This is a summary of the year 2009 in British music charts. 31 singles have occupied the number-one spot including 15 new entries. Due to the increase in downloads over physical sales, singles now tend to enter the chart at a lower position, before climbing to the top a few weeks later: a trend which was previously rarely seen in the later half of the 1990s and most of the 2000s.
Summary of UK chart activity
January Alexandra Burke's "Hallelujah", the Christmas number-one single of 2008, remained at the top of the Singles Chart for a third week on 4 January. One week later, however, American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga's debut single "Just Dance" went to number one, and stayed there for the remainder of the month. Elsewhere in January, Girls Aloud scored their twentieth consecutive top ten single with "The Loving Kind", while Beyoncé returned to the top ten with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", the second single from her I Am... Sasha Fierce album. American rapper Kid Cudi made his top ten debut with "Day 'n' Nite" which peaked at number two, whilst The Saturdays' third single "Issues" peaked at number four.
Kings of Leon's Only by the Night album, which spent two weeks at number one in 2008, returned to the top of the Albums Chart on 11 January on the strength of their recent single "Use Somebody", while The Script's eponymous debut album – another number one of last year – also returned to the peak of the chart. Indie rock band White Lies scored their first number one album when debut LP To Lose My Life... topped the charts on 25 January, while Lady Gaga's debut album The Fame entered at number three.
February Lady Gaga finally got knocked off the number one spot by Lily Allen, who scored her second number one with "The Fear".Lily Allen knocks Lady Gaga off top spot , breakingnews.ie, 2 February 2009 ending Lady Gaga's three-week reign at the top. Alesha Dixon's second single, "Breathe Slow" from her album The Alesha Show climbed up to number six, two weeks before its CD release. It finally climbed up to number three two weeks later, her highest peaking solo hit.
White Lies got knocked off from the number one album spot by Bruce Springsteen with his new album, Working on a Dream. Franz Ferdinand's third album, Tonight, missed out at number two. Bruce Springsteen kept number one for another week, whilst The View's second album Which Bitch? entered at number four.
Rapper Eminem returned with "Crack a Bottle", which entered the singles chart at number four on downloads alone, his first hit in four years. This month also saw the re-entry of M.I.A. with her song "Paper Planes" due to the multi-BAFTA-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. The lead single from the first The Prodigy album in five years, "Omen", peaked at number four on the singles chart.
March Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first series of American Idol, scored her first UK number one single on 1 March with "My Life Would Suck Without You", the lead single from her fourth studio album All I Ever Wanted. Teenage country/pop singer Taylor Swift jumped 20 places to number two with "Love Story". Kelly Clarkson then got knocked down to number four by Flo Rida with "Right Round" who prevented The Saturdays from getting number one with "Just Can't Get Enough" which was the first time in 14 years that the Comic Relief song did not hit number one. The second Comic Relief song, "Barry Islands in the Stream" got to number one a week later and a week after that it got knocked off by Lady Gaga who gained a surprise second number one with "Poker Face". On 29 March, Noisettes entered the top forty for the first time with "Don't Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go)" at number two, Pussycat Dolls' new single "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" with A.R. Rahman climbed to number five and "Halo" by Beyoncé got to number four.
Kings of Leon got knocked off from the number one album spot by The Prodigy with their first studio album in five years, Invaders Must Die. The Prodigy then got knocked off from number one by U2 with their first album in five years, No Line on the Horizon which outsold the rest of the top forty combined to claim the top spot. U2 kept the top spot the next week whilst Kelly Clarkson's album All I Ever Wanted went straight in at number four and Annie Lennox got to number two with The Annie Lennox Collection. On Mother's Day week Ronan Keating topped the albums chart with Songs for My Mother, while Annie Lennox stayed at number two.
April On the first chart of April, Lady Gaga stayed at number one on the singles chart with "Poker Face" which went on to become the UK's biggest-selling single of 2009. Metro Station's debut song "Shake It" climbed to number six and La Roux's song "In for the Kill" climbed up into the top ten after a fortnight at number eleven, reaching number seven. The next week La Roux climbed higher to number four, Calvin Harris knocked Lady Gaga off the top with "I'm Not Alone" and Ciara's new single, "Love Sex Magic" with Justin Timberlake entered at number six. On 19 April, Calvin Harris stayed at number one for a second week with "I'm Not Alone". La Roux climbed 2 places to number two, knocking Lady Gaga to number three, and Pussycat Dolls to number four. Eminem gained the highest new entry with "We Made You". On 26 April the aptly titled "Number 1" by Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz went straight in at number one. Curiously, despite 23 releases since chart records began, no other single has ever reached number one, referencing its chart position in the title. They saw off competition from La Roux, who was a non-mover at 2 whilst Calvin Harris dropped two places to number 3. Climbers included Eminem who rose three places to 5 and Lily Allen rose one place to 9. Lady Gaga however dropped one place to number 4 and Ciara Feat. Justin Timberlake also slightly dropped.
