This is a summary of 2002 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year. In 2002, as in the previous year, there were 30 songs that reached the top of the charts. Although there were numerous songs that remained at the top for only a week, several managed to carry out runs of two or more weeks, none achieving above four.

The UK also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the UK singles chart. After the Popstars phenomenon of the previous year, the UK became obsessed with talent show winners and the new show Pop Idol became a huge success. The year was thought of as the 2nd Golden Age of Hip-Hop music with many successful artists with Eminem coming out at top once again.

Summary

Charts

January The first week of the month was the last week at the top for 2001's Christmas chart topper, a modern rendition of "Somethin' Stupid", a duet by Robbie Williams and actress Nicole Kidman. Returning to the top for one final week was Daniel Bedingfield's debut single, "Gotta Get Thru This". It broke the record for lowest weekly sale for a number one single, selling only 25,500 copies in that week. The single was to decline slightly during 2002, but rapidly after the year's end. The remainder of the month was to be incredibly morbid. Dying in a plane crash in the summer of 2001 at the young age of 22, R'n'B vocalist, Aaliyah hit the top with her posthumous release, "More Than a Woman". She had broken a record in the US, becoming the first artist to make No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 based solely upon airplay points, with her single "Try Again". Overtaking her was what made this month significant. The youngest Beatle, George Harrison, died in November 2001 after a long struggle with cancer. His No. 1 from 1971, "My Sweet Lord" was re-issued and shot straight to the top of the charts. Though it only remained there a week, it entered the record books, being the first time in UK chart history a posthumous release has taken over from another posthumous release by another artist.

Returning to number one after April in 2001, the Stereophonics returned to the top with their third album, Just Enough Education to Perform. Spawning two No. 5 singles, the album remained at the top for 3 weeks in this return, one more week than its original stay. This made its total number of weeks at the top 5. This became their 2nd UK album chart topper, and a 3rd was to follow the following year.

February Spanish performer Enrique Iglesias was next to hit the top with what many see as his UK Breakthrough (though he had two top tens two years prior) with the single release of the ballad "Hero" which stayed at the top for four weeks. He made himself and his father Julio Iglesias the first father/son combination to top the charts separately and as solo artists. His father had hit the top of the UK charts over 20 years prior with his cover version of "Begin The Beguine". "Hero" was taken from his chart topping album Escape which made him the first act to top the single and album charts simultaneously in five years and spawned a No. 3 hit "Escape" and two No. 12 hits by December.

Taking over from the Stereophonics were fusion kings, the Chemical Brothers, with their 3rd No. 1 album, Come With Us. Despite having received success on the albums chart throughout their career, they hadn't received a chart topping single since early 1997. Topping the charts alongside his only number one single, Enrique's second English album, Escape topped the charts for 2 weeks making him the first Latin Artist to have a number one single and album simultaneously in the UK as well as the first person since the Spice Girls.

March Overtaking the totals of pop phenomena Spice Girls and ABBA, Westlife hit the top for a record 10th time, with their third release from their third album, "World Of Our Own". The album of the same name, became their second consecutive No. 1 album. They now had as many number ones as the queen of pop herself, Madonna. They also were the act to obtain 10 chart toppers the quickest (now 5 acts had achieved 10 or more) with only 35 months between this and their first. However, it could be said this record is unfair, because it was only a few months after that the Beatles managed to achieve 10, but they tended to spend several weeks at the summit, slowing down their release rate, whereas most of Westlife's #1's spent one to two weeks at the top.

Taking over was the fastest selling debut single in UK chart history. Winner of the TV talent show, Pop Idol, Will Young had been voted as the winner by over 4 million people in the final. Despite the media suggesting this was unexpected, Young actually won six out of the nine weeks with Gareth Gates the eventually runner-up winning three times. His debut single "Anything is Possible/Evergreen", topped the charts for 3 weeks and sold over 1.1 million copies in its first week of sale, making it the fastest selling debut single in UK chart history. Altogether it sold over 1.7 million copies becoming the 11th biggest selling single in the UK. It is also the second fastest selling single in the UK with only Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" ahead of it. It became the biggest selling single of the year.

A 2-week run at the top was next from veteran band The Police. Experiencing massive success in the early 1980s with 5 No. 1 singles, lead singer Sting eventually went solo and became a very successful and highly respected musician, especially in the US. A combination of his greatest hits and the Police's greatest hits was released entitled The Very Best of Sting & The Police. Greatest hits took over from greatest hits when The Essential Barbra Streisand replaced Sting & The Police at the top, however after a week it was knocked off by rock band, Nickelback with their 3rd studio album, Silver Side Up. The album spawned a massive No. 4 hit, "How You Remind Me", which made No. 1 in the US.

