surpassed 10 weeks at No 1: Ed Sheeran's Bad Habits, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's Despacito featuring Justin Bieber, Tones & I's Dance Monkey (all 11 weeks), and Alex Warren's Ordinary (13 weeks last year).
Other Chart Highlights
Elsewhere in the singles chart, Oasis's Wonderwall reaches No 11 after being aired at England's victorious World Cup matches. This year's official World Cup song, Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy, is at No 13, and Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds' Three Lions is at No 21. US country singer Ella Langley gets her first UK top five single with Choosin' Texas, and Journey's 1981 hit Don't Stop Believin' returns at No 27 due to online virality.
Madonna is No 1 in the album chart with Confessions II, her sequel to 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, returning to the top after her previous two albums peaked at No 2. She becomes the first US female artist to earn UK No 1 albums across five decades. She prevailed in a chart battle with Sienna Spiro, whose debut album Visitor scores the biggest UK debut of the year but could only reach No 2.