On the first albums chart of the month, Lady Gaga finally climbed to number one with The Fame, knocking off Ronan Keating with Songs for My Mother and Flo Rida's second album R.O.O.T.S. debuted at number five, becoming his highest charting album to date. The next week Lady Gaga kept number one with new albums from Doves at number two and Bat for Lashes with Two Suns at number five. On 26 April, Lady Gaga kept her reign over the albums chart keeping her album "The Fame" at the summit for a month despite heavy competition from Depeche Mode.
May On the first chart of May, the top two remained static, whilst at three, pushing Lady Gaga and Calvin Harris down one each, was Ironik and Chipmunk's remix of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". Girls Aloud only managed to climb to number eleven, therefore breaking their run of consecutive top tens with "Untouchable". The next week Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz got knocked down to number two as The Black Eyed Peas' comeback single "Boom Boom Pow" debuted at the top on downloads alone. Lily Allen and Eminem both benefited from physicals as they went to number five and four respectively. Black Eyed Peas were knocked from number 1 by another new entry, Dizzee Rascal with his new hit "Bonkers". Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak also had a top ten placing with "Fairytale".
Lady Gaga finally got knocked from the number one album spot by Bob Dylan with Together Through Life, his first studio album in almost three years. The Enemy's new album Music for the People went straight in at number two. On 17 May Bob Dylan got knocked down seven places by Green Day's new album 21st Century Breakdown which only had two days of sales to get to number 1. The long-awaited comeback album from musician Eminem titled Relapse goes straight to the top becoming this year's fastest selling album with over 166,000 copies in its first week in the UK. Also in the top ten was Madness' new album and Journal for Plague Lovers by Manic Street Preachers at numbers five and three respectively.
June On the first chart of June, Black Eyed Peas regained the number one spot from Dizzee Rascal after Britain's Got Talent winners, Diversity danced to it in their winning routine. Agnes's debut single in the UK Release Me peaked at number three. Keri Hilson's follow-up single "Knock You Down" climbed to number six. On 14 June chart, Pixie Lott debuted at number one with her single "Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)". Also on the singles chart, "When Love Takes Over" by David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland charted at number seven after a rush release due to a "cover" version being released on iTunes, before climbing to the top spot a week later. The cover, by Airi L, charted at number twenty-two. The following week, David Guetta was knocked off the number one spot by a new entry from La Roux; the band's third single, "Bulletproof". Also this week, the top one hundred singles chart saw a staggering twenty-eight re-entries from Michael Jackson (six of which reached the top forty), following the singer's death. Lady Gaga's third single, "Paparazzi" entered the top five at number four.
Paolo Nutini reached the number one albums spot with his second album Sunny Side Up whilst Daniel Merriweather's debut album went straight to number two. The next week Kasabian went straight in at number one on the albums chart with West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Other high new entries on the albums came from The Black Eyed Peas with The E.N.D. at three and Little Boots with Hands at five. Following the death of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, his album Number Ones reclaimed the top spot after first reaching number one in 2003. His album, Thriller, also re-entered the top-ten albums chart at number seven. Five other albums by Michael Jackson also re-entered the top one-hundred albums chart, King of Pop, Off the Wall, The Essential Michael Jackson, Thriller 25 and Bad. In this otherwise fairly quiet week, the highest new entry was at number fifteen for The Music of My Life by Neil Sedaka, while big climbers going back into the top 5 came from Take That with The Circus moving up 12 to 4, and Lady Gaga with The Fame moving up 18 to 5.
Oasis begins the summer stadium leg of their world tour with 3 sold-out homecoming concerts at the 70,000 capacity Heaton Park between 4 and 7 June.
July
On 5 July, thirty-seven Michael Jackson songs reached the Top 100 (beating last week's record of twenty-eight), thirteen of which reached the Top 40, breaking Elvis Presley's record of seven, the highest of those was "Man in the Mirror" which reached number two, it was beaten to number one by Cascada with "Evacuate the Dancefloor", which knocked the previous week's number one "Bulletproof" by La Roux down to number three.
In the Album Chart, a total of eleven Michael Jackson albums reached the Top 100, with The Essential Michael Jackson making it to the top spot. Number One's and King of Pop were also both in the top five and Thriller and Off The Wall made the top ten, the highest new entry was La Roux's self titled debut album which reached number two. With The Essential Michael Jackson knocking Number Ones off the top spot, Jackson became only the third act to ever manage two consecutive No. 1 albums – the first act to do it was The Beatles who achieved the feat twice, and later Mike Oldfield became the second. Florence and the Machine, with her debut album Lungs, which was released on 6 July, spent five weeks at No. 2 behind Michael Jackson.
After two weeks at the top spot, "Evacuate the Dancefloor" was knocked to No. 2 by JLS' debut single "Beat Again." The second highest new entry that week came from Chicane, who reached No. 7 with his trance reworking of "Hoppípolla" by Sigur Rós, entitled "Poppiholla". 3OH!3 also released debut single "Don't Trust Me" in the UK and charted at No. 21, while "21 Guns" by Green Day reached No. 40 after a twenty place climb on physical release. The following week however, it climbed to No. 39 as Michael Jackson's songs dropped. This became the band's lowest peaking single to date, peaking 15 places lower than previous single "Know Your Enemy".