April Taking over from the winner of the show, Pop Idol, runner up Gareth Gates scored a No. 1 with his debut single, "Unchained Melody". Incredibly he spent one further week at the summit than Will Young did, becoming the second single of the year to have a four-week run at #1. However, the single itself sold less than Will Young's, selling only 1.3 million copies, but nonetheless it became the 77th million selling single in the UK and the last one until 2004. Overall, it is the 37th biggest selling single in the UK. The more incredible thing about this song is that it is the fourth single to reach the summit 4 times by different artists. First was Jimmy Young in 1955, then a re-issue of The Righteous Brothers in 1990, then the acting duo Robson & Jerome took it the top in 1995 and finally Gareth Gates in 2002. Robson & Jerome's version remains the biggest selling to date.

Scoring their sixth UK chart topper Oasis returned to the top of the UK charts with a track similar to their older material, "The Hindu Times". The track was taken off their new album, Heathen Chemistry. It only lasted a week at the summit, following the same fate as every other No. 1 single they had.

The top of the albums chart was dominated by a lady with a powerful voice and her 5th UK No. 1 album, Céline Dion with A New Day Has Come. Staying at the top for 4 weeks, she did not hit the top again for the next two years, but continued charting throughout. The album's singles did not fare as well as the album, one making the Top 10, one settling in the Top 20 and one just creeping into the Top 40.

May Having charted since 2000, UK girl group Sugababes (who were now under their second line-up of original members Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and former Atomic Kitten member Heidi Range, who replaced Siobhán Donaghy after her departure the previous year) scored their first UK number one with their 5th single, "Freak like Me". The song was originally performed by Adina Howard in 1995 who took it to No. 33 – the group's version took the lyrics and placed them over an interpolated sample of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric?, itself a UK number one from 1979. After a short spell of 7 days, a third Neighbours star scored a UK No.1. Holly Valance's debut single, "Kiss Kiss" was originally released in Europe written in Turkish. Holly scored a No. 2 hit, "Down Boy" later on in the year and her debut album, Footprints made #9. After releasing 2 further singles, she disappeared from the music scene. With his fifth consecutive Top 10 single and 3rd UK No. 1, Ronan Keating returns to the top of the singles chart with the first release off his new album Destination. "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was originally a hit in the US for Garth Brooks.

Continuing the run of one week number ones were Liberty X. The five losers who just failed to make Hear'Say in the talent show Popstars formed Liberty X. Despite scoring only one UK No. 1 single with Just a Little, the group continued successfully into 2003/4 and proved themselves to be more successful than Hear'Say, who disbanded in October of this year. Also, after not releasing a single in the United Kingdom for almost 11 months, Atomic Kitten released their 9th single, titled It's Ok!, peaked at No. 3 on the charts, and eventually went silver. Even bigger success was to follow with their next release. Also scoring big success were S Club Juniors, an 8-piece pre-teen spin off from their already successful predecessors S Club 7 (who saw the departure of band member Paul Cattermole earlier that year). After being chosen from nationwide auditions to support S Club 7 on their arena tour, their debut single One Step Closer sent them straight to number 2, a position they also reached later in the year with their next two releases "Automatic High" in August and "New Direction" in October. Despite the split of the remaining six members of S Club 7 the following year, and a name change to S Club 8 they would go on to release two top 20 albums and score 7 top 20 singles before they disbanded in early 2005. Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman from the group, however, would re-emerge 5 years later in new girl group The Saturdays.

Nearly six months after its release, boyband Blue hit the top with their debut album, All Rise. The album had already spawned two number one singles by this point, "Too Close" and "If You Come Back" the previous year. The title track from their album, which was their debut single had also made No. 4 and a fourth single, "Fly by II" reached No. 6 in March of this year. It was only a week before British indie rock band, Doves hit the top with their 2nd album, The Last Broadcast which remained at the top for 2 weeks. It was quickly knocked off by American electronic musician Moby with his 2nd UK No. 1 album, 18. Despite having charted since 1991 he has only received 2 Top 10 hits.

On 23 May, the Classical Brits award ceremony took place. The most successful British performers were Sir Colin Davis, Russell Watson and Guy Johnston.

June Consolidating his position as the rapper with the most UK chart toppers, Eminem hit the top for a third time with the first single from his third album, "Without Me". The album spent 5 weeks at the top of the UK charts, becoming the second longest stay of the year and the longest stay until December. The album, The Eminem Show was to become his most successful to date in the UK along with Curtain Call in 2005.

Will Young hit the top again with his second single "Light My Fire", a cover of a classic Doors track which only made No. 49 in 1967. He had performed this on the show, Pop Idol, and the performance was praised highly by the general public. The single was successful, topping the charts for 2 weeks.

As for the albums chart, first to hit the top was Ronan Keating with his second album, Destination. The album had already spawned a No. 1 single, "If Tomorrow Never Comes". Ronan continued to chart into 2004.

